Is it possible for young players to be playing too much soccer?
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17th Jun '11, 10:56am
This is an extract from an interesting article on whether you can be playing too much soccer if you're a young player. is it possible for young players to be playing too much soccer? I had an email from a parent concerned that his children (one U8, the other U10) were playing soccer four or five times per week during the off season, with their teams and in various clinics and that this was perhaps too much. It poses the question, is there such a thing as 'too much soccer?' My view is that playing four or five matches and/or training sessions per week is too much at any time of the year, let alone the off season! For one thing, you have to consider the physical strain that such an amount of exercise exerts on a growing body. Over-training does not allow enough time for minor injuries to ligaments and joints to heal and serious, long-term injuries can result. Young children are particularly at risk because their bones and ligaments sometimes grow at slightly different rates, causing an imbalance that makes it even easier for small "niggles" to turn into long-term medical conditions. Shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome or MTSS) is an example. Interestingly, research by the International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS) has shown children are only likely to sustain stress-related injuries if they play too much organised football – they can play with their mates in the park all day, every day without any problems.
*post edited by moderator to remove promotion to website*
This is an interesting
4th Jul '11, 6:27pm
This is an interesting article, I think personally that there is no such thing as too much soccer without going to the extremes of something silly like 3+ hours a day. Playing soccer between 3-5 times per week is in fact beneficial to the children as long as the intensity on the physical and fitness aspect is minimised on certain sessions i.e. one session may be cardio based games and drills where as the other sessions are completely technically focused with minimal cardio or any sort of resistance work so they practice more on certain aspects of the game such as shooting, passing, throwings, heading etc. it is true that if there is too much resistance or cardio work involved than future injuries or reaccuring injuries may come into play at an early stage, in particular the most common overuse injury being Osgood Schlatters which I unfortunately had in both knees at seperate times in my youth playing days.
But if you look at Brazil and other South American countries you will find that children are outside all day most days playing football practicing their technique and skills and developing into the players they are now, which I believe is the way forward for England, introduce more futsal at a young age and allow players to practice and perfect skills and not worry about the physical or tactical side of the game untill they are 18-19.