What Young Athletes Need Besides 10,000 Hours Of Practice

The 10,000 hour theory has become the American dream for developing athletes. Just work hard enough and your gold medal, Hall of Fame, championship ambitions can come true. It is achievable, measurable and finite.

However, many athletes never quite cross the 10,000 hour finish line, and have used the scapegoat reason, “I just didn’t have enough time to commit to the sport.” Now, recent research suggests that while 10,000 hours of deliberate practice may be necessary to achieve world-class status, it may not be the only ingredient to success.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, a research paper by Florida State professor K. Anders Ericsson, The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance, has been cited in the scientific press over one thousand times earning its own HOF credentials.  The gist of it is that Ericsson visited a West Berlin music academy and interviewed violin students and their teachers.  First, he asked the students to estimate the number of structured practice hours they had endured up to age 20.  Then, he asked their teachers to divide the class into good, better and best thirds.  The correlation uncovered showed that the best students had accumulated, on average, over 10,000 hours of practice while the middle group was at about 8,000 hours and the bottom group had not reached 5,000 hours.

After checking this relationship within other groups of skilled experts, Ericsson found similar patterns of 10,000 hours of practice and concluded that innate talent or “what we’re born with” had little to do with becoming an expert in any field, even sports.  With that declaration, the dream (and the practice odometer) was launched.

However, since that landmark 1993 paper, other researchers have been finding exceptions to the rule; some experts were crowned with only 3,000 hours of practice while others still had not reached the mountaintop even though they had doubled the 10,000 hour mark.

David Hambrick, associate professor of psychology at Michigan State, has been searching for the other necessary ingredients for several years.  In 2011, he and his colleague Elizabeth J. Meinz found that deliberate practice among pianists did account for almost half of the variance between experts and novices.  But in their quest to find out what else mattered to make up the other 50% of variance, they found that working memory capacity, the ability to remember a set of objects while engaged in another task, was also a significant determinant of success.

This month, Hambrick and his team released new research that looked at 14 different studies of chess and music students to find other clues to expertise.  Again, they were convinced that deliberate practice alone was not enough.

“The evidence is quite clear,” he writes, “that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice.”

Across those chess and music studies, they found that practice explained about one third of the journey to being world class.  One new factor that did emerge was starting at a young age.  Logically, someone who started training at age 7 versus 12 would have five more years of practice, but Hambrick found that even when total hours of practice were comparable, the student that started at an earlier age became more accomplished.  “This evidence suggests that there may be a critical period for acquiring complex skills just as there may be for acquiring language,” he concluded.

Also, overall intelligence did make a difference, at least for these chess and music students.  Those students with a higher tested IQ, including working memory capacity, were also more likely to end up being experts.

Finally, grit, a determined attitude to succeed, also played a role in creating success.  The term has been made famous by Paul Tough in his book How Children Succeed, based on the research of psychologist Angela Duckworth (see TED talk below).  The desire and passion to get better drives the willingness to spend so many hours practicing a skill.

So, what does all of this mean for the aspiring superstar? That practice, as much as possible, is still a necessary evil to getting better at a sport.  However, it also confirms that different athletes have different qualities and progress through their journey at different paces.  They may need some guidance based on their individual strengths that will help them find the right sport.

“If people are given an accurate assessment of their abilities and the likelihood of achieving certain goals given those abilities,” Hambrick predicted, “they may gravitate toward domains in which they have a realistic chance of becoming an expert through deliberate practice.”

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The Right Amount Of Training Time For Single Sport Kids

Most parents and coaches have heard of the growing problem of overuse injuries in youth sports but few are probably aware of the startling statistics.  In the U.S. alone, high school athletes account for an estimated 2 million sports-related injuries every year, while athletes under the age of 14 suffer 3.5 million sports injuries. 

Unfortunately, the U.S. CDC estimates that almost half of these injuries are preventable and occur because of overuse of the same muscles or bones by kids who are specializing in a single sport.  Now, an update to a long-term research study confirms the need to better monitor the type and amount of training for young athletes.

Dr. Neeru Jayanthi, associate professor and medical director at Loyola University, sees quite a few middle and high school athletes at the Loyola sports medicine clinics in Chicago.  Back in 2010, he designed a long-term research program to monitor the types of athletes and injuries that the clinic was treating.  Since then, Jayanthi and his colleagues have enrolled 1,206 athletes between the ages of 8 and 18 into the study and will be following each one for up to three years.

