The effects of puberty on your child’s sports performance
Puberty can have a substantial impact on a child’s athletic performance, both positively and negatively. Here's what parents need to know.
There appears to be a growing number of children who specialise in a single sport at a young age and train for it year-round. While the prospect of a college scholarship or a professional future can inspire young athletes (and their parents) to begin specialised training regimens at a young age, many experts advise against specialising in one sport before puberty.
Puberty is a period of rapid development
When puberty occurs, both males and girls experience an adolescent growth spurt (AGS). This growth spurt, and the many changes it brings, can have an effect on a child’s athletic performance.
Puberty can have a substantial impact on athletic performance, both positively and negatively. While increases in body size, hormones, and muscle strength might boost sports performance, they may cause a temporary decrease in balance abilities and body control.
Rapid gains in height and weight have an impact on the body’s centre of gravity. Sometimes the brain needs to acclimatise to this heightened level of observation, and a teen may appear “clumsy”.
This stage is particularly visible in sports that necessitate high balance and body control (e.g., figure skating, diving, gymnastics, basketball). Longer arms and legs can also have an impact in throwing any type of ball, hitting with a bat or racquet, catching with a glove or lacrosse stick, swimming, and jumping.
Recognising growth plates
Children’s bones are not the same as adults’. When they are completed growing, they have a portion of cartilage inside the ends of their bones that will eventually convert into bone. The growth plate is a piece of cartilage that is responsible for growth. It is far more fragile than the surrounding bone, muscle, tendons, and ligaments. During moments of rapid growth, the growth plate is also at its weakest. Injury to the growth plate might impair the bone’s capacity to grow properly.
What are the causes of growth plate injuries?
Fractures are injuries to the growth plate. Some growth plate injuries are the consequence of an acute event, such as a fall or a blow to the limb, whilst others are the result of overuse or repetitive stress to the growth plate. A gymnast who practices tumbling routines for many hours each week, a long-distance runner increasing miles in preparation for a race, or a baseball pitcher improving his fastball are all at risk of developing growth plate overuse problems.
Injuries can be avoided
The risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury increases as pre-teens reach puberty and grow taller and heavier. The ACL is one of the primary ligaments that keep the knee stable.
According to a 2014 AAP clinical study, the risk of ACL injury increases dramatically between the ages of 12 and 13 in girls and 14 to 15 in boys. Teenage girls are more likely to sustain an ACL injury than boys because they use their muscles differently during sports abilities such as jumping and landing. Body size rises for both sexes during adolescence, but boys also experience a surge of testosterone, resulting in larger, stronger muscles to govern their new body; girls do not experience this similar rapid growth in muscle power.
Remember that puberty is only temporary
Parents must maintain a positive attitude and seek out coaches who are well-versed on the subtleties of puberty and its effect on sports performance. Being screamed at by a coach or cast down by a disgruntled parent can force a child to abandon the sport entirely.
Your duty as a parent isn’t to produce another Olympian; it’s to ensure that your children fall in love with an activity long enough to become healthy individuals. Encourage and support them in making fitness a way of life!
