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The epidemic that’s ruining youth sports

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    #16
    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
    But virtually no kid is going to get better at soccer by playing an 8 week fall season and then shelving it until the following fall so they can play 2 other sports. I don't know what the answer is to how to balance it.
    It's very difficult to be a multi sport athlete any longer, especially these days when many require a nearly year round commitment and 3-5+ days per week. Remember when baseball was only a "spring" sport? You might be able to do something casually but probably not at a high intensity.

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      #17
      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
      But virtually no kid is going to get better at soccer by playing an 8 week fall season and then shelving it until the following fall so they can play 2 other sports. I don't know what the answer is to how to balance it.
      You don't need to be a multisport athlete to avoid injuries. You don't need to cut back to a single season of a sport. By all means, specialize. You think Messi or Ronaldo or Pulisic were multi sport athletes? No. Their focus was soccer. Period. You don't need to cut back to X days to avoid injury either. Some athletes can train and play 5-6 days a week. Some can train and play 3-4. Every individual is different.

      1. Listen to your body. Is there pain or soreness? If so, rest.
      2. Don't play a tournament every weekend. 1 game at 100% intensity is generally enough per week.
      3. Proper warm up and cool down/stretching for every game and practice
      4. Proper nutrition, hydration and sleep.
      5. Fitness and periodization. Your hardest workouts should be pre-season. Mid-season should be maintenance.
      6. Strength and conditioning built into the training schedule weekly.

      Here's a clue to all the parents out there who don't know what I'm talking about: How many soccer players do you know have a regular strength and conditioning workput built into their training schedule year round? How many know what muscles get overdeveloped from soccer and what muscles lag? Hint quadriceps and hamstrings/hip flexors.

      This isn't rocket science. It's common sense and modern sports science.

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        #18
        Very few clubs do strength and conditioning training, or they do it sporadically. Training once a week isn't really training for the serious player

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          #19
          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
          this is why once my kid made the jump to higher levels of soccer, we turned down doing rec stuff or letting her play with the town travel team. The benefit vs risk just isn't there. She's already doing 4-5 days, so adding more or playing 3 games every weekend (as a winger) seemed crazy.
          My kid plays top club level and still plays with his town team friends. In the past 10 years I could count the days he hasn’t played some kind of soccer on my fingers. No burn out, no serious injuries, just getting better and better.

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            #20
            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
            My kid plays top club level and still plays with his town team friends. In the past 10 years I could count the days he hasn’t played some kind of soccer on my fingers. No burn out, no serious injuries, just getting better and better.
            An individual's experience is just that, individual. Statistics show out a different story.

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              #21
              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
              An individual's experience is just that, individual. Statistics show out a different story.
              You are right, top players check the statistics before going out to play with their friends.

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                #22
                Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                You are right, top players check the statistics before going out to play with their friends.
                And that's all that is, fun. Playing for fun is great, but it doesn't mean you're less prone to injury doing so. Again, statistics show overuse injuries are real and on the rise. Professional academies require rest fora reason.

                Usually if you claim your kid is a "top" player he isn't.

                Comment


                  #23
                  Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                  And that's all that is, fun. Playing for fun is great, but it doesn't mean you're less prone to injury doing so. Again, statistics show overuse injuries are real and on the rise. Professional academies require rest fora reason.

                  Usually if you claim your kid is a "top" player he isn't.
                  Any statistics to support that this is “usually” the case?

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                    You don't need to be a multisport athlete to avoid injuries. You don't need to cut back to a single season of a sport. By all means, specialize. You think Messi or Ronaldo or Pulisic were multi sport athletes? No. Their focus was soccer. Period. You don't need to cut back to X days to avoid injury either. Some athletes can train and play 5-6 days a week. Some can train and play 3-4. Every individual is different.

                    1. Listen to your body. Is there pain or soreness? If so, rest.
                    2. Don't play a tournament every weekend. 1 game at 100% intensity is generally enough per week.
                    3. Proper warm up and cool down/stretching for every game and practice
                    4. Proper nutrition, hydration and sleep.
                    5. Fitness and periodization. Your hardest workouts should be pre-season. Mid-season should be maintenance.
                    6. Strength and conditioning built into the training schedule weekly.

                    Here's a clue to all the parents out there who don't know what I'm talking about: How many soccer players do you know have a regular strength and conditioning workput built into their training schedule year round? How many know what muscles get overdeveloped from soccer and what muscles lag? Hint quadriceps and hamstrings/hip flexors.

                    This isn't rocket science. It's common sense and modern sports science.

                    Actually, the underlying physiology is fairly complex if you want to take the time to understand it. Most exercise physiologist don't understand the details of exercise and muscle rebuilding.
                    There is no reason why anyone can't exercise 5-7 days per week. It comes down to what kind of exercise is done or what kind of drills are included in each session.
                    In US youth soccer there are 2 or 3 practices per week. This is certainly not enough. So, the coach decides to cram everything he/she can in the few practices they have. Drills become very repetitive and the body becomes enslaved to those motions.

                    A better schedule would be 4-5 days of practice and 1-3 days of fitness, conditioning, or flexibility. One could argue that one of the soccer days should be more fitness with the ball then actual soccer.

                    Comment


                      #25
                      "For every 10,000 children who played soccer in 2014, 223 of them sustained an injury serious enough to be treated in a hospital emergency room. That represents a 74 percent increase from 2004, when the injury rate was 128.5 injuries per 10,000 kids. Clearly, some of that rise results from more parents taking children to hospitals to be checked for concussions. But when the researchers removed head injuries from the data, they found that injuries still increased by 60 percent, to 191 per 10,000 kids in 2014, up from 119 in 2004."

                      https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/w...ggressive.html

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                        "For every 10,000 children who played soccer in 2014, 223 of them sustained an injury serious enough to be treated in a hospital emergency room. That represents a 74 percent increase from 2004, when the injury rate was 128.5 injuries per 10,000 kids. Clearly, some of that rise results from more parents taking children to hospitals to be checked for concussions. But when the researchers removed head injuries from the data, they found that injuries still increased by 60 percent, to 191 per 10,000 kids in 2014, up from 119 in 2004."

                        https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/w...ggressive.html
                        It sounds like an increase in Emergency Room visits by undocumented and uninsured immigrants.

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