In an April update, he reported that there had been 859 total injuries, of which 564 were diagnosed as overuse injuries with 139 of those being considered serious that kept the athlete sidelined for one to six months or longer.

Along with their health, the team also kept track of each athletes training schedule as reported by their parents.  Combining this data with the injury report, an eye-catching statistic jumped out at them. Those young athletes who spent more hours per week training or competing than their age, in a single sport, were 70% more likely to pick up a serious overuse injury.  So, for example, if a 14 year old soccer player spent more than 14 hours per week in just soccer, they suffered an injury rate over two thirds higher than those players who practiced less than their age.

"We should be cautious about intense specialization in one sport before and during adolescence,” Jayanthi said. “Among the recommendations we can make, based on our findings, is that young athletes should not spend more hours per week in organized sports than their ages.”

Not only is the amount of hours or practice vital but also the balance between organized, structured training versus just free play like pick-up games.  The latest research showed that if this ratio of structured to unstructured time exceeded 2:1, the injury rate went up significantly.

The medical evidence has become so overwhelming that a group of leading medical authorities, including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the National Athletic Trainers Association, have mounted a campaign called Stop Sports Injuries to make athletes, parents and coaches aware of the dangers of early sport specialization and overtraining (see video below).

“Kids often receive pressure from their parents or coaches to be the best in one given sport, when in reality participating in free play and a multitude of sports from an early age is the best strategy to create an outstanding athlete,” said William Levine, MD, Chair of the STOP Sports Injuries Advisory Committee.

Keeping track of an athlete’s training sessions is critical to prevent crossing the threshold to overuse.  Using an online training diary system is strongly recommended to log not only the hours but also the type of activity, the body’s reaction and recovery and the progress of results over time.  Coaches and clubs can also use the diary system to monitor entire teams and player populations enrolled in long-term athletic development plans.

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Using Training Data For Long Term Player Development

Imagine if you were given the task to find the next John Terry, Andy Murray or Katie Taylor.  You know that they’re out there somewhere kicking a ball, returning a serve or winning a bout among thousands of other kids their age.  While some look like future champions at age 7, it’s unknown what they’ll be like at 17.

Finding a group with some genetic gifts and then developing them through years of physical and mental growth demands access to new tools with one secret ingredient, data.  Just ask Ben Smith and Marco Cardinale.

In a recent interview with the Big Data Insight Group, Ben Smith, Head of Development Performance Systems for Chelsea Football Club, commented, “The professionalisation of sport has been dramatic over recent years and it’s only going to continue. There’s a huge amount of money and drive within the industry today; the rewards are massive for those getting things right and they’re substantial for getting it wrong – data analytics helps us ensure we do the former and avoid the latter.”
In this talent identification and development process, breaking down the data on hundreds of prospective youth players falls into two categories, quantitative and qualitative.  The quant side measures and tracks objective data points from devices worn by the player or observed metrics like timed drills and strength workouts.  Just as important, the qualitative data tracks the subjective opinions and observations of the player and coaches related to the perceived progress of their daily training.

Collecting gigabytes of data is only step one.  Without a way to summarize and visualize the data in a format that is easy for coaches and players to understand, the effort is wasted.  “Numbers are really, really dry and people from a coaching background, even the modern coaches, are not often data driven,” according to Smith. “If you can present the numbers in a way that means they quickly understand its direct relevance to the things they’re trying to achieve then they will appreciate the significance of what it’s telling them.”

While managing athlete development data for one sport is difficult, coordinating progress across multiple sports introduces an even greater challenge.  That job falls to Dr. Marco Cardinale, Head of Sports Science and Research of the British Olympic Association.  He recently described to the MIT-Sloan Management Review some of the complexity and hurdles Team Great Britain has to overcome to keep each sport’s program moving forward.

“The biggest problem we have in sport is the difficulty in collecting data,” said Cardinale. “The real analytics we are interested in is the ability to understand what athletes do on a daily basis to be able to affect their training programs, and that’s where the difficulties occur. It’s very sport specific.”

