Experts say hours spent practicing sports each week should equal children's age

DALLAS — Children are suffering from injuries normally seen in professional athletes due to practicing too much at just one sport, according to experts.

Experts said a child’s age should equal the number of hours they should spend in sports training each week. An example would be if a child is 12 years old, they shouldn’t practice or play more than 12 hours a week.

"I think that they’re feeling the pressure to meet a standard that maybe they aren’t capable of meeting," Alverson said.

The National Athletic Trainers’ Association said up to half of all children’s injuries are believed to be a result of overused joints and muscles.

The association said it is seeing injuries like ACL and MCL tears that require surgery.

The offensive coordinator for Victory Christian's football team in Charlotte, Jay Alverson said he has noticed students practicing too much for years.

"We try to push student-athletes, but we don't want to break student-athletes," said Alverson.

Here are six new recommendations from the association that it said all parents should keep in mind when it comes to their children playing a sport:

• Try to delay specializing in a single sport for as long as possible and keep them engaged in a variety of sports.
• Keep them to one sport per season.
• If they do play just a single sport, they shouldn't play it more than eight months out of the year to give them breaks in training.
• Again, a child's age should equal the number of hours spent on training. For example, a 12-year-old should not spend more than 12 hours a week practicing sports.
• Young athletes should take a minimum of two days off a week.
• And finally, at the end of each competitive season, children should take a break to decompress physically and mentally.

Alverson said he implements a lot of these guidelines, and he is excited for them to become the new norm.

“There’s a whole mentality of, 'When I’m playing a video game somebody else is practicing.' Well, if they’re following these guidelines, everyone will be playing a video game every now and then and that’s not too bad,” said Alverson.

These recommendations are said to be more rigorous than the ones issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Cox Media Group