Sports Training: How Much Is Too Much for a Child?

Newswise — Kids are starting sports earlier and training harder. Incentives to win are growing, sometimes literally; we've all seen trophies almost bigger than the little athletes who've won them! With higher stakes come pressures to perform better by being fitter and more skilled. Usually, this is achieved through repetition, repetition, repetition.

In kids' sports programs, fitness and skill development have to be balanced with the need to avoid overtraining -- which happens when the athlete is required to do too much physically, mentally, or both.

Parents need to be sensitive to changes in performance and attitude that suggest their kids are being pushed too hard. Such changes may be precursors of physical injury.

Dr. Lyle Micheli is director and co-founder of the world's first sports medicine clinic for children, located at Children's Hospital Boston.