Navigating Growth Spurts in Exercise & Sport
Introduction
Exercise is super important at all stages of life. For many, childhood and adolescence are the most active time of our lives. But it is also possible for young people to over-do it. Overuse injuries and burnout are real concerns in youth sport, while periods of rapid growth can further increase injury risk.
During a growth spurt, children aren’t simply stretched proportionately. They change shape. The legs and torso can grow at different rates, body mass changes and coordination can temporarily be affected. At the same time, rapidly growing tissues may be less able to tolerate the same training stresses as before.
Johnson and colleagues (2026) therefore suggest that managing growth should be about adjusting the environment around the child, rather than simply stopping them from exercising.
When do students experience the biggest growth spurt?
The fastest point of growth is called peak height velocity (PHV). This normally happens earlier in girls than boys, but there is huge variation between individuals. Two students in the same year group can be at completely different stages of physical development. Rather than relying purely on age, look for obvious signs of rapid growth and, if practical, periodically track height.
How can schools manage training load during growth spurts?
1. Give specialist athletes more variety
A young student already playing football four times per week probably does not need another football session. School is a great opportunity to give them something different: gymnastics, combat sports, strength training, throwing, jumping, climbing or different games. This helps develop a well-rounded skill set and also manages sport-specific overtraining. Full time sport specialising can come later in their life.
2. Ask what else they are doing
A PE lesson might look completely reasonable in isolation, but it could sit between an academy session, gym session and weekend tournament. Simply asking students what they have trained that week can help teachers understand their total load, not just what happens at school.
3. Change the stress, rather than removing exercise
If a student is sore, growing quickly or suddenly looks less coordinated, they do not necessarily need to stop. You might reduce repeated sprinting, hard jumping or change-of-direction work and replace some of it with strength, balance, coordination or technical work.
4. Avoid sudden spikes
The problem is often not simply how much exercise someone does, but how quickly that amount changes. Extra fixtures, trials, tournaments and extracurricular clubs can all land in the same week. Schools can help by avoiding sudden jumps in volume where possible.
Conclusion
An active adolescent plays a major role in becoming active adults. But that doesn’t mean blindly running children into the ground with sport. Sure, they need to be worked hard, but with consideration for where they are in their development. Treat adjustments as a dial rather than a switch so that they are always developing all of their physical qualities, but to differing levels at different times in their growth.
References
Johnson, D., Eisenmann, J., Lawson, R., Stables, R., Williams, S., Cumming, S. & Lloyd, R. (2026). “My kid is going through a growth spurt — what should I do?” Taking an interdisciplinary approach to athletic development during the adolescent growth spurt. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 48(3). LTAD_Special_Issue_v2
Johnson, D., Williams, S., Bradley, B. & Cumming, S.P. (2023). Can we reduce injury risk during the adolescent growth spurt? An iterative sequence of prevention in male academy footballers. Annals of Human Biology, 50, 452–460.
