today's kids getting overtraining damage

They're not all McDuds. Being a kid today often means extra-curriculars ad nauseum, lest a kid have a chance to come up with something to keep himself busy. And most kids will work their butts off until they have a reason not to. For the athletic bunch, whaddya know? There's a price. Good information, Reuters.

By Megan Rauscher - Today's overachieving kids are starting sports earlier and training longer and harder, often before they enter Kindergarten, and many of them are suffering overuse injuries as a result, according to Dr. Lyle Micheli. Micheli is director and co-founder of the world's first sports medicine clinic for children located at Children's Hospital Boston.

"Overuse injuries result from overtraining," Micheli said. "Certainly, as the volume of training increases, the risk of injury increases." Twenty years ago, he noted in an interview with Reuters Health, "we didn't see overuse injuries in kids, but today we do. ... Twenty-years ago, it was quite the opposite. It was mostly acute injuries, not overuse injuries." ...

Children who participate in individual sports like gymnastics, tennis, and swimming, where they typically put in more hours of training, are particularly at risk, Micheli said. For children in these sports, "we see stress fractures and even tendonitis, which is unusual in children. Young baseball pitchers with injuries to their pitching arm are also seen.

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