Children and Young Athletes

Children and young athletes have specific demands that are addressed by sports medicine. Many  suffer from medical conditions such as asthma, type 1 diabetes, and epilepsy. Children and young athletes are also more prone to overuse injuries such as stress fractures and repetitive strain injuries because they are growing and developing.

They also have underdeveloped abilities to regulate body temperature, particularly in relation to sweating and having a smaller surface areas to body mass ratio.Your syllabus requires you to look at: resistance training in relation to these young athletes. Should it be done? If so, how? If not, why not?

The learn to for this dot point has a high level verb (analyse) requiring you to be able to make connections between these considerations and how children and young athletes engage in sport. You also need to have an understanding of how each consideration is managed by a coach or trainer.

Students learn about:

• children and young athletes
  • medical conditions (asthma, diabetes, epilepsy)
  • overuse injuries (stress fractures)
  • thermoregulation
  • appropriateness of resistance training

Students learn to:

• analyse the implications of each of these considerations for the ways young people engage in sport and how each is managed.