Don't Force The Teenage Athletes

I read with interest a recent New York Times article about Katelyn Tuohy. A female teenage track phenom with the headline "America's Next Great Running Hope, and One of the Cruelest Twist in Youth Sports."

Although Katelyn had already won titles and set records at sophomore (15-16 years old) level, the article made the point that many previous high school phenoms fail to live up to their early promise because of changes to their physique. The article pointed out that this seems to be a cruel twist in youth sports as girls turn into women.

The article mentioned that it was nearly impossible to predict an elite girl's future success in distance running because the female body changes so much as they continue to grow. Other than a good lung capacity, long distance races require great body weight to strength ratio. The teenage girls are skinny in their early years. Then as they mature and and grow, they may not develop the strength to move their bigger bodies  as quickly.

It's not surprising then that many girls end up with eating disorders, body related issues and end up getting injured. Off the top of my head, I can think of so many teenage athletes I've treated over the years that ended up going down that same path.

Many of the young athletes couldn't understand that it was perfectly normal to have the ups and downs (in their performances) they experience as their bodies change. Girls tend to put on more fat to prepare the body for reproduction. Good if we want to maintain our population, but not good if you're an elite athlete looking to improve your performance.

I had a former classmate PTL in primary school. He won the "Individual Champion" title in our school's track and field meet after winning 100, 200 m and the shot putt (plus the 4 x 100 relay too). That streak started in Primary Four (while he was ten) til Primary 6 (there was no meet from Primary One to Three).

We went to the same Secondary school and he won the 100, 200, 400 m and 110 m hurdles to emerge "Individual Champion" again in Secondary One and Two.

While in Secondary Three (they finally had longer events in track and field), PTL won the first 3 events and finished runners up for the 110 m hurdles event. We shared the "Individual Champion"  title after I won the 1500, 3000 m, 2000 m steeplechase and was 2nd for the 800 m. (Luckily for me, they gave out 2 trophies).

By the time we were in Secondary Four, I won all my four events while PTL didn't win any of his individual events. I ended winning our school's only individual medal at the National School's meet later that year while PTL ran the relays and never competed again after that.

Looking back now I know PTL reached puberty and had his growth spurt earlier than us in Primary school and was physically superior to everyone else. That's how he won all the events earlier. When the rest of us "caught up" hitting puberty later he didn't have that advantage anymore.

Perhaps PTL, having been raised on victories from young, could not comprehend or accept defeat. Early victories may have paved the way for defeat and giving up eventually.

Hence, I will never ever push my kids to excel in sports or something they don't like. I was never pushed when I was a kid. The desire all came from within. However, if they're keen, I will definitely help, support and guide them if I can.

So parents, teachers, coaches and all of you who are involved with young athletes take note of what Kara Goucher said. "Talent never goes away. Once these women/ girls (or boys) adjust to a mature body, the talent can come through again. The obsession with labeling these girls as 'the next big thing' is part of the problem  .... Katelyn is very talented. She will grow and probably slow. But once she adjusts, if she still has the love, the talent will still be there."

Don't push the kids, support, guide and help them if they themselves wish to excel.

Here's a close up of my first Individual Champion trophy. Thanks to my brother who took the pictures for me.

Exercise Is Not The Path To Strong Bones

This recently published New York Times article  definitely caught my attention. The author writes that "exercise is not the path to strong bones." In fact the author says that "exercise has little or no effect on bone strength."

The author then proceeds to discuss studies that showed increased bone density in subjects as a response to jump and weight training. However she wrote that "those studies failed to find anything more than a minuscule exercise effect - on the order of 1 percent or less, which is too small to be clinically significant."

So of course I went to look at the article she mentioned and it turns out I had written about that published study last year.

I looked up the article again. Here are my thoughts.

Consider that we reach peak bone mass at the end of puberty after which the normal course of ageing involves a steady loss of bone that is almost impossible to stop or prevent. This makes the 1 percent pretty important in my opinion. If you consider a decade or a lifetime of 1 percent effect instead of a single year, now that would be truly significant.

Hence when we treat patients with osteoporosis or patients who are osteopenic, just maintaining or slowing the loss of their bone mass is considered successful. Especially when this translates to a lower fracture risk.

What I also got from another article is that our bones do not get strong only because of weight bearing exercise. Two other important factors are jarring impacts and resistance training. Both make a big difference to the hip and spine - specific areas where bone density is most vulnerable.

Well, if you're a runner you can rejoice then since runners get repeated jarring impacts with each step you run. Turns out the authors found that runners have similar bone density to strength trained subjects, Cyclists have lower bone density since they not have have jarring impacts and if they do not strength train.

So don't stop running, strength training or your weight bearing exercises.

References

Hinton PS, Nigh P et al (2015). Effectiveness Of Resistance Training Or Jumping-exercise To Increase Bone Mineral Density in Men With Low Bone Mass: A 12-month Randomized, Clinical Trial. Bone. 79: 203-212. DOI: 10.1016/j.bone.2015.06.008.

Rector RS, Rogers R, Reubel M, Widzer MO and Hinton PS (2009). Lean Body Mass And Weight-bearing ActivityIn The Prediction Of Bone Mineral Density In Physically active Men. J Strength Cond Res. 23(2): 427-435. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31819420e1.