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Sports specialization in young athletes is a rising problem leading to an increase in injuries. Sports specialization refers to intense year-round training in a single sport, excluding other sports. This repetitive strain on the body can cause severe damage to muscles and joints, leading to lifelong repercussions. Studies have shown that specialized athletes have a higher risk of injury and re-injury compared to non-specialized athletes. To avoid these devastating outcomes, it is important to encourage a variety of athletic experiences and avoid early specialization. Children's bodies are still growing and prone to injury, and injuries can impair their growth and quality of life. It is crucial to think long-term and focus on developing a good foundation and diverse athletic exposure. Parents and coaches can refer to resources like the Washington Post article on training principles for guidance. Hey listeners, welcome back to Health Atlas. You've got Cosme. And Faith. And together we'll be dissecting a rising problem in youth athletics. Now this will surely be an interesting topic today and with my exercise science expertise and my background as a biologist, we will be able to give all of you a good understanding of the issue at hand. Now much of the information we'll be sharing with you today is directed at those of you that can do something about it. We're looking at you who are parents or coaches of young athletes. Now that may not sound so ominous, maybe you can explain the issue for our listeners, Faith. Yeah, of course. Our topic today is sports specialization, which has been resulting in a rapid rise of injury in young athletes in recent years. For those of you who have not heard this term before, researchers at Loyola University describe sports specialization as intense, year-round training in a single sport with the exclusion of other sports. Typically, we do like having children outside playing sports or exercising. However, it's important to understand that sports specialization extends far past a healthy level of physical activity. Of course. Exercise is definitely good for our bodies. However, sports specialization is when young athletes are only training in one specific sport consistently. Now over time, this really messes with the body, especially since our muscles and joints were not made for such rigorous repetition. I have here that according to UCLA Health, the number of ulnar collateral ligament, or UCL, reconstructions that are being performed is starting to trend upwards in kids who are under 18. The first UCL construction surgery, or Tommy John procedure, was done decades ago on Tommy John when he was well into his 30s. It was almost unheard of to see UCL injuries in children at the time because kids weren't playing baseball on a year-round basis. This issue can be seen in many athletes nationwide, including myself. When I was younger, around the ages of 3 to 5, I participated in dance. And then in 5th grade, I was in travel soccer for about two years while transitioning into middle school. Throughout my time there, I played basketball and volleyball. Both had different on and off seasons. And then when I graduated from 8th grade, I decided to only pursue volleyball in high school due to my height and the potential I had according to my past coaches. So it sounded like you went from having a wide variety of activity to specializing in just one. Yep. I really listened to my coach's advice and decided to continue a sport where I would have growth opportunities. I had a successful first year on the team and planned to continue tryouts during my high school career. During my junior year, we were all practicing after school, the day before a big rival match. My teammates and I hustled during every practice, give it our all, showed full effort. Unfortunately, I put too much pressure on myself and suffered the consequences of that. I had taken a fall after doing some blocking drills and it turned out that I had suffered a broken ankle and a severe high ankle sprain, which resulted in wearing a boot and using crutches for some time. Wow. Now I imagine an injury like that had an impact on playing sports afterwards. So afterwards, I actually ended up quitting the sport that I loved so much just because my ankle never returned to normal. So to this day, there are times where if I'm on my feet for too long, I get ankle pain and some swelling. And this happens especially during winter months and when the seasons change. I'm really sorry you had to go through that. And it sounds like you're still dealing with it to this day. As tragic as such an injury is, unfortunately, it's no longer uncommon to hear such stories from young athletes. It definitely is not. In a study conducted by OrthopJ from SportsMed in 2020, over 1,200 young athletes, 73% of them reported a significant injury and 29% were re-injuries. In addition, the study also found that long-term, specialized athletes had significantly higher chance of injury and re-injury than young athletes who were not specialized in their sport. So clearly, this is an issue that needs to be discussed. Absolutely. As you all know, we don't like to weigh down our podcasts with excessive statistics and studies. However, with this topic, we want you to understand how dangerous the situation is. As a biologist, I can tell you that over-strained injuries in children impact them for the rest of their lives. 100% yes. I didn't really think that my injury would be due to sports specialization. But now looking back on how the injury happened, it makes so much more sense that it was due to this repeated stress on my bones, joints, and whatnot. Exactly. The strain of repetitive sports, such as a baseball pitch you're constantly throwing a perfect pitch, puts a consistent and intense strain on the musculoskeletal system. In specific, severe damage is done to the ligaments and tendons. This poses with even more danger as inorganic structures in our tendons and ligaments mean that they need surgery to be repaired and they cannot heal on their own. So from my lens as an exercise science major, I wanted to explore this topic through what injuries are occurring, some examples, as well as explaining the trend that is happening with these injuries in youth. Absolutely. This topic is seen rather similarly through our respective disciplines. So my discipline specifically focuses on the anatomy of the body and the processes within it and how we can use this information to explain injuries, do research, and more. I found from a source called cateringhealth.org the varieties of injuries that are found in youth. These injuries include stress fractures, knee and joint pain, as well as tendinopathy, which are tiny tears in a tendon from a repeated strain. Now these injuries could be just an accident from the athlete itself, but if the athlete experiences these injuries, this can lead to greater injuries such as complete tears in a muscle or tendons and even full-blown fractures and breaks in bone. And of course, these type of injuries have lifelong repercussions. My discipline allows me to discuss the effects of sports specialization on children as they develop. Children are still growing and are even more prone to injury than adults, and when injuries occur, they can impair the growth of a child. Additionally, weakening the tendons and joints so early in life has severe consequences at child ages. They have an increased risk of re-injury, and injuries that heal poorly can impede their quality of life. Combining an understanding of both of our disciplines really helps us understand why this topic is so important. Now there are things we can do to avoid such devastating outcomes for young athletes. We've actually reached out to the National Youth Sports Health and Safety Institute to see if they had any advice for those of you with young, aspiring athletes in your care. In reality, it's a long-term process, and it takes time, and it's critical to get a diversity of athletic exposure, really develop a good foundation, and get a variety of experiences, and that all collectively feeds in to helping the athlete to become more healthy, to reduce injury risk, to perform better, and to enjoy sport. So think long-term. Don't try to develop a champion at 8, 9, 10, or even 12 years old. Keep thinking down the road, and hopefully your child will stay in sport. Now those are some great points. As beneficial as it may seem to specialize a child early, the consequences far outweigh the potential benefits. Make sure that children have a range of sports when they're playing, whether that is a fall sport or a spring sport, or even if that's a winter and a summer sport. Personally, after I had stopped playing volleyball, I picked up skiing in the winter, and then playing beach volleyball in the summer with my friends. Even though those aren't sports where they are competitive, the most important part of playing sports is the whole idea of staying active. Exactly. Keep kids active with various sports. Save training for adults, and allow children to try new things and finish growing up first. Allow children to return to seasonal sports schedules. Changing the activities that the body is doing allows the body to recover from heavy stress. And remember, adult bodies also need breaks from sports as well. Now I have an article here from the Washington Post titled, When Kids Specialize in a Sport, Remember These Training Principles. This article is a great resource for parents and even coaches to refer to when determining schedules for practices and training. It offers facts as well as statistics for parents to read and to learn more about, as well as some tips and other key details that we might not have touched on. And of course, I always send out the articles we reference in our weekly newsletters. Be sure to check them out and use the information you learn to help young athletes in your lives. So that's all the time we have for today. We are so glad you tuned in for this week's episode of Health Atlas. See you all next week as we dive into more health news.