WAG Embarking on a hours jump - stress fracture/apophysitis prevention

[GymCMLA]

There is a group of girls at our gym who will be seeing a significant hours jump when the go back to "school schedule". (16 hours to 25 hours)
The coaches are confident that the girls can handle it. With my mom hat on, I worry about sleep, school and staying healthy. With my medical hat on, I worry about stress fractures and apophysitis risk from the hours jump.

Advice? Experience? Insight?

Coaches, do you consciously alter the training plans to prevent the stress reactions that can come with training jumps?

I'll admit, I am concerned.

 

[GymCMLA]

I should add, mid level optionals ages 10-14 (so lots of open growth plates)

 

[curlygirls]

I can only share my personal experience that I think you are right to be concerned. As a parent, I worried about school, sleep and happiness, but the medical aspect of this was not something that I considered when my 9 yo dd jumped from 12 to 20 hours per week. After battles with traction alopecia and a stress fracture, it's something that's on my mind with any jump in hours. My dd was the only one who jumped hours, so there was no conscious thought on the coach's part about ramping up - she just joined in with the new group. Things seemed fine, but they weren't. I've been very cautious about her recovery and return to practice, and her coaches are now much more aware as well.

 

[Sass&Caffeine]

So, in other words, full time school, the equivalent of a part-time job, and homework on top of that. When do the children sleep, have downtime, spend time with family, and eat?

 

[kecks]

in in most sports the rule is something like "do not add more than 10% of training volume per week". "add more only if athlete is coping well" (in every sense of the word).
volume refers to the miles per week run in track, to the number of jumps done in diving per week or to the number of reps performed in weightlifting and so on. so yes, in my book you should be concerened for your kid's health by making such a big jump. school on top? sure gymnasts seem to be injured a lot and tend to burn out...

 

[MILgymFAM]

That seems like a big jump all at once. I wonder why it isn't more incremental- why they didn't ramp it up over the summer so the girls were adjusted before school starts.

I always try to ease transitions when I can. My DD trains 23 hours in the summer (I *think* it's slightly higher in fall but we don't have a schedule yet) and is starting college courses for fall (9 credits) in addition to her (3) high school classes. We are starting high school a full month after the college goes back so she can ease into school. She also dances. Because we homeschool her there are plenty of hours in the day/week for her to still get lots of sleep, study, and have fun. If she were in public school it would be harder.

We have seen a fair amount of her teammates stressed, tired, and basically burned out by the heavy schedules they carry. I don't have a solution and I don't think you're wrong to worry, but I hope they all adjust seamlessly and the worry was for naught.

 

[GymCMLA]

Thanks for letting me check in to see if I was on track. I reached out and we have a plan for dd that I'm comfy with.

 

[my4buffaloes]

So glad you worked something out! I was going to suggest taking a day off the first couple of weeks as she got used to more.

 

[lindsaygymnast7]

Last summer I transitioned from 9 hours a week to 20 hours a week. I was pretty sore but the coaches were very good about helping me through it.