Like the Chelsea staff, Cardinale understands the need for athletes and coaches to track the ebb and flow of daily training.  “In my view, the coach and the athlete are the main unit able to deliver success,” he commented. “I think the biggest edge will be if they understand themselves better. In too many sports, athletes train either too much or not too much, and it’s because they have to gauge what they do on a daily basis against their feelings or what the coach sees. I think if they have more data about themselves, they can have an edge because they can be smarter in the way they train.”

Improving performance with data analytics is not a quick-fix solution. Identifying patterns and trends related to training requires multiple data points over an extended period and a commitment to its long-term use. As Cardinale concludes, “It’s a long journey, which means a club or an institution really need to invest in a project for at least a good three to four years. The power of data resides in good longitudinal information rather than snapshots.”

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Coaches Should Reward The Effort More Than The Skill

As parents and coaches of youth athletes, we walk a fine line in our communications with our emerging superstars about their abilities.  What may sound like a great pat on the back, (“that was amazing how you just knew to make that pass – you’ve really got a knack for this sport”), may actually limit their future development and motivation, according to two development psychologists.

It all goes back to the fundamental debate in talent development of any kind.  Are we born with certain skills and expertise or do we develop it with years of structured practice?  Researchers have argued along the entire spectrum of this question while practitioners have settled somewhere in the middle.  Even if kids start with some genetic advantages, they still need plenty of practice time to achieve greatness.

Committing to those years of training requires the right mindset and belief that those hours on the field or court will actually help.  The best teachers have learned this in the classroom by convincing students that they are in control of their development rather than being labeled “smart” or “not smart.”

Jim Stigler, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, saw this first hand years ago when visiting classrooms in Japan.  In a recent NPR Morning Edition segment, he told the story of observing a fourth grade math class and one student’s breakthrough.  The teacher asked one student who had been struggling to draw a three-dimensional cube to go to the chalkboard, in front of the whole class, and give it a try.

After a few minutes of failure in front of his peers, Stigler waited for the poor student to break down.  ”I realized that I was sitting there starting to perspire,” Stigler remembered, “because I was really empathizing with this kid. I thought, ‘This kid is going to break into tears!’ ”

However, with his classmates encouragement, he finally got it right and was rewarded with applause and a real sense of accomplishment when he returned to his seat.

Now, as a researcher in learning theory, Stigler draws comparisons between this style of learning and what is seen in most American classrooms. “I think that from very early ages we [in America] see struggle as an indicator that you’re just not very smart,” Stigler said. “It’s a sign of low ability — people who are smart don’t struggle, they just naturally get it, that’s our folk theory. Whereas in Asian cultures they tend to see struggle more as an opportunity.”

Our youth sports culture is similar to the classroom.  Kids who are divided into “A” or “B” teams at an early age are taught that their development path is set; the skills they have now are the same skills they will have in the future.  It becomes a self-fulfilling cycle as the “A” teams get better coaching, play in the better leagues against better competition and the talent gap widens.

Often, parents can also, unknowingly, contribute to this cycle.  As in school, when a child is told that his or her success is due to his brain not his effort, the perception begins that when they do eventually struggle with a math test or a tougher opponent, there is little they can do to improve.

Jin Li, a psychology professor at Brown University, has also been studying cultural differences in learning and teaching.  One of her research projects recorded conversations between parents and children to hear the language used.  There were subtle differences between American and Asian parents when complimenting their kids.  While the Americans praised with phrases like, “you’re so smart”, Asian parents focused on the struggle, “you’ve worked so hard on learning that and now you did it.”

“So the focus is on the process of persisting through it despite the challenges, not giving up, and that’s what leads to success,” Li said in the same NPR interview.

Every young athlete will face challenges as they move up the ladder from youth clubs to high school to college.  Instilling them with the belief that they can improve through hard work will keep them motivated to get to the other side of the wall.  Their support team of parents and coaches can help this process by rewarding the learning process.

“Think about that [kind of behavior] spread over a lifetime,” Stigler concluded. “That’s a big difference.”

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Coaches Can Be Moral Role Models

Highly publicized ethical lapses by sports celebrities have raised questions about morality in athletics. If coaches help their athletes achieve peak physical performance, can they also teach their sports charges to make ethical choices?

New research from Concordia University has examined how coaches exert moral influence over athletes and how athletes respond. The study garnered data from 17 elite coaches who had once been athletes themselves.

