youth climbing
Early Sport Specialization and Past Injury in Competitive Youth Rock Climbers (Chen et al, 2022)
Key Take Aways
✅ Early specialized youth climbers (≤12 years old) were not associated with increased injury risk.
✅ Late specialized climbers (>12 years old) were: x1.6 more likely to have a lifetime injury when compared to early specializers and x1.8 more likely to have an injur in the last 12 months compared to early specializers
Population
Elite youth climbers
Summary
Early specialization in sport is defined as a youth (≤12 years old) who trains in a single sport >8 months of the year. While early specialization may lead to elite achievement, there is evidence to say that early specialization in a sport leads to higher injury risk The early specialization rate in climbing (38%) is comparable to tennis (47%), gymnastics (30%), and dance (26%).
Citation
Chen DL, Meyers RN, Provance AJ, Zynda AJ, Wagner KJ 3rd, Siegel SR, Howell DR, Miller SM. Early Sport Specialization and Past Injury in Competitive Youth Rock Climbers. Wilderness Envion Med. 2022 Jun;33(2): 179-186
Link
https://www.wemjournal.org/action/showPdf?pii=S1080-6032%2822%2900048-5