Preadolescent Sports Medicine

The preadolescent athletes are typically those athletes who have just achieved or have not yet achieved Tanner stage II. Age in girls is usually less than age 12 and age in boys is usually less than age 14. There has been a significant trend in sports medicine to see elite athletes at a younger age participating and training at a very high level, for instance the most recent Wimbledon’s champion, Maria Sharapova, is 17 years of age. The most popular female draw in women’s golf is Michelle Wie, age 14, and Freddy Adu at age 14 is the highest paid professional soccer player. There is a significant trend in age towards sports participation, especially those sports which require significant flexibility such as gymnastics, where a relatively young age seems to dominate the sport and the majority of the athletes at the elite level have been training intensely for several years, beginning in the very early childhood, frequently as early as three to four years of age, obtaining an elite level by age eight to nine and then developing those skills throughout their teenage years. In addition, there is a strong emphasis on developing our athletes much in the way that professional athletes who are viewed through the media are seen. This creates somewhat of a conflict with regard to training regimes, as young athletes are trained and treated as little adults. There is relatively little scientific information with regard to preadolescent physiology and the elite athlete in this level and age group; therefore, a large amount of information that trickles down to parents and coaches is primarily anecdotal and not scientifically based.