Biobanding: A New Paradigm for Youth Sports and Training.

Abstract

Sports programs are an important activity for children and adolescents. They provide opportunities for regular engagement in physical activity, the development of motor skills, teaching values and life skills, and enhanced physical and psychological health. The benefits of sports participation are not, however, automatic. Negative experiences can result in a range of harmful outcomes, including injury; increased risk of eating disorders, and violence and aggression, including sexual abuse; poor sportsmanship; perceptions of low competence; and burnout. Pediatricians are often the medical professionals who know their patients best and are thus well placed to advise on the potential benefits and risks associated with sports participation. The significance of individual differences in biological maturation on children’s involvement in sports and physical activity is well documented. Maturity-associated variation in size, strength, and power plays a significant role in the popular sports, such as soccer, American football, baseball, and ice hockey, among others. Success in these sports tends to favor boys who mature early, as documented many years ago in a survey of participants in the Little League World Series.1 Corresponding trends among female youth participants tend to favor girls who mature later in distance running, gymnastics, ballet, figure skating, and diving. Girls who mature in advance of their peers are more likely to drop out of sports and be … Address correspondence to Alan D. Rogol, MD, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, University of Virginia, 685 Explorers Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22911. E-mail: adr{at}virginia.edu