Page 17 - FI Magazine

The commitment to one sport has offered young athletes two realities one of growth, development and
enhance performance, and the other of excessive use, overuse, a plateau in production, and injuries.
Studies have shown that the single most significant factor contributing to the dramatic increase in
overuse injuries in young athletes is due to more intense, repetitive, and specialized training at much
younger ages. Overuse injuries such as stress fractures, tendinitis, bursitis, apophysitis, osteochondral
lesions of the joint surface, and erector spinae muscle injuries are often associated with young athletes
once activity levels become too intense or too excessive in a short period. Other contributing factors are
an imbalance of strength or joint range of motion, anatomic malalignment, pre-existing condition,
growth cartilage, less resistance to repetitive microtrauma, and intense, repetitive training during
periods of growth. These same types of overuse injuries we rarely have seen when children engage in
free play.

Sports Diversity Training

Understanding the decision to choose one sport to excel in and the scope of overuse injuries in young
athletes has given rise to cross-training youth athletes. Cross-training is training the athlete in different
movement patterns and protocols outside their specialized training, usual activities, of the athletes'
chosen sport.

Sports Diversity Training is different in that young athletes are trained in specific systems and protocols
for a particular sport or activity that is on the other spectrum of function and intensity and provides
focus and mental aptitude during growth periods of youth athletes. So you would see a young soccer
player that’s experiencing slight knee pains during growth periods move into a training phase where
functional water training would take place at an intensity suitable for focus and mental development.
Each athlete is an individual and should have their own sports diversity training programs ready to be
implemented during the training year, periodization if you will.

Young athletes that have chosen to play one sport and that have implemented sports diversity training
in specialized sports specific training have benefited and have seen fewer visits to the hospital
emergency rooms for overuse injuries. Just as choosing one game to excel in, so too is choosing the right
training program that offers sports longevity.

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