ArticleSports health
Age of Early Specialization, Competitive Volume, Injury, and Sleep Habits in Youth Sport: A Preliminary Study of US Youth Basketball.
Article in Sports health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Annual Athlete Turnover of 36% in Olympic Talent Promotion Programs: A Meta-analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2026Pooled it
- Incidence and Risk Factors for Sport-Related Concussion in Female Youth Athletes Participating in Contact and Collision Invasion Sports: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Pooled it
- Early Sport Specialization in a Pediatric Population: A Rapid Review of Injury, Function, Performance, and Psychological Outcomes.Clinics and practice · 2025Review
- Exploring the development of coach-parent relationships in organized competitive youth team sports.PloS one · 2025Article
- Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Accessibility: An Area Deprivation Index (ADI) Analysis of National Basketball Association (NBA) Players' Profiles.Current reviews in musculoskeletal medicine · 2024Review
- Sleep in marathon and ultramarathon runners: a brief narrative review.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Review
- The associations of early specialization, sports volume, and maturity status with musculoskeletal injury in elite youth football players.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Article
- Training the Adolescent Athlete.Sports healthArticle
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundConcerns for youth sports in the United States often focus on early sport specialization, overemphasis on competition, injuries, and burnout. Little research has addressed relationships among the preceding and other concerns, including time away from organized sport, sleep, and perceptions of physical and psychological well-being. HYPOTHESIS: There is an association between reported competitive gameplay volume and specialization, injury, and fatigue among elite youth basketball players. STUDY
designCross-sectional study; convenience sample. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 4.
methodsAn anonymous questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of youth basketball players between 13 and 18 years of age from across the United States. Participants were queried about multiple factors, including the extent of their participation in organized basketball and other sports, time away from organized basketball, injury, sleep, and feelings of exhaustion related to basketball participation.
resultsA total of 772 participants (145 girls, 627 boys) completed a survey. All participants played for a select or elite club basketball team and/or a high school basketball team. Overall, 49% played more than 50 games within the past year. A total of 73% were specialized in basketball, 58% prior to age 14 years, and 35% prior to age 11 years. In all, 70% reported less than 1 month away from organized basketball within the past year, and 28% reported no time away. A total of 54% reported sleeping less than the recommended 8 hours each night during the school year. Within the prior year, 55% reported feeling physically exhausted and 45% reported feeling mentally exhausted from basketball. Regression analysis did not find any significant relationships between early specialization prior to age 14 years and basketball-related injury or feelings of mental or physical exhaustion.
conclusionIn this select group of youth basketball players, the majority specialized in basketball prior to age 14 years and reported a large number of competitive events with little time away from organized basketball. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The results from a sample of highly competitive youth basketball players indicate issues that warrant further attention and research regarding the potential impact of specialization, frequent competitions, lack of time away from organized sport, and perceptions of well-being in young athletes.
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