Practical Strategies for Integrating Strength and Conditioning into Early Specialization Sports

 Early sport specialization involves physically immature children participating in intensive year-round training and or competition for a single sport at the exclusion of other sports. Lack of sport exposure and diversification during developmental years may underlie increased risk of overuse injuries, blunting of motor skill development, psycho-social issues, overtraining syndrome, burnout, and potential drop out from sport. With increasing numbers of youth choosing, or being encouraged, to specialize at an early age, we aim to provide evidence-based recommendations for the integration of strength and conditioning into the development programs of young athletes who participate in sports with a culture of early specialization. In addition to principles of programming, strategies are provided relative to monitoring of growth, maturation, and training load to illustrate the potential complexities of attempting to optimize long-term athletic development in early specializing athletes.