Training the Child Athlete for Prevention, Health Promotion, and Performance: How Much Is Enough, How Much Is Too Much?

There has been a recent trend toward more systematic, sport-specific, high-intensity physical training in children. However, there is little scientific knowledge regarding both potential benefits and hazards associated with this approach. Concurrently, an exponential increase in the number of overweight and obese children worldwide has been observed, and poor physical fitness has been identified as a primary factor contributing to the epidemic of childhood obesity. Despite this dichotomy of behavior patterns affecting the world's youth-too much or too little physical training-there is a paucity of science-based information guiding our decision making about training children and child athletes.