HOW MANY HOURS ARE YOUNG ATHLETES TRAINING?

Participants: L. J. Huston, P. Moga, J. A. Ashton-Miller, E. M. Wojtys

Keywords: adolescents, physical activity, athletes

Introduction

Despite reports claiming that America’s youth is less fit now than in years past, there is a sub-population of children and teenagers heavily involved in sports. The National Children and Youth Fitness Study (NCYFS) provides the only national survey data available on physical activity patterns of children. However, neither the NCYFS nor other studies have documented the amount of time children spend training for sports. Both time and change in intensity of training is a concern because musculoskeletal function and development can be affected by vigorous training in childhood, especially during the pubertal period. Thus, the goals of this investigation were to quantify the number of hours children participate in the selected sports of football, gymnastics, hockey, swimming, track, volleyball, and wrestling. Secondarily, we investigated the time spent weight training in various sports by age.

Materials and Methods

The subject population was 2270 children (407 females, 1863 males) between the ages of 8 and 18 years. These individuals volunteered at annual summer athletic camps and local schools during the academic year. Trained personnel interviewed each subject regarding personal demographics, sport participation history, any work activities, musculoskeletal injuries, and training programs. In addition, each subject answered questions regarding the amount of time spent weight training their upper and lower body, off-season workout activity, and length of their competitive season. Both internal and external validation studies were performed to determine the questionnaire’s reliability.

Results

The average number of training hours per year differs significantly between sports (p<0.001). Children involved in gymnastics (439 hrs/yr) and swimming (379 hrs/yr) were found to spend more time in their respective sports than the other five sports (volleyball-150 hrs/yr; track-198 hrs/yr; hockey-198 hrs/yr; wrestling-228 hrs/yr; football-282 hrs/yr). As age increased, training hours also increased for all sports studied (elementary: 140 hrs/yr; middle school: 228 hrs/yr; high school: 267 hrs/yr).

Football players and wrestlers spent significantly more time weight training when compared to the rest of the athletic population. Football players and wrestlers averaged 3.1 and 2.5 hours/week, respectively, on upper body weight training, while the other athletes averaged 0.8 hours per week.

Conclusions

An increasing number of overuse injuries are registered in children engaged in organized sports. This study provides baseline data on average annual training times both by age and by sport. Most likely, it is the interaction between training frequency and change in intensity that causes cumulative trauma disorders among child athletes. Longitudinal studies should be conducted to identify the upper and lower limits of athletic training times and intensities in the immature athlete. This could then assist trainers, coaches, and parents in the proper planning of children’s athletic training regimens.