Intense Training at a Young age:A Study for Parents and Coaches of Young Female AthletesJessica OrszulakSpring 2005Newsweek Magazine The Issue:In today’s world of competitive sports everyone wants to be the best of the best. This is especially true for individual sports versus team sports. Take gymnastics for example, athlete’s start at very young ages and train intensively for several hours a day. But what kind of effect does this have on future growth and development of these young athletes? many parental figures and coach’s question. Many want to know what age is appropriate to allow growing, maturing children to participate in intense training, and how it may affect their bodies as they do so. Why should one care about this issue you might ask? Being knowledgeable as either the parent, athlete, or coach may possibly havea significant outcome in terms of the athletes’ long-term growth and development. Young female gymnasts have been a particularly large focus of study due to possible side effects such as, loss of menstrual cycles, delayed growth and maturation, catch up growth that they may experience once intense training has subsided or lessened, and possible effects on final adult height. This study will focus on whether or not intense physical training hasan effect on the growth, development and maturation of young elite female gymnasts, if training occurs more than 20 hours a week beginning during childhood and continuing through the athlete’s young adult life?1Background Information:In order to understand studies related to whether or not intense physical training has an effect on the growth and development of children and adolescence you must first have an understanding for normal or average patterns of growth and development. This background information will hopefully better your understanding when results compare delayed growth and development patterns to average ones. In early childhood (3 years to puberty) kids grow at a rate of about 4.5 to 7 cm/year, up until the time just before they begin puberty, when their growth will slow to about 4 cm/year. Growth then accelerates again as they hit their peak growth velocity in puberty, to about 8-9 cm/year for girls and 10.3 cm/year for boys. Growth then slows again in girls to about 7 cm/year after menarche (the first period) until they reach their adult height. Boys and girls usually continue to grow until they are 14-16 years old, but this depends on when they started puberty. Among the influences on a child's growth is their overall genetic potential for growth, which can be determined from their parent’s heights, their nutritional status, and possible environmental factors Bass, S et al. (1998).The most obvious time in which delay in growth and development occur is duringpuberty. Puberty starts with a period of increased height velocity (cm/yr), reaches a peak, and gradually decreases until growth ceases at the end of puberty. For individuals experiencing delayed growth and development these patterns are set back by varying times and are therefore compared to norms to observe how much they differ (this is why a standard deviation score is calculated, to see how much one deviates from the average). Tanner’s stages I-V, (Tanner, JM., et al 1985) are one of the most commonly used sourcesin studies for determining average growth and pubertal development. The first signs of 2pubertal growth start in Stage II. This stage refers to children at the average age of 11.2 years, height velocity is about 7-8 cm/yr, and signs of breast and pubic hair development occur as well. Stage III Occurs at the average age of 12.5 years, height increases at a peakrate of about 8 cm/yr and signs of pubertal development continue. Stage IV occurs at an average age of 13, height velocity is about 7 cm/yr and signs of pubertal development continue. Stage V occurs after the age of 16, there should be no further height increases and individual has completed stages of puberty. Evidence of Unresolved Issue:Different studies encompassing similar research questions, reached differing conclusions as to whether or not intense physical training has an effect on the growth and development of young female gymnasts. Three possible conclusions are: one, that intensephysical training at a young age does delay growth and development, but has no permanent effect on final adult stature; two, intense physical training at a young age does not delay growth and development, and has no effect on final adult stature; and three, intense physical training at a young age does delay growth and development, and as a result effects the individual’s final adult stature. These varying conclusions show that thisparticular issue is unresolved and the evidence for this is more clearly shown in (Table 1.0). Eight studies and two reviews supported one of these three different conclusions. Caine D., 2001, review, and Georgopoulos N., 2002, found there to be a deterioration of growth, however there was no mention of what the long term effects were on adult staturedue to intense training. Georgopoulos N., 1999; Tonz O., 1990 and Theodoropoulou A., 2004 found that there was a delay or alteration in growth and development, but there was 3no permanent disturbance in optimum adult stature. Markou, K., 2001, concluded that gymnasts compensate for their loss of pubertal growth spurt by a late acceleration of linear growth, and genetic predisposition of growth is not only preserved but is exceeded.Baxer-Jones, 2002, review, found that training does not appear to affect growth or maturation, and the differences observed are mainly the results of nature rather than nurture. Similarly, Damsgaard, R., 2000; and Thomis, M., 2005 suggest that pre-pubertal growth is not adversely affected by intense training and that there are other important factors such as nutrition as well as genetic or parental factors in determining the cause(s) of growth delays other studies claim to have found. Theintz GE., 2001 concluded from itsfindings that heavy training starting before puberty and maintained throughout can alter the growth rate to such an extent that full adult height will not be reached. Arguments for delayed growth but no effect on final adult stature:The argument for delayed growth but no effect on final adult stature has the strongest evidence compared to all of the other possible conclusions considered. Therefore, it is the best answer to our question of whether or not intense