Youth sport

Relative age effects (RAEs) within sports refer to the overrepresentation of athletes born earlier in the selection year and the underrepresentation of those born later in the selection year. Research examining RAEs in women's and girls' rugby union remains limited in comparison to the male literature, whilst the impacts of RAEs on the youth-senior transition are yet to be explored in a female sport context. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine RAEs during entry into the women's and girls' premiership and international rugby union pathways in England, as well as to compare them to their respective senior cohort ( n = 1367): (a) U18 England Rugby Centre of Excellence Player ( n = 325) vs...

Since December 2019, few issues have garnered as much global attention as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-19). The imposed lockdowns in 2020/21, which led to the closure of all gyms, barred people from participating in their favourite sports activities. This study explores athletes' self-evaluations of their performance levels upon return to training facilities post-reopening. Data were collected in May 2021, after the end of the second lockdown, using a national online questionnaire...

BACKGROUND: LGBTQ+ youth engage in organized physical activity to a lesser degree than their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts. Existing literature on this organized physical activity disparity is limited, particularly with LGBTQ+ youth samples. The current analysis examined individual and systemic barriers to organized physical activity for LGBTQ+ youth across sexual, gender, and racial identities. METHODS: A subsample of LGBTQ+ students (N = 4566) from the 2021 Dane County Youth Assessment completed items that measured barriers to organized physical activity and systemic factors (ie, family money problems and bias-based bullying) associated with access to organized physical activity...

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of United States (U.S.) youth play basketball, baseball, softball, or T-ball. Each of the activities poses a documented risk of craniofacial and neck injuries. However, few studies have assessed the national prevalence of pediatric craniofacial and neck injuries in this population, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) dataset was used to identify pediatric craniofacial and neck injuries associated with basketball, baseball, softball, or T-ball from 2003-2022 in a cross-sectional study...

BACKGROUND: Practicing sports during childhood and adolescence provides benefits to cardiac autonomic modulation (CAM) at these stages of life. However, it is not known whether these benefits to CAM persist into adulthood. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze the association of early sports practice (sports practice in childhood and/or adolescence) with CAM in adult life, regardless of habitual moderate-to-vigorous PA. METHODS: The sample of the present study consisted of 242 adults (141 women and 101 men; age: 41...

Background: While studies have identified the negative cardiovascular effects of obesity, the effects of obesity on youth athletes are less studied. This study investigates the associations between obesity in youth athletes and exercise activity and exertional cardiac symptoms. Methods: The HeartBytes National Youth Database produced by Simon's Heart, a nonprofit that organizes adolescents' sports pre-participation examinations (PPEs), was used. This database contains demographic data, exercise-related symptoms, and electrocardiogram data obtained during PPEs...

Dietze-Hermosa, MS, Montalvo, S, Gonzalez, MP, and Dorgo, S. The impact of an 8-week, resisted, sprint training program on ice skating performance in male youth ice hockey players. J Strength Cond Res 38(5): 957-965, 2024-The purposes of this randomized control study were to (a) compare the effects of an on-ice versus an overground resisted sprint training intervention and a control condition and (b) identify changes in ice skating kinematics and kinetics after training intervention participation. Twenty-four youth ice hockey players were randomly allocated into 3 groups: (a) on-ice resisted sprint training (on-ice RST); (b) overground resisted sprint training (overground RST); and (c) body weight resistance training (control)...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of high school sports in spring 2020, a modified resumption of sports in the 2020-2021 academic year, and a return to pre-pandemic sports in 2021-2022. This cancellation had a major impact on the quality of life of adolescent athletes, but it is unknown exactly how these pandemic-driven sports disruptions on athlete baseline (preseason) symptoms affected quality of life. Therefore, the current study retrospectively evaluated symptom inventories from Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) assessments to determine whether the cancellation of sports during the COVID-19 pandemic affected baseline (preseason) self-reported symptoms among adolescent athletes...

The objectives of this network meta-analysis were: (a) to estimate and compare the pooled effects of some injury prevention programs (IPPs) whose exercise-based components were categorized using a movement pattern-specific taxonomy on reducing overall and some specific body regions (lower extremity, thigh, knee, and ankle) injury incidences in youth team sport athletes and (b) to explore the individual effects of these components on the injury incidence rates (IIRs) previously mentioned. Searches were performed in PubMed, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane Library...

Background : There is a lack of evidence regarding the impact of time loss, match exposure, and age at injury on career progression in elite football. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify injury characteristics and their influence on career progression in a German youth academy. Methods : During the 2012/2013 season, a prospective cohort study reported 107 time-loss injuries among 130 young athletes from an elite German soccer academy. Individual career progression was analyzed using 10-year data...