The investigation found compelling evidence that coaches can provide important moral guidance for their athletic charges. "Coaches have a unique relationship with their athletes," says Sandra Peláez, who completed the study as part of her PhD thesis at Concordia's School of Graduate Studies and Department of Exercise Science.

"Coaches are mentors, parent figures, career enablers, and judges -- all at the same time," continues Peláez. "Every coach, however, doesn't influence every athlete he or she works with. The coach-athlete relationship is what enables a coach's influence and therefore determines how much influence a coach has. We found athletes would evaluate the relationship with their coaches and then decide whether to accept moral guidance or not."

Be good or be benched
Like most people, the study found athletes receive early moral direction from their parents. Yet as athletes become more engaged in sport, coaches become their most important source of moral guidance. This may be because athletes admire and trust their coaches. It may also be because coaches have significant power to enforce their standards, if only by "benching" players who do not adhere to rules.

While study participants agreed that moral influence was an important aspect of coach-athlete relationships, they found morality hard to define. In the course of the study, four core moral values emerged. These were "elite sports involvement" (e.g. discipline), "interaction with others" (e.g. respect), "self-related" (e.g. enjoying the sport) and "game" (e.g. striving to win).

Coaches' cultural backgrounds also influenced their definitions of morality. "Cultural differences are crucial -- and this study is the first to draw attention to this important point," says Peláez. "Things that are accepted in one culture are not accepted in others. For example, in some Eastern European countries, you are either training or you are in the hospital. If you skip practice, you will be punished because it's your moral obligation to be there. It's part of your commitment to your country, your teammates and your coach."

Moral concepts inherited
The study also broke new ground by showing that coaches inherit their moral values from their own coaches. Participants discussed moral issues using what their own coaches did as their frame of reference. Whether they copied these practices or criticized them, their understanding of morality was based on what they learned from their coaches when they were athletes.

"Getting coaches to articulate how they see their role -- how they feel they can influence the process -- is important," says Simon Bacon, a professor in Concordia's Department of Exercise Science and Sandra Peláez's thesis supervisor.

"Our study results will help us develop materials to increase moral behaviours in sports settings," he continues. "Many children participate in organised sport and spend considerable time with coaches. Understanding how coaches influence moral development and ultimately build character is important to society, as it offers another way to teach moral values."

Source: Concordia University

See also: Youth Sports Coaches Should Prioritize Teaching Over Winning and For Exercise, Kids Do As Parents Say Not As They Do

Youth Baseball Pitchers Need To Stay Under 100 Innings Per Year

For years, sports medicine professionals have talked about youth pitching injuries and the stress the motion causes on developing bones and muscles. In a new, 10-year study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers showed that participants who pitched more than 100 innings in a year were 3.5 times more likely to be injured.

"The study proved a direct link between innings pitched in youth and adolescent baseball and serious pitching injuries. It highlights the need for parents and coaches to monitor the amount of pitching for the long-term success and health of these young athletes. We need to all work together to end the epidemic of youth sports injuries, and education through campaigns like STOP Sports Injuries is in excellent first step," said lead researcher, Glenn S. Fleisig, PhD, of the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama.

The study followed 481 pitchers for 10-years (1999-2008). All were healthy, active youth (aged 9 to 14 years) baseball pitchers at the beginning of the study. Every year each participant was asked whether he played baseball in the previous 12 months and if so what positions, how many innings pitched, what types of pitches he threw, for what teams (spring, summer, fall, winter), and if he participated in baseball showcases. Each player was also asked every year if he had an elbow or shoulder injury that led to surgery or retirement from baseball.

During the 10-year span, five percent of the pitchers suffered a serious injury resulting in surgery or retirement. Two of the boys in the study had surgery before their 13th birthday. Only 2.2 percent were still pitching by the 10th year of the study.

"It is a tough balancing act for adults to give their young athletes as much opportunity as possible to develop skills and strength without exposing them to increased risk of overuse injury. Based on this study, we recommend that pitchers in high school and younger pitch no more than 100 innings in competition in any calendar year. Some pitchers need to be limited even more, as no pitcher should continue to pitch when fatigued," said Fleisig.

The study also looked at the trend of playing pitcher and catcher in the same game, which did appear to double or triple a player's risk of injury but the trend was not statistically significant. The study also could not determine if starting curveballs before age 13 increases the risk of injury.


