Over-Scheduling Youth Sports Risks Injuries and Burnout for Kids

The fall youth sports season has barely started when millions of parents have already packed their children's late summer and autumn schedules with practices, private coaching lessons, and travel tournaments. These parents mean well. They want to give their kids every possible chance to succeed on the field or court. But many parents have lost sight of what youth sports are meant to achieve. Worse still, they are inadvertently putting their kids at risk for injuries or burnout that could harm their long-term health.

I grew up playing sports and love watching my own children play them too. As an orthopedic surgeon who has worked with the New York Mets, I have spent much of my life on or near the field. Those experiences have taught me we are approaching youth sports all wrong. Too many parents and coaches view youth sports as a pathway to fame or fortune – to win a championship, earn a scholarship, or go pro. So they push children to do too much, too soon.

Children are not miniature adults. Their bones, muscles, tendons and movement patterns are still developing, sometimes at different rates. During puberty, bones can be particularly vulnerable to repetitive stress while rapid changes in height and body proportions can temporarily affect strength and coordination. Their training and recovery regimens need to be designed for their biology. Instead, adults keep increasing the demands on young athletes – more games, more reps, more competition – while giving their growing bodies less time to recover.

I often see the consequences in the operating room. About 1% of girls who play soccer will suffer an ACL injury in any given season. This sport puts unique strains on young athletes' knees. That may sound like a manageable risk but for girls who specialize in soccer early and play it year-round, the repeated exposure adds up. A girl who plays soccer year-round throughout high school might face a 16% cumulative risk of sustaining an ACL tear over the course of her high school career.

Injuries like ACL tears shorten a person's "playspan" – the number of years they keep moving and playing with confidence throughout their lives. An injury like an ACL tear in high school can lead to early arthritis and long-term disability. These downstream consequences can limit participation in recreational sports during adulthood and community activities like pickleball later in life. As we increasingly recognize the lifelong physical, mental and social benefits of movement and sport, sacrificing a child's extended "playspan" for the pressured hyperfocus of youth sports is remarkably shortsighted.

Burnout affects lifetime playspan as well. When sports stop being fun and kids come to associate physical activity with pressure, many never rediscover the joy of being active as adults. Some countries have organized youth sports around a different philosophy. Norway's guiding principle is simple: "As many as possible, for as long as possible, and as good as possible." Rather than pushing early specialization, children are encouraged to play multiple sports, compete close to home, and develop at their own pace. Winning matters but so does making sure children are still playing years later since staying active is so crucial for adults' long-term health.

That approach has helped develop stars like Norway's Erling Haaland, a star of the recent World Cup. Even more impressive, of the 40 boys who grew up playing at Haaland's youth club, 35 are still playing soccer as adults. That is the standard we should aspire to.

In America today, most kids quit sports before middle school. They stop because the activity simply isn't fun anymore. The average child spends less than three years on a team and walks away.

A different system could change this entirely. Imagine a youth sports model designed to keep players in the game for life. Such a plan would push children toward multiple sports instead of rushing them into one early on. Kids need a broad base of movement skills before they ever specialize. They should learn how to run, jump, throw, cut and balance first. Competition year-round has no place here yet. The system must acknowledge that even peers at the same age grow at different paces. Rest and recovery are non-negotiable parts of this new approach. Kids also need space to just play without pressure.

Sure, some athletes will earn scholarships or turn pro later on. That is wonderful news when it happens. But true success isn't measured by a few elite names. The real score counts how many lifelong athletes the program creates for society.