How puberty affects your athlete. Puberty brings significant physical, physiological, and psychological changes. Typically, a girl reaches puberty between 11.5 and 13 years of age, and boys are two years behind at 13.5-15 years. There are basic ways we all know puberty will affect our kids. They will grow bigger and have more hair, their voices and their bodies will change, and they might have more mood swings. But for an athlete, these changes will have a chain reaction that could be a huge adjustment for your child and their sports.
Here are five ways puberty could affect your athlete:
1)Less coordination: According to Healthierchildren.org and Dr. Kowal-Connelly, on average, boys and girls going through puberty will grow 2.5 inches a year. This dramatic growth spurt can have a significant effect on their sports. While the increase in body size and muscle strength may eventually improve athletic performance, there may be a temporary decline in balance and body control. The brain needs time to adjust to the changes in height and weight. The fastest runner on the team is now struggling to keep up, the graceful swimmer is all arms and legs, and the 4th batter in the rotation has slipped down the lineup because they can’t get the timing right.
2)More susceptible to injury: In addition to kids having more spills and being accident-prone because they aren’t used to their growing bodies, the growth plate is particularly vulnerable during this rapid period of growth. According to Medicine.net, acute events and overuse injuries to the growth plate occur most often during times of growth, like puberty. Once the growth slows down, the growth plates are replaced by solid bone; this will typically happen at the end of puberty.
3)Quitting their sport: There are several reasons puberty is like a landmine for athletes trying to play sports. As the hormones rage in their bodies, their priorities and interests change. Hanging out with friends and romantic interests can become more important than going to practice. Girls also increase their body fat during puberty; this can result in body image issues along with decreased mobility and speed, which can contribute to athletes not wanting to continue in their sport. Also, kids who developed early can struggle during this time because the advantages of being bigger have now disappeared, and if they didn’t develop a strong work ethic and appropriate skills, these kids can become dismayed at their lesser status or struggle to keep up and, in turn, leave their sport.
4)Premenstrual issues: According to the Women’s Sports and Fitness Foundation, girls’ monthly premenstrual stage can bring abdominal pain, headaches, and fatigue. There may also be a reduction in aerobic capacity and strength during this phase, and all of these symptoms can affect their play and concentration on the field.
5)More concussions: Particularly for boys, their bodies are bigger and stronger, and during this transition phase, they have less control over them. Former NFL player Steve Tasker, who suffered multiple concussions throughout his career and who speaks often on the subject of concussions, recounts, “Puberty is the time when it really gets dangerous; I’ve seen it time and time again when a kid reaches puberty. Immediately, they begin to play angry, and they have a level of intensity that was not there when they were prepubescent.”
It’s important as parents and coaches to educate ourselves about these changes and to help our children navigate them with empathy and support.
Going through puberty can have a significant impact on athletic performance in both positive and negative ways. While increases in body size, hormones, and muscle strength can improve athletic performance, there may be a temporary decline in balance skills and body control during the growth spurt.
Puberty is associated with emotional and hormonal changes, as well as physical changes such as breast development in females (thelarche), pubic hair development (pubarche), genital changes in males, voice changes, an increase in height, and the onset of menstruation (menarche).
Regular physical activity may help tweens and teens feel more in control of their changing bodies. Exercise can also help kids in puberty manage stress and maintain their weight (even as their hormones compel them to add pounds).
Bones grow first, which pulls at tight muscles and tendons. This uneven growth pattern makes younger athletes more susceptible to muscle, tendon, and growth plate injuries. Growth plates are the areas of developing cartilage where bone growth occurs in children.
One big reason we see declines in aerobic (or endurance) athletic performance with age is that our bodies can't use oxygen as effectively. The maximal ability to utilize oxygen (VO2max) is a predictor of endurance performance across ages.
Puberty begins roughly around the ages of 10 – 11 and involves vast hormonal changes. These changes can lead to heightened emotional responses and unpredictable mood swings. When adolescents feel angry, depressed or frustrated, they struggle to stay focused in class.
Most females will start puberty when they're 8 to 13 years old, and most males will start between 9 and 14. But it can also be normal to start earlier or later.
Going through puberty can have a significant impact on athletic performance in both positive and negative ways. While increases in body size, hormones, and muscle strength can improve athletic performance, there may be a temporary decline in balance skills and body control during the AGS.
Both males and females start puberty at about 80% lean body mass. During puberty, females drop to 70-75% lean body mass and males increase to 90%. Males gain more muscle mass, and females gain more adipose tissue.
Puberty is considered a sensitive period for the development of strength especially for boys because an increase in testosterone production results in a marked increase in muscle mass during this phase (5).
As the body ages, its tissues are less effective than they once were at performing exercises. This happens due to several factors, including changes to muscles, bones, and joints. For instance, even if you continue to work out throughout your life, your muscle fibers will shrink and reduce in number over time.
Overuse injuries, like sprains and strains, will happen more simply throughout a growth spurt. The bones are growing faster than the muscles, which means those tissues will get stretched out and strained more easily. Some youngsters develop knee pain, like heel pain, such as Sever's illness.
Genetic predisposition, training load, nutritional status and psychological stress determine athletes' pubertal timing. Athletes that practice esthetic sports, especially gymnasts, are predisposed to a delay in pubertal development.
Intuitively we all know athletic performance gradually declines as we get older. It's generally accepted that VO2 max – the maximum amount of oxygen you can take in and deliver to tissues – starts declining at around 40 years old and declines at around 1-2% per year thereafter.
The very old and frail elderly experience sarcopenia (skeletal muscle atrophy) as a result of one or a combination of disuse, disease, injury, malnutrition and the effects of ageing. Muscle weakness that accompanies advanced age has been related to the risk of falling and fracture in these older individuals.
The term relative age effect (RAE), also known as birthdate effect or birth date effect, is used to describe a bias, evident in the upper echelons of youth sport and academia, where participation is higher amongst those born earlier in the relevant selection period (and lower for those born later in the selection ...
In early adolescence, levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness have been found to temporarily decrease, with levels of neuroticism increasing, indicating a dip in personality maturation.
As then, a young person goes through puberty, the changes to their body and emotions can cause them to become more self-conscious, more aware of themselves and how they are coming across to others. If they don't feel validated by others, or doubt other's opinions of them, they can develop low self-esteem.
In young adolescence, 12- to 14-year-olds are in the young teenager stage of development. At this age and developmental stage, young teenagers' bodies undergo a lot of changes, including menstruation, painful growth spurts, and an increase in body hair.
One of the first changes you might notice during puberty is that you will get taller. During a 'growth spurt', you may also notice other physical changes, such as: the widening of your hips. weight gain around your thighs.
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