Colman Noctor: As GAA and soccer seasons clash, remember kids can exercise too much

One scenario involves a situation where the local GAA and soccer team do not communicate, and training or matches end up on the same dates. This means the child has to choose whether to finish the season with their soccer team and run the risk of getting on the wrong side of their GAA coaches or leaving their soccer teammates, with whom they have played all season, to keep the GAA coaches onside.

This pressure to choose sides creates anxiety for many young children. Some take their sporting commitments seriously and, for an 11-year-old, their local team can be their biggest concern. So putting them in a scenario where they have to choose one over the other is unreasonable and unfair.

The alternative scenario is where the GAA and soccer teams communicate, with coaches attempting to schedule times for both sports to avoid clashes. While this is admirable, it means if a child is playing both codes, it could involve a six-hour commitment every week. This begs two questions: Should a child engage in intense physical activity, and can their developing bodies manage the training load?

Sedentary lifestyle

Despite playing soccer, GAA and rugby for most of the 1980s and ’90s, I never attended physiotherapy as a child, and I have no recollection of my peers ever having done so. Yes, I broke bones and dislocated limbs, but I never pulled a hamstring or groin. However, these types of injuries seem commonplace with children today.

A physiotherapist friend recently told me that at least 35% of his clients are children because they are engaging in periods of intense activity such as scheduled training and matches, but are sedentary the rest of the time. He explained how if a child sits and plays on a gaming console for four hours without moving and then suddenly finds themselves doing sprints and drills, it stands to reason that they might encounter more strain-related injuries. He went on to guess that my 12-year-old son was probably capable of engaging in sprinting drills at training but would be less proficient at operating a yard brush, which turned out to be surprisingly accurate.

This suggests that while children are being encouraged to engage in controlled movements, their natural movements — climbing, jumping, and lifting — are not being developed, hence the risk of injuries. As well as the inherent risk of specialisation injuries if a child has a heavy training load for one sport, there is the risk of burnout for a child who is trying to maintain a high level of commitment to multiple sports.

Children are poor self-regulators in all areas of their lives, and sport or exercise is no different. They tend not to realise how far they can bend until they break. Therefore it is up to the adults to take control of their activity level and regulate it. Unfortunately, the adults do not always consider this and the allure of potential silverware at the end of the under-11s soccer season, or the vital importance of some early pre-season GAA sessions to get a head start on the neighbouring parish, seem to trump the needs of children’s health at times.

It is not only the physical health of children that is of concern here but their mental health too. The stress of trying to keep two or more sets of coaches happy by attending all their scheduled sessions can weigh heavily on the mind of the conscientious child and cause considerable distress.

A clear distinction between the end of one season and the beginning of the other needs to be introduced. And while I appreciate the amount of work that goes into scheduling fixtures by volunteers, they also must be aware of the needs of children and their families.

Too little or too much

According to Healthy Ireland, ( exa.mn/activity-guidelines) school-age children and teenagers should have approximately 60 minutes of activity per day. Understandably, it highlights the minimum level of activity as most of the conversations about children’s activity levels focus on those who need to incorporate more movement into their day to reduce the incidence of childhood obesity and so on. However, we must also be alert to children on the other end of the spectrum who may be at risk of doing too much.

This is not a new concern. DCU professor of clinical exercise physiology Niall Moyna has consistently warned about the increasing number of young people who experience “overtraining syndrome”, which occurs as a result of insufficient recovery time between exercises.

Moyna highlights how, when children are asked to train with multiple teams and play various games — sometimes two games in one day — they often do not have appropriate recovery time, leading to injuries that were “unthinkable 20 years ago”.

Along with being alert to overuse injuries such as tendinitis, parents need to be aware of the signs of emotional exhaustion, including mental fatigue and irritability. These are all warning signs of a child who is overdoing it.

Children should only participate in up to three activities to maintain good mental health. While the parents and the child may be keen to try lots of sports, this is best achieved by only adding an activity when another one is taken out of the mix. In my clinic, I too often see the problems that arise when children take on too much at once.

It is critical to keep an eye on your child during the overlap of seasons, watch for signs that the multiple commitments might be taking their toll on them, and help them manage the physical and mental exertion of trying to keep multiple coaches happy.

Child psychotherapist Dr Colman Noctor