Source:  American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine and K. E. Wilk, L. C. Macrina, G. S. Fleisig, R. Porterfield, C. D. Simpson, P. Harker, N. Paparesta, J. R. Andrews. Correlation of Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Deficit and Total Rotational Motion to Shoulder Injuries in Professional Baseball Pitchers. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2010; DOI: 10.1177/0363546510384223

See also: Do Young Athletes Need Practice Or Genetics? A Conversation With Peter Vint and  Breaking Curveballs And Rising Fastballs Are Optical Illusions

Do Young Athletes Need Practice Or Genetics? A Conversation With Peter Vint

Recently, while I was taking up my normal Saturday position on a youth soccer game sideline, I overheard a conversation between two parents as they watched the players warm-up. “I just love watching James play soccer.  He’s just one of those natural talents.” “I agree. Even though his parents never played growing up, he just seems to have inherited all the right genes to be a top player.” 

It’s a common belief among parents and some coaches that kids either have “it” or they don’t.  Of course, some skills can be gained from practice, but the talent theory of player development and team selection seems to favor the opinion that athletic skill is “hard-wired”, unable to progress much beyond the natural limit.

Now, several books are out to prove this theory incorrect, with titles such as “The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born, Its Grown”, “Talent Is Overrated”, and “The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong.” The common thread through all of the research studies quoted by the authors is the mantra that practice makes perfect. More specifically, about 10,000 hours of highly structured practice is required to reach elite performance levels.

Is athletic success that black or white? Instead, is there a combination of talent and tenacity that is required to reach the top? I put these questions to an expert who spends most of his waking hours trying to find the answer.

Peter Vint

Peter Vint is the High Performance Director for the United States Olympic Committee. His responsibilities include leading and coordinating the efforts of sport science and medical professionals focused on the Olympic sports of swimming, track and field, shooting, equestrian, weightlifting, and golf as well as the Pan Am sports of bowling and water skiing.

His team is responsible for conceptualizing, developing, and implementing successful and sustainable applied sport science programs with a focus on maximizing athlete development, performance, and longevity.

Recently, Peter was kind enough to endure my endless questions on this topic. Here is a synopsis of our conversation:

Dan Peterson: Peter, what makes a great athlete? Is it raw, inherited talent or years of dedicated practice?

Peter Vint: The question of what makes an athlete great is very complex.  The extent to which performance is influenced by genetic predisposition or the expression of these traits through extensive hard work and practice is not at all a black and white issue. Human performance is always nuanced and complicated and multivariate. That said, if forced to give an opinion, I would absolutely fall on the nurture/deliberate practice side of this issue than on the nature/"giftedness" side.

But, whether you subscribe to the narratives in The Talent Code, Talent is Overrated, Bounce, Outliers, Genius in All of Us, etc. or not, a great number of the cited references in these books are solid and substantial. Be sure to review the footnotes and bibliographies.

DP:  Most of the books you reference go back to the research of K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University, known as the “expert on experts.”  His theory states that an individual needs at least 10 years and 10,000 hours of deliberate practice in their chosen sport or skill to become world-class.  Some authors take this literally and suggest that is all that is needed.  Do you agree?

PV:  First, it’s important to recognize that the 10 year/10,000 hr rule is more of a general guideline than an absolute standard. Ericsson is very clear on this but perhaps owing to the simplicity of the message, it is quite possible that the general public has interpreted this in a more absolute sense. That said, I do think that Ericsson’s work is being somewhat oversimplified in that he, and others in this field, realize that there are obvious and necessary interactions between genetic predisposition, "deliberate practice", and even "opportunity" or circumstance. To what extent this has actually happened I cannot say. I can point to several examples in the popular media where authors have captured these complexities nicely (e.g., Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, Matthew Syed’s Bounce, and David Shenk’s The Genius in All of Us).

It is likely that athletes like Lebron James, Shaquille O'Neill, and Kevin Durant would never have become an Olympic gymnast or Triple Crown winning jockey - regardless of how hard or how deeply they practiced. But, how many athletes with a relatively similar genetic makeup to guys like Lebron, Shaq, and KD have NOT become superstars? A lot. And, to flip the coin, how many superstars arise from relative obscurity or against all odds? A lot. Even when we do become aware of "young geniuses", closer inspection often yields interested and engaged and supportive parents and an environment that encourages and supports "effort" - and not "the gift" (see Carol Dweck’s “Mindset” for an exceptional treatment of this topic). Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and Tiger Woods come to mind.

