The rapid growth of organized sports for children and adolescents in recent years is unprecedented. This growth began in North America and Europe and is now evident throughout the world. Because of a variety of social and cultural changes, many children in many of the developed countries will receive the majority of their exercise and physical activity in the organized sports setting. This development represents both an opportunity and a danger. The opportunity that presents itself in such a circumstance is that with careful and systematic evaluation of the physical and psychological character of each child and better understanding of the mechanical, metabolic, and psychological demands of each sport or fitness activity, sports medicine specialists might be able to match child to sport in such a way as to maximize sports safety and the child's enjoyment of sport.24 The danger of organized sport dominance, however, is that children may be exposed to inappropriate or excessive training by inexperienced or unqualified adult supervisors. This can result in sports settings and experiences that increase the risk of injury, both from acute trauma and repetitive overuse mechanisms, as well as undermine the enjoyment of the children in their sports. I fear we are closer to the latter scenario than the former at this time. We are all aware of the steady stream of sports injuries we are seeing in this age group, many of them preventable. In addition, a recent survey sponsored by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association found a 75% dropout rate from organized youth sports by age 15. The most frequently cited reason was that they were not fun or the child was not learning anything.6 Certainly, the potential for benefits or risks from organized sports training varies from sport to sport and from community to community. Even within certain communities, one organized sports program, such as a youth soccer