Youth Lifting – Part 2

With the upward trend of early sport specialization, many risks and issues have arisen such as burnout, overuse injury, and a lack of complete athletic development (sources below). Two of hockey’s legends in Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr have commented about this saying players are skating too much, and not playing enough variety in other sports. Many young athletes spend the majority of their ‘exercise hours’ trying to hone their skills in their sport. This can cause them to repeat the same movements over and over again without developing a full spectrum of athleticism. That being said, I am 100% all in on young athletes working on sport specific skills during their off season (stick handling, hand eye coordination, shooting pucks). I’m more less trying to drive home the point of getting away from being on skates and playing in summer leagues during the entire off-season. Overuse injuries can occur as a result of this due to certain muscles and joints being under too much stress, others not receiving enough and never getting a chance to properly rest. .