Kids need to work, eat, rest and play
When it comes to injury prevention (performance enhancement), simple is always best. Here are 2 perfect examples of what happens when you dont get the basics right.
In a study of elite adolescent athletes (15-19 years) it was found that a "perfect storm" of increased training intensity, increased training load and less than 8 hours sleep per night resulted in a 2.3x greater risk of sustaining an injury (acute or overuse) compared to athletes who had no change in these variables (von Rosen et al, 2017).
Furthermore, in a study of 340 adolescent athletes, injury risk was significantly reduced in those that slept >8hrs per night (61%) and those that met nutritional guidelines (64%) - von Rosen et al (2016).
Key messages:
1) Kids just need to get the basics right! Keep it simple, and don't worry about the sexy.
2) Monitor training loads by using the principles of Acute:Chronic workload ratio (trying to avoid spikes in training loads), eat well and get >8hrs sleep per night.
Research Links:
