To avoid overtraining, coaches and athletes must communicate in order to coordinate a rational amount of training and conditioning.
Cautions to youth sports leagues and school sports in Spring, 2021
Many youth sports leagues and school sports are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by moving fall sports until Spring, 2021 and condensing all of the sports seasons. Here are some points to consider in order to avoid problems or injuries: It is unlikely the virus problem will be completely solved by the beginning of 2021. Pandemics historically last for 12-36 months. Therefore, it will still be important to maintain all of the recommended safeguards, including wearing masks and social distancing when possible, washing hands, not sharing equipment, and avoiding contact with people if you develop any viral symptoms. In addition, testing at appropriate intervals will be important. Although young athletes typically do not develop severe symptoms when infected, there is the risk of long-term health problems including pulmonary fibrosis and myocardial injuries. These complications may cause a permanent decrease in athletic function. Also, some medications used to treat these viral infections may cause long-term complications. In addition, the risk of community spread from healthy athletes to more vulnerable populations such as the elderly and people with comorbidities must be considered.
Even though the seasons will be condensed, there should be no compromise on proper conditioning and build up to the season. Don’t condense conditioning time. It is important to attain the same fitness levels before starting a season now as were obtained in seasons before the pandemic. Most overuse injuries occur at the beginning of any season, so these injuries will occur whether the season is short or long. Therefore, it is important to begin conditioning as early as possible and progress gradually in order to build up appropriately to the intensity of the sports season. Sports medicine doctors are already seeing more overuse injuries as kids get back to sports with relative inactivity during the summer. In some cases, this has had catastrophic consequences, with a large number of heat related deaths in high school football.
It is important to maintain all of the recommended safeguards, including wearing masks and social distancing when possible, washing hands, not sharing equipment, and avoiding contact with people if you develop any viral symptoms.
What about overlapping seasons? In some cases, young athletes will still be finishing up a season in one sport when their next sports season starts. It is important to avoid overtraining and, therefore, coaches and athletes must communicate in order to coordinate a rational amount of training and conditioning. This concept is always true but will be more relevant since there will likely be more overlap of seasons in 2021.
The good news is that if an athlete is already fit from one sport, he or she will be fit for the next sport, even if there are slight differences in the sports. Be aware that more is not always better, and overtraining can increase the risk of injuries and actually decreases athletic performance. Another factor to consider is that overtraining and overly intensive exercises temporarily suppresses the immune symptom and may make an athlete more susceptible to infections, including COVID-19. Sports medicine doctors in general always encourage young athletes to play multiple sports rather than focusing on only one sport, but if there is more overlapping of sports, we all need to be careful to avoid overtraining. Athletes should be monitored regarding their training loads, sleeping patterns, and nutrition.
Will the season be less important since it is shorter? For example, will a championship be less valuable? It is important to remember the main reasons that we encourage sports participation for everyone: The main purposes of sports include fun, fitness, and teaching life lessons such as teamwork, discipline, and hard work. There are no reason why shorter seasons should affect these principles. Enjoy your wins and championships; learn from your losses as always.
Will injuries have more or less of an effect with shortened seasons? With longer seasons, an injury early in the season may still allow for the possibility of a return later in the season. With shorter seasons, an injury at any time in the season may make it less likely that the athlete will be able to return before the season ends. While disappointing, it is important to remember that health and safety should also be the highest priority. Compromising during one season may impact future seasons. If you treat your injury correctly now, hopefully you will have many more seasons if not a lifetime of fruitful athletic activity.
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