BACKGROUND: Sport-related concussions leave youth vulnerable to significant health, physical, social, and educational disruptions. Many youth athletes under-report concussions, but the scope of the issue for this population is not well understood, nor are the underlying motivations for (under)reporting. It is necessary to examine the relationship between sport-related concussion knowledge and reporting and invite athletes to share their decision-making processes. The purpose of the research was to understand how athletes' attitudes, experiences and beliefs regarding concussions influence their under-reporting decisions and behaviours...

Memorializes Michael E. Connor (1942-2023), beloved academician, clinician, consultant, author, mentor, and friend. His work focused on issues affecting Black communities and families, the psychological well-being of Black men, maintaining and improving relationships with children, and exercise and sports psychology. This was evidenced in his clinical work with children, adults, and athletes; his community service with organizations like Man to Man: Urban Youth Advocates and the Black Infant Health Program; and his scholarly achievements, including numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and conference presentations, as well as the two editions of his book Black Fathers: An Invisible Presence in America ...

BACKGROUND: Concussion in children and adolescents is a significant public health concern, with 30% to 35% of patients at risk for prolonged emotional, cognitive, sleep, or physical symptoms. These symptoms negatively impact a child's quality of life while interfering with their participation in important neurodevelopmental activities such as schoolwork, socializing, and sports. Early psychological intervention following a concussion may improve the ability to regulate emotions and adapt to postinjury symptoms, resulting in the greater acceptance of change; reduced stress; and recovery of somatic, emotional, and cognitive symptoms...

Physical literacy (PL), a concept commonly associated with the early years, physical education, and youth sport development, can become a meaningful determinant of health and longevity for the adult and older adult population. A review of 55 recent publications from 2018 to 2023 that encompassed physical literacy conceptual frameworks, assessments, and intervention-based studies was undertaken through an heuristic inspired by the philosophy which gave birth to PL. With particular interest in how PL has evolved in response to the needs of an aging population, this position paper tracks a key shift in focus from the individual to the relational context...

This study assessed the knowledge, behavior, and needs of competitive adolescent (16-18 years) distance runners and distance running coaches enrolled as part of England Athletics' Youth Talent Programme in relation to the prevention of running-related injury (RRI). Two online surveys were developed and distributed to the distance runners (survey one) and coaches (survey two). Both surveys included sections related to: (1) current knowledge; (2) current behavior; (3) need and support for RRI prevention measures; and (4) possible content and form of RRI prevention measures...

BACKGROUND: Growing evidence suggests that physical activity (PA) could improve cognitive performance in youths, but whether these effects occur from early childhood remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: To summarize evidence on the effects of PA interventions on cognitive performance in early childhood. METHODS: We performed a systematic search in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and PsycINFO (from inception to 6 September 2023) for randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of PA interventions (≥ 3 weeks) on cognitive-related outcomes in early childhood (3-6 years)...

PURPOSE: To understand athletic performance before and after puberty, this study determined: 1) the age at which the sex difference increases among elite youth track and field athletes for running and jumping events; and 2) whether there is a sex difference in performance prior to ages associated with puberty among elite youth athletes. METHODS: Track and field records of elite USA male and female youth (7-18 years) across three years (2019, 2021, and 2022) were collected from an online database ( athletic...

OBJECTIVES: Inter-individual developmental differences confound the capability to accurately evaluate youth athletic performance, highlighting the need for considerate methodology and analytical approaches. The present study demonstrated how Percentile Comparison Methods (PCMs) were developed, tested, and applied to identify athlete developmental profiles in Australian youth swimming. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. METHODS: Participants were N = 866 female 100-metre (m) Front-Crawl swimmers, aged 9-15 years, competing at 36 Australian regional-national level long course events...

Research has shown that physical activity behavior tends to decline across adolescence before stabilizing in adulthood. Identifying salient factors underlying these behavioral changes is therefore imperative for informing intervention development. This study explored the temporal nature of the relationship between exercise identity and physical activity behavior during the transition out of high school. An analysis of data from the Application of integrated Approaches to understanding Physical activity during the Transition to emerging adulthood (ADAPT) prospective cohort study was conducted, involving 1,451 Canadian adolescents (Mage = 15...

Leisure plays a key role in the happiness of youth. Studies have shown that various factors of leisure, such as the type, the time, the cost, and the space, have an influence on the adolescents' happiness. However, little is known about which of these factors is a major factor in youth's happiness. The purpose of this study is to explore the leisure factors that determine happiness in adolescents by examining the relationship between happiness and various leisure factors. The study used the method of machine learning to analyze national statistical data, National Leisure Activity Survey...