Summer Sport for Kids: Managing the Young Athlete's Load

By Dr. Michael Minenna D.C., B.Sc., SFMA, FMS

Summer is prime time for young athletes in Manitoba — soccer pitches, ball diamonds, swim meets, and the multi-day tournament that turns a weekend into six games. It's wonderful for kids, and it's also a season when overuse complaints climb. A growing body has particular needs, and a little planning goes a long way toward keeping a young athlete healthy and in love with their sport.

Growing bodies aren't small adult bodies

Children and teens have growth plates — areas of developing cartilage near the ends of bones — that are more vulnerable to repetitive stress than mature tissue. This is why kids get specific overuse conditions like Osgood-Schlatter at the knee or Sever's at the heel, especially during growth spurts. These aren't signs of a fragile child; they're signs that load outpaced what a growing structure could absorb at that moment.

The encouraging news is that the same principle that governs adult training applies here, just with extra attention to growth: progress gradually, and most of these problems are avoidable or manageable.

The two big risks: overuse and burnout

Sports medicine organizations have flagged two intertwined concerns in youth sport — overuse injury and burnout — and both tend to share a root cause: too much volume, too little recovery, too soon.¹ When games and practices stack up without adequate rest, tissues don't get a chance to adapt and young athletes can lose their motivation along with their resilience.

Recovery isn't laziness; it's where adaptation happens. Building rest days and lighter weeks into a summer schedule is one of the highest-value things a parent or coach can do.

The case for playing more than one sport

One of the most consistent recommendations in youth athletic development is to delay specializing in a single sport.^1,2 Kids who play a variety of sports load their bodies in varied ways, develop broader movement skills, and — counterintuitively to some — are not at a long-term disadvantage. Early single-sport specialization is associated with higher rates of overuse injury, without a reliable payoff in eventual success.² A young multi-sport athlete is usually a more durable and well-rounded one.

There are no bad sports — only too much, too soon

It's worth saying plainly: the goal isn't to hold kids back or wrap them in cotton wool. Movement, sport, and even hard training are tremendously good for young people. The principle is dosage. There are no bad exercises, only too much too soon.³ A child who builds up sensibly can handle a remarkable amount; a child thrown into a sudden spike of volume is the one who ends up on the sidelines.

Practical guideposts: watch for sudden jumps in training (a quiet spring followed by a packed summer is a classic setup), honour rest days, keep an ear out for persistent pain that doesn't settle overnight, and don't push a kid to "play through" pain that's lingering. Listen if they tell you something hurts.

When to get it looked at

Most young-athlete aches settle with sensible load management and rest. But pain that's persistent, that causes a limp, that's pinpoint over a bone, or that's affecting how a child moves deserves an assessment — partly to reassure, partly to catch the occasional issue that needs more attention. At Boreal Spine & Sport we assess young athletes with their growth and their whole season in mind, so they finish the summer healthy and keep enjoying the game.

References

1. DiFiori JP, Benjamin HJ, Brenner JS, et al. Overuse injuries and burnout in youth sports: a position statement from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. Br J Sports Med. 2014;48(4):287-288.
2. Jayanthi N, Pinkham C, Dugas L, Patrick B, LaBella C. Sports specialization in young athletes: evidence-based recommendations. Sports Health. 2013;5(3):251-257.
3. Gabbett TJ. The training-injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder? Br J Sports Med. 2016;50(5):273-280.