“There is growing evidence and concern that early sport specialization and high year-round training volumes increased risk of injury and burnout in young athletes,” said Dr. Brooks. “Recommendations exist in an effort to reduce overuse injuries associated with sport specialization and include methods of limiting volume including months per year and hours per week of participation in organized sport activities.
Dr. Brooks also mentioned, “However, it is unclear if parents and athletes are even aware that these recommendations exist. There seems to be a major disconnect in the reasons for participation in youth sport between stakeholders associated with youth sport (children, parents, coaches and youth sport administration organizations.) This study aims to decrease this knowledge gap by evaluating parents’ and athletes’ knowledge of current sport volume recommendations and examine their attitudes and beliefs towards youth sport specialization.”
“There were many excellent grant applications for the joint ACSM Foundation-AMSSM Foundation 2016 award. Our review committee consisted of experts selected from both organizations. Ultimately, there was agreement that the application from Dr. Brooks and David Bell on assessing the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of parents and youth athletes toward sport specialization was worthy of the award,” said ACSM and AMSSM member Steve Stovitz, MD, who chaired the joint organization review committee. “The proposal is ambitious, aiming to survey 1,000 parents and 1,000 youth athletes. The committee concluded that the study would provide the sports medicine community with useful information about the intensity of sport participation and the beliefs of the participants and their parents.”
Dr. Brooks serves as assistant professor of orthopedics, division of sports medicine, at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and as a team physician for UW Athletics.
Dr. Brooks was previously a scholar of the BIRCWH K12 program, a career development award funded by the National Institutes of Health. Her interests in sports medicine and research include the prevention of musculoskeletal injuries in youth and collegiate athletes, the risk of injury associated with early sport specialization and sport training volume, and achieving optimal bone health in athletes of all ages. She recently completed a large cohort study of high school football players in Wisconsin showing that the incidence of concussion in football practice was significantly reduced by newly implemented interscholastic rules limiting full contact practice.
She received her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and medical degree from the University of Tennessee. She completed a pediatrics residency and Master of Public Health at University of Washington. Her sports medicine fellowship was done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The primary purpose of the ACSMF-AMSSMF Clinical Research Grant Award is to foster original scientific investigations with a strong clinical focus among physician members of ACSM and AMSSM. A secondary intent of the grant program is to foster the development of the principal investigator’s research education by requiring that a portion of the funds to be applied to meet this goal. The review committee sought research proposals that investigate research questions within the broad discipline of sports medicine. The criteria required proposals to be led by physicians who are members of both ACSM and AMSSM.
### About ACSM: The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. More than 50,000 international, national and regional members and certified professionals are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine. The American College of Sports Medicine supports the 10 Criteria for Responsible Health Reporting as articulated by www.HealthNewsReview.org.
About AMSSM: AMSSM is a multi-disciplinary organization of 3,000+ sports medicine physicians dedicated to education, research, advocacy and the care of athletes of all ages. The majority of AMSSM members are primary care physicians with fellowship training and added qualification in sports medicine who then combine their practice of sports medicine with their primary specialty. AMSSM includes members who specialize solely in non-surgical sports medicine and serve as team physicians at the youth level, NCAA, NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, MLS and NHL, as well as with Olympic teams. By nature of their training and experience, sports medicine physicians are ideally suited to provide comprehensive medical care for athletes, sports teams or active individuals who are simply looking to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
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