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Specialization For Young Athletes Can Have Not So Special Effect
Category: Youth & Sports
Jul 18, 2006
With the increase in specialization, children are increasingly being treated for such conditions as swimmer's shoulder, Little League elbow, runner's knee, jumper's knee, tennis elbow, Achilles tendinitis and shin splints.
"I can definitely say in the last 10 or 12 years, there's been more and more and more injuries," said Dr. Marta Sowa, a Lincoln pediatrician who has been in practice for two decades. When a young athlete specializes in one sport, "the same particular areas are vulnerable. The tendons, the ligaments that are the rubber bands that hold those bones together to protect the joints and the growth plates get overused and they can get sprained, strained, fatigued and can let go."
The very nature of a child's maturing body makes them more susceptible to injury than adults, Dr. Sowa said.
While they are developing, kids have open growth plates - the area of growing tissue near the end of the long bones that eventually closes when growth is complete, sometime during adolescence, and is replaced by solid bone.
Before that happens, however, those areas serve as weak spots -- in fact, the weakest of the growing skeleton -- and are more prone to injuries, known as fractures.
Depending upon the severity, bone fractures, which can be caused either by a blow to the area or from overuse, can either heal normally with the help of a cast to hold it in place or at the other extreme can result in deformity or the premature stunting of growth, possibly requiring surgery.
Pediatric sports medicine physicians say they are treating injuries in children that at one time they saw only in adults. Some of these injuries can result in permanent damage, leading to chronic problems, such as arthritis, later in life.
"Playing sports is a wonderful thing. I just see how some of these kids are training," said Dr. Sowa, who usually isn't consulted by her patients' parents until the situation has already gotten out of hand. "I see their schedules and they're just, 'Gotta go. Gotta go. Gotta go.' They're practicing sometimes twice a day, but that's not all right. These kids' ligaments and tendons are unable to take it. Their growth plates are still open."
And what is early sports specialization doing to children psychologically? While not always the case, it can indeed result in a "slow, developing burnout," says Richard Ginsburg, Ph.D., co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Sports Psychology Program and co-author of Whose Game is it, Anyway?
Unrealistic expectations, especially by parents, can create feelings of anxiety and pressure, leading to depression, withdrawal, irritability and difficulty sleeping.
Suppose the gamble doesn't pay off? What if, after all of these sacrifices, the child does not achieve the level of success that was expected?