As the price of higher education skyrockets, young athletes—and admittedly some of their parents—often see college sports as a ticket to the future. For some, there are dreams of fame and fortune as professional athletes, while others just want scholarships to help pay for college.
The result has been a push to be faster, stronger and more competitive, which means increasing numbers of teenagers are devoting themselves to only one sport year-round, not just on their high school varsity teams, but also on club teams.
Teenagers today are growing up with more pressure than ever to find a way to distinguish themselves from other athletes in their field, says Bo Eskay, coach and past president of FC Frederick, a traveling club soccer program.
In their quest to become the ultimate athlete, many of these young people are also spending extra hours in weight training, conditioning, flexibility and speed and agility training.
But is all that intense physical activity actually good for their still-developing bodies and is it worth all the money and time they and their families invest in their athletic improvement?
Injury Prevention
Kip Jawish, a certified personal trainer, owner and founder of Frederick’s
IN-FIT Studios, says a properly-designed training program whether for fitness, agility, flexibility or any combination of the three, can prevent injuries and help student athletes gain all-around fitness and conditioning rather than cause injuries. It can also correct any strength and flexibility imbalances caused by working certain muscles too much, as can occur in baseball pitchers who almost routinely work one arm over the other.
Sometimes, Jawish says, athletes (and their parents) expect him to focus on developing one particular aspect, speed, for example, and don’t seem to understand that the speed will come with a complementary, more holistic workout program, since everything in the body is so inter-connected. Building flexibility allows a greater range of motion in the joints and muscles, which helps balance the increased tensions placed on them as the muscles grow stronger with weight training and other strength-building exercises. This in turn gives more power to each individual movement, such as in running, which then contributes to increased speed.
There can be a real medical benefit to some of this training. Dr. Mihir Jani, a Frederick orthopedist, points out that studies have shown that young women, who tend to be prone to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, are less likely to suffer that kind of ligament damage if they train in how to jump and land properly.
But as you might expect, this kind of training does not come cheap.
The High Cost of Success
Personal training sessions to build speed, agility, flexibility or position-specific skills can range widely in price, ranging anywhere from $300 to more than $1,000 for a custom-designed, three-month program. Considering that many of these athletes are already members of elite club teams, which often have expensive registration fees in addition to uniforms and travel expenses, the dollars add up quickly.
It also requires an enormous investment of time. Barsheem Murray, a senior at Frederick High School, says that most sports’ practice sessions—for football and track, in his case—begin right after school dismisses for the day and run well into the evening, to about 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. Student athletes who are enrolled in supplementary training programs need to fit them into their daily schedules as well. Murray says that a couple of his friends have their personal training sessions right after their school sports practices. “They always talk about how they are always so tired,” he says.
These demanding schedules—and the exhaustion that comes with them—mean that many high school athletes are already physically (if not mentally) spent before they even begin their day’s homework assignments.
Murray says that most of the young men on the varsity football team are also on the track team, partly to keep them fit during the off season, but also to help build their endurance and speed. Although running track does cause him to lose some of the bulk he built up from weight training during the football season, “Speed is everything in football,” he says.“I’d rather be slimmer and fast than bigger and not as able to move.”
Ben Wright, head varsity football coach for Governor Thomas Johnson High School, also believes there can be a benefit to all this year-round athletic activity. “High school is just more competitive now,” he says. He also notes that although it can be physically and psychologically beneficial to play different sports in their respective seasons, for those who want to be at the top of their game, it’s important to concentrate on their preferred sport.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Yet Wright admits he thinks the trend toward participation in one sport year-round doesn’t allow kids to be kids, especially when you add club team participation to the massive time commitment of varsity sports. “It becomes like a job and just is not fun anymore,” he says.
Although many may dream of scholarships, Wright notes only a very small percentage of all high school athletes will actually get monetary athletic scholarships, leading him to wonder if in the long run, it’s worth it to be driven by all that outside pressure. “It can discourage kids from playing,” he says. And he acknowledges the risk of overuse injuries. “The body wears down,” he says. “Their bodies can only take only so much, especially while they’re still growing.”
Dr. Jani says he has seen more overuse injuries over the last several years, which he attributes partly to the trend of participation in one sport year-round. Yet he is hesitant to say that all of the supplemental training and exercises may also play a part.
To the question, is this trend a good or bad thing, the answer is not as simple as one or the other, Dr. Jani points out. Ideally he would like to see young athletes take three months off from their sport, not necessarily from all physical activity, but definitely time off to rest, since that’s when the body actually does the building and repair.
“It’s all about balance,” Dr. Jani says.