Athletes reported higher scores on a number of SF-36 and PODCI subscales related to mental, emotional, and physical well-being than nonathletes. Our findings suggest that athletic involvement may be a benefit to the overall health status of adolescents and imply that athletes may be a distinct adolescent group requiring their own normative values when using the SF-36 and PODCI.

Background:Sport sampling is recommended to promote fundamental movement skill acquisition and physical activity. In contrast, sport specialization is associated with musculoskeletal injury risk, burnout, and attrition from sport. There is limited evidence to support the influence of sport sampling on neuromuscular control, which is associated with injury risk, in youth athletes.Hypothesis:Athletes who participated in only 1 sport during the previous year would demonstrate higher Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) scores than their counterparts.Study Design:Cross-sectional study.Level of Evidence:Level 3.Methods:A total of 355 youth athletes (age range, 8-14 years) completed a test session with a jump-landing task, which was evaluated using the LESS. Participants were categorized as single sport (SS) or multisport (MS) based on their self-reported sport participation in the past year. Their duration of sport sampling (low, moderate, high) was determined based on their sport participation history. Participants were dichotomized into good (LESS <5) or poor (LESS ≥5) categories. Chi-square tests were performed to evaluate for the association between control category (good, poor) and participation (MS, SS), as well as sport-sampling duration (low, moderate, high).Results:The MS group was 2.5 times (95% CI, 1.9-3.1) as likely to be categorized as having good control compared with the SS group (χ2(355) = 10.10, P < 0.01). Recreational participants in the “high” sport-sampling duration group were 5.8 times (95% CI, 3.1-8.5) and 5.4 times (95% CI, 4.0-6.8) as likely to be categorized as having good control compared with the moderate and low groups (χ2(216) = 11.20, P < 0.01).Conclusion:Sport sampling at a young age is associated with improved neuromuscular control, which may reduce injury risk in youth athletes.Clinical Relevance:Youth athletes should be encouraged to try participating in multiple sports to enhance their neuromuscular control and promote long-term physical activity.

Injury prevention programs may need to be performed constantly, or at least every sport season, in order for participants to maintain the protective effects against injury.

Understanding how neuromuscular factors that are associated with lower extremity injury risk, such as landing kinematics, muscle strength, and flexibility, change as children mature may enhance age-specific recommendations for injury prevention programs. The purpose of this study was to compare these factors in prepubertal, pubertal, and postpubertal male and female athletes. Subjects were classified on maturation stage (prepubertal: 16 males, 15 females, age: 9 ± 1 years; pubertal: 13 males, 12 females, age: 12 ± 3 years; postpubertal: 30 males, 27 females, age: 16 ± 2 years). Researchers measured lower extremity isometric muscle strength and flexibility and evaluated kinematics and vertical ground reaction forces (VGRFs) during a jump-landing task. Three-dimensional kinematics at initial contact (IC), joint displacements, and peak VGRF were calculated. Separate multivariate analyses of variance were performed to evaluate sex and maturation differences (α ≤ 0.05). Postpubertal females landed with less knee flexion at IC (p = 0.006) and demonstrated lower knee extension strength (p = 0.01) than prepubertal and pubertal females. Postpubertal males landed with less hip adduction displacement (postpubertal males = 12.53 ± 6.15°, prepubertal males = 18.84 ± 7.47°; p = 0.04) and less peak VGRF (postpubertal males = 1.53 ± 0.27% body weight [BW], prepubertal males = 1.99 ± 0.32% BW; p = 0.03) compared with prepubertal males. These findings suggest encouraging sagittal plane absorption and decreasing frontal plane motion at the hip, whereas maintaining quadriceps strength may be important for reducing injury risk in postpubertal athletes.

Context: Injury-prevention programs (IPPs) performed as season-long warm-ups improve injury rates, performance outcomes, and jump-landing technique. However, concerns regarding program adoption exist. Identifying the acute benefits of using an IPP compared with other warm-ups may encourage IPP adoption.Objective Intervention(s): Participants were stratified by age, sex, and sport and then were randomized into 1 protocol: IPP, SWU, or DWU. The IPP consisted of dynamic flexibility, strengthening, plyometric, and balance exercises and emphasized proper technique. The SWU consisted of jogging and lower extremity static stretching. The DWU consisted of dynamic lower extremity flexibility exercises. Participants were assessed for landing technique and performance measures immediately before (PRE) and after (POST) completing their warm-ups.Main Outcome Measure(s): One rater graded each jumplanding trial using the Landing Error Scoring System. Participants performed a vertical jump, long jump, shuttle run, and jump-landing task in randomized order. The averages of all jump-landing trials and performance variables were used to calculate 1 composite score for each variable at PRE and POST. Change scores were calculated (POST À PRE) for all measures. Separate 1-way (group) analyses of variance were conducted for each dependent variable (a , .05).Results: No differences were observed among groups for any performance measures (P . .05). The Landing Error Scoring System scores improved after the IPP (change ¼À0.40 6 1.24 errors) compared with the DWU (0.27 6 1.09 errors) and SWU (0.43 6 1.35 errors; P ¼ .04).Conclusions: An IPP did not impair sport performance and may have reduced injury risk, which supports the use of these programs before sport activity.Key Words: injury risk, knee, anterior cruciate ligament Key PointsThe injury-prevention program (IPP) demonstrated acute improvements in jump-landing technique. The IPP did not negatively affect performance variables, indicating that IPPs are as effective as a dynamic warm-up for preparing athletes for competition. The youth athletes could take generalized cues and immediately translate them into a sport-specific movement task, theoretically reducing the risk of lower extremity injury.