Over-scheduled and Under-trained

How we can better allocate time and resources to support kids' continuing participation in sport

Kids returning for the new school year face a schedule stacked with practices and competition, perhaps juggling multiple sports, yet many find themselves poorly equipped for the physical rigours involved. Parents and kids often share the assumption that attending practice will provide the conditioning required to engage in youth sports. The reality is that dedicated dryland or off-field training becomes increasingly necessary as practising and competing in the sport becomes more physically demanding. Sadly this typically only becomes apparent once young performers start breaking down.

As we have noted before, as kids progress on their youth sports journey they face increasing pressure to invest more and more time (and money). Not only do the hours spent engaged in supervised practices tend to increase, they are also encouraged to attend camps and partake in extra coaching on top of the regular practice and competition schedule. Too often these added extras are pushed on parents and kids based upon the premise that they are necessary to get ahead or avoid falling behind their peers.

At the same time, it is advocated that kids should continue to participate in multiple sports for as long as possible. Whilst this is well-intentioned and has a sound rationale, there is a lack of consideration of the opportunity costs and their potential consequences. All of this time spent attending practices for multiple sports leaves very little time to devote to general athletic development or physical preparation - or indeed playing with their friends without adult involvement.

As we have highlighted before, regular physical preparation that includes strength training is imperative for girls. The onset of adolescence brings major challenges and leads to a cascade of unhelpful secondary effects that hamper performance and make young females increasingly prone to injury. Overcoming these obstacles and avoiding the negative downstream effects requires timely training intervention to give girls the boost they need when it matters. Practically this means engaging in regular dedicated physical preparation from around age 11 onwards. Sadly, despite all we know about the negative consequences, not least precipitating the massive drop-out from sport among girls around this age, dedicated dryland training for female athletes during this crucial phase in their development remains far from common practice.

Whilst it is true that boys can get away with it to a greater extent, thanks to the free gains in physical capacities that accompany male puberty, the need for dedicated physical preparation and athletic development remains an important consideration for adolescent boys. This applies especially during periods of rapid growth that put bones, muscles and connective tissues under added strain, along with the coordination challenge of adapting to growing limbs and the changing dimensions of their body. For years colleagues in the field have been lamenting the progressive decline they observe in the level of athleticism even among the highest performers in their age-group, whereas sports skills have remained as highly developed as ever. All of this points to a need to reallocate time and resources towards dedicated training to better develop athletic capabilities and physical capacities.

What is true is that left to their own devices, the majority of kids would opt to just play sport rather than seeking out opportunities to engage in off-field physical preparation and athletic development. Kids and parents often need to be helped to the realisation that they can either voluntarily invest time and resources in training, or else be forced to involuntarily take time out from sport due to injury and pay the costs in medical treatment. When viewed in this way, rather than fitting training in when they can find the time, the imperative becomes making the time to train on a regular basis so that they remain fit to participate without becoming injured.

As it stands, too often it is only once recurring injuries have started to impede their ability to participate in sport that young atheletes come to recognise the problem and become receptive to making changes to accommodate the necessary training interventions - by which point, there are additional complications to deal with. Clearly we should not wait to intervene until this realisation is forced upon them, not least as experiencing their first significant injury is a common trigger for youngsters to drop out from participating in sport entirely.

Aside from finding the time, there are logistical challenges to putting this into practice. One such challenge is finding appropriate facilities that permit kids of this age to train and provide a conducive environment. The other major challenge is that when things get hectic with demands of sports and school, training tends to be the first thing that gets dropped. It is important to acknowledge these difficulties and recognise that hard choices need to be made. All the same, these are challenges that must be negotiated to serve the young athlete’s best interests.

On the plus side, we are not talking about a huge amount of time. In the case of strength training, two sessions per week provides the necessary ‘dose’ for continued improvements (one session per week is adequate to maintain current levels). Each of these training sessions can be completed within an hour. On that basis, reclaiming two one-hour slots within the existing weekly schedule will go a long way towards achieving the desired outcome.

There are other complementary strategies that we can use to reclaim time within and around supervised practices, so that we can incorporate exercises to develop key capabilities. For instance, the warm-up offers a window of opportunity to provide a regular dose of ‘neuromuscular training’, encompassing mobility, body control, balance and coordination training. Similarly, a daily check-in and self-maintenance routine, comprising a series of mobility and balance exercises combined with the use of self-therapy tools as necessary, is a time-efficient and highly effective way to improve function over time as well as keeping on top of any musculoskeletal issues so that they don’t develop into injuries. This requires minimal equipment and can be done either prior to practice or as a standalone session at home.