Parents' Awareness and Perceptions of Sport Specialization and Injury Prevention Recommendations.

Objective: To conduct a survey of parents to determine their knowledge of sport volume recommendations and examine their perceptions toward sport specialization.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Youth sport athletic tournaments, competitions, and practices.

Socioeconomic status of parents with children participating on youth club sport teams.

Objectives: To describe the socioeconomic status, measured by household income and educational attainment, of parents with children participating on youth club sport teams.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Local sport events.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs of Youth Club Athletes Toward Sport Specialization and Sport Participation.

Background: There are a variety of proposed motivations for sport specialization, such as improving sport skills to an elite level, making all-star or travel teams, or receiving a scholarship or professional contract. However, there has not been a quantitative examination of the attitudes and beliefs that may be contributing to the trend of sport specialization and year-round sport participation.

Purpose: The primary aim was to describe the attitudes and beliefs of youth club sport athletes regarding sport specialization and sport participation.

Greater fear of reinjury is related to stiffened jump-landing biomechanics and muscle activation in women after ACL reconstruction.

Purpose: Fear of reinjury is an important factor in determining who returns to sport following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). Evidence from other musculoskeletal injuries indicates fear of reinjury may be related to stiffened movement patterns observed in individuals following ACLR. The relationship between fear of reinjury and performance on dynamic tasks, however, has not been investigated.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs of Youth Sports Coaches Regarding Sport Volume Recommendations and Sport Specialization.

Post, EG, Trigsted, SM, Schaefer, DA, Cadmus-Bertram, LA, Watson, AM, McGuine, TA, Brooks, MA, and Bell, DR. Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of youth sports coaches regarding sport volume recommendations and sport specialization. J Strength Cond Res 34(10): 2911-2919, 2020-Overuse injuries in youth athletes are becoming increasingly common, which may be a result of the prevalence of year-round specialized sport participation.

Sport Specialization Characteristics Between Rural and Suburban High School Athletes.

Background: Sport specialization has been associated with overuse injuries and is more common in larger high schools, which are often located in more urban/suburban settings. However, sport participation characteristics have not been compared between suburban and rural high schools.

Purpose/hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in sport participation characteristics between athletes at suburban and rural high schools.

Association of Competition Volume, Club Sports, and Sport Specialization With Sex and Lower Extremity Injury History in High School Athletes.

Background: High school athletes are increasingly encouraged to participate in 1 sport year-round to increase their sport skills. However, no study has examined the association of competition volume, club sport participation, and sport specialization with sex and lower extremity injury (LEI) in a large sample of high school athletes.

Hypothesis: Increased competition volume, participating on a club team outside of school sports, and high levels of specialization will all be associated with a history of LEI.

The Effects of Specialization and Sex on Anterior Y-Balance Performance in High School Athletes.

Background: Sport specialization and movement asymmetry have been separately discussed as potential risk factors for lower extremity injury. Early specialization may lead to the development of movement asymmetries that can predispose an athlete to injury, but this has not been thoroughly examined.

Hypothesis: Athletes rated as specialized would exhibit greater between-limb anterior reach asymmetry and decreased anterior reach distance on the Y-balance test (YBT) as compared with nonspecialized high school athletes, and these differences would not be dependent on sex.

Objectively Measured Physical Activity in Patients After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.

Background: Returning to a healthy level of physical activity is among the most commonly discussed clinical goals for patients recovering from anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). However, physical activity has not been objectively measured in this population.

Purpose: To investigate differences in the mean time (min/d) spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) as well as the daily step count (steps/d) between patients who underwent ACLR and matched controls.

The Association of Sport Specialization and Training Volume With Injury History in Youth Athletes.

Background: Recommendations exist to encourage safe youth participation in sport. These recommendations include not specializing in 1 sport, limiting participation to less than 8 months per year, and limiting participation to fewer hours per week than a child's age. However, limited evidence exists to support or refute these recommendations.

High School Sport Specialization Patterns of Current Division I Athletes.

Background: Sport specialization is a strategy to acquire superior sport performance in 1 sport but is associated with increased injury risk. Currently, the degree of high school specialization among Division I athletes is unknown.

Hypothesis: College athletes will display increased rates of specialization as they progress through their high school careers.

Hip Strength in Patients with Quadriceps Strength Deficits after ACL Reconstruction.

Purpose: Quadriceps strength deficits persist for years after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, and patients with these deficits often shift torque demands away from the knee extensors to the hip during functional tasks. However, it is not clear how quadriceps strength deficits may affect hip strength. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate differences in lower extremity strength in individuals with ACL reconstruction with differing levels of quadriceps strength asymmetry.

Prevalence of Sport Specialization in High School Athletics: A 1-Year Observational Study.

Background: The prevalence of sport specialization in high school athletes is unknown. This information is needed to determine the scope of this issue in an active population.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of sport specialization in high school athletes and to determine if specialization is influenced by classification method, year in school, sex, and school size.

The Effect of Exertion and Sex on Vertical Ground Reaction Force Variables and Landing Mechanics.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine how exertion and sex affected a variety of vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) parameters during a jump-landing task, including peak VGRF, peak VGRF asymmetry, loading rate, and loading rate asymmetry. Additionally, we wanted to determine whether landing mechanics changed after exertion as measured by the Landing Error Scoring System (LESS). Forty recreationally active participants (20 men and 20 women) completed jump landings from a 30-cm-high box onto force plates before and after repeated bouts of an exercise circuit until a specific rating of perceived exertion was achieved.

Landing mechanics during single hop for distance in females following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction compared to healthy controls.

Purpose: To determine possible differences in single-hop kinematics and kinetics in females with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction compared to healthy controls. A second purpose was to make comparisons between the healthy and reconstructed limbs.

Methods: Subjects were grouped based on surgical status (33 ACLR patients and 31 healthy controls).