Can you train too much?

[Unregistered]

Is there such a thing as to much training?

Does it depend on age?

Why do school teams train 5 days a week during season but club teams are mostly 2 days a week?

What about doing a track practice right after school then running off to soccer is that too much?

[Unregistered]

Great question. I'd talk to someone with expertise working with young people.

You only get one body. Wearing it down young is a bad idea. But maybe they are more durable than we older people are.

[Unregistered]

My not so sporty high school dd has a couple soccer & sport crazy friends who ended up quitting or dialing sports way back due to multiple injuries, being "worn out" (especially knees), & one due to concussions. Not sure if they are the exception or if this is common.

[Unregistered]

My not so sporty high school dd has a couple soccer & sport crazy friends who ended up quitting or dialing sports way back due to multiple injuries, being "worn out" (especially knees), & one due to concussions. Not sure if they are the exception or if this is common.

This is one of the big dangers of single sports athletes. You don't have to read far to find article after article about over-use injuries.

[Slow Xavi]

Is there such a thing as to much training?

Does it depend on age?

Why do school teams train 5 days a week during season but club teams are mostly 2 days a week?

What about doing a track practice right after school then running off to soccer is that too much?

This is one of the big dangers of single sports athletes. You don't have to read far to find article after article about over-use injuries.

Curious what doctors would say on this, but I wonder if the bigger risk is too many games in a short amount of time, as opposed to too much training.

Stuffing multiple games in a weekend tournament is very hard on the body, of any age. I would argue even playing league games Saturdays and Sundays is sub-optimal (ideally a couple of days break between them), although alot of leagues are set-up that way.

Not sure this really has much to do with single sports athletes versus specialist - track meets (if doing multiple events) is an intense outing; playing a soccer game the same or next day is another intense outing. So I'm not sure multiple v. single sport is this issue here.

[Unregistered]

I think it would be interesting to see an actual study on this.

at least half the kids on my kids u13 soccer team are also doing track, and my kid chats with others on the ODP state pool team and most of them are also doing track as well. It ends up they are coming straight from track to soccer practice, and doing some sort of practice or game or meet 6-7 days a week. And most of them are running multiple events, not just throwing the shot put.

Basketball and cross country season were the same way. Were looking at the reality these kids 12, 13 years old are doing soccer year round, and at least 3 other sports, some times adding in volleyball or softball as well for the summer.

[Unregistered]

I think it would be interesting to see an actual study on this.

at least half the kids on my kids u13 soccer team are also doing track, and my kid chats with others on the ODP state pool team and most of them are also doing track as well. It ends up they are coming straight from track to soccer practice, and doing some sort of practice or game or meet 6-7 days a week. And most of them are running multiple events, not just throwing the shot put.

Basketball and cross country season were the same way. Were looking at the reality these kids 12, 13 years old are doing soccer year round, and at least 3 other sports, some times adding in volleyball or softball as well for the summer.

To me, this is the issue. Those that say "this is the danger of the single sport athlete" just don't get it or have their head up their butt. I don't get how ADDING sports reduces the wear and tear on a body. My dd did multiple activities up to HS and then started dropping them. She can keep up with soccer and school and that's it. She has no desire to add in any other activities. Her body is beat up enough and what free time she has is very little.

[Unregistered]

My pediatrician warned us to be cautious during puberty. He thinks two sports in one night is too much. Limit vigorous activity to 4 days a week. I've also heard that from two physical therapists.

[Unregistered]

My kids (boy and girl) tried to do club soccer + track + more. It was too much for them, they ended up with injuries and other problems relating to overuse. Some do it, helps if coaches are on board with balancing. But most coaches are like you made a commitment and you have to be there! Varsity track has several meets on Sat (in addition to during the week and is very time consuming) which makes it hard to do soccer. Best to make a choice and decide which the kid wants to do most, or talk to all coaches in advance and make sure they understand. They may agree if the athlete is really good. What happened in HS club soccer is there were so many injuries and other conflicts that there were not enough players, even with 20+ on the roster. Then you have state cup in the spring during track season which is really hard.

[Unregistered]

age = hours

Is there such a thing as to much training?

Does it depend on age?

Why do school teams train 5 days a week during season but club teams are mostly 2 days a week?

What about doing a track practice right after school then running off to soccer is that too much?

there is; and here's the research. the TL;DR version is. age = hours per week practicing, all sports combined. so for 13 year-olds more than 13 hours of sports = bad.

http://www.loyolamedicine.org/newswi...eruse-injuries

[Unregistered]

Look into the studies on cross training for females. The evidence is strong that multiple sports model is superior for injury prevention and joint overuse. I haven't seen as much discussion on general overuse/too much training and playing.

All the experts I know caution strongly against single sport specialization until later high school, related to injuries.

[Unregistered]

Look into the studies on cross training for females. The evidence is strong that multiple sports model is superior for injury prevention and joint overuse. I haven't seen as much discussion on general overuse/too much training and playing.

All the experts I know caution strongly against single sport specialization until later high school, related to injuries.

We're not talking about training to much at one sport were talking about some of these kids going from practice of one sport directly to practice of the next all in the same day. For example right now is track season a lot of kids on our team are doing track, they practice right after school for an hour- hour and a half then race to soccer practice, that's the kinds of training I am wondering if is to much.

[Unregistered]

We're not talking about training to much at one sport were talking about some of these kids going from practice of one sport directly to practice of the next all in the same day. For example right now is track season a lot of kids on our team are doing track, they practice right after school for an hour- hour and a half then race to soccer practice, that's the kinds of training I am wondering if is to much.

Is your child doing this? If not then don't worry about it, it's none of your business.

[Unregistered]

Is your child doing this? If not then don't worry about it, it's none of your business.

^^^^^^^^
Nominated for most helpful input of the week.

[Unregistered]

We're not talking about training to much at one sport were talking about some of these kids going from practice of one sport directly to practice of the next all in the same day. For example right now is track season a lot of kids on our team are doing track, they practice right after school for an hour- hour and a half then race to soccer practice, that's the kinds of training I am wondering if is to much.

Your kids demeanor and health will give you clues if you are doing too much. Our oldest finally said "enough" with doing some of the activities and started pairing back.