My feeling in reading a broad body of literature related to human performance is that, in general (and there are notable exceptions to this), there is likely a minimal set of physical traits or genetic makeup which facilitates achievement to a particular level of success. Note that this may not be an absolute necessity (think, Mugsy Bogues). However, I believe the great differentiator in human performance is not genetic predisposition. but rather the expression of the gene pool which is itself now clearly related to the extent to which the individual accumulates hours of "deliberate practice".

I see another common misinterpretation in the 10 year/10,000 hr rule. The literature is clear in this but the general public’s understanding often misses the distinction in that this is not simply accumulated hours of practice, but accumulated hours of DELIBERATE practice. Dan Coyle's introduction in "The Talent Code", "The girl who did a month's practice in 6-minutes" is, in my opinion, perhaps the most insightful example of this distinction I’ve ever read.

DP: So, do genetics play any role in sports success?

PV: My short answer is yes, to varying extents, they do. But, as before, I do not believe that genetics are necessarily an absolute limiter of exceptional performances. "Skill" is developed, not from basic physical or cognitive attributes or from some magical quality ("a gift"), but from sustained, effortful, and effective practice complemented with meaningful, well-timed, and actionable feedback.

Skill itself is a complex process and almost always involves many different types or classes of skill: motor skill (the physical actions involved with "doing something"), mental skills, and perceptual skills. The extent to which these various types of skills are called into play will depend on the overall task being executed.

For example, a pilot controlling an automated aircraft may need only nominal motor skill to press a button, but will require substantial mental and perceptual skill to understand what happens when the automation switches from one mode to another. On the other hand, a basketball player will require extensive motor skill in executing a drive to the basket but will, though to a lesser extent, also involve perceptual and mental skills. Good examples of the world's best players in sport (especially team sports) seem to have exceptionally well developed perceptual skills which allow them to "see the field" better than others and "know where players will be before they even arrive".

So, physical ability (height, strength, speed, coordination) and the specific genetic code which tends to manifest it, may or may not play a significant role in the execution of the skill, depending on what the skill actually requires. The same is true of genetic predisposition, which may either enhance or impair the development of mental and perceptual skill.

In the context of sport, well-matched physical abilities are often very advantageous. That said, those same physical attributes, without an ability to properly coordinate body actions or to properly execute the action at the appropriate time or to adequately control them under pressure or in unusual circumstances, more often than not, will lead to poorer performances. Pointing again to examples like Wayne Gretzky or Magic Johnson, these were not the biggest, fastest, or strongest athletes in their sport. Their exceptional performances came from exceptional development of all facets of the skills they were required to execute in the environments they worked in. This did not happen magically but through hard work, vast and varied experiences, and a level of physical ability that allowed them to execute.  To quote Wayne Gretzky, “I wasn't naturally gifted in terms of size and speed; everything I did in hockey I worked for. ..The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day…”

DP:  Peter, thank you very much for your insight.

See also: Brains Over Brawn In Sports and Winning Olympic Gold With Sport Science

Youth Sports Concussions Double In Last Ten Years

A new study from Hasbro Children's Hospital finds visits to emergency departments for concussions that occurred during organized team sports have increased dramatically over a 10-year period, and appear to be highest in ice hockey and football. The number of sports-related concussions is highest in high school-aged athletes, but the number in younger athletes is significant and rising. The study is published in the September 2010 issue of Pediatrics and is now available online ahead of print.

In a review of national databases of emergency department (ED) visits, there were 502,000 visits to EDs for concussions in children aged 8 to 19 years in the period from 2001 through 2005; of those 65 percent were in the 14- to 19-year old age group while 35 percent were in the 8- to 13-year-old age group. Approximately half of all the ED visits for concussions were sports-related, and an estimated 95,000 of those visits were for concussions that occurred from one of the top five organized team sports: football, basketball, baseball, soccer and ice hockey.

The researchers also note that in the period from 2001 through 2005, approximately four in 1,000 children aged 8 to 13 and six in 1,000 aged 14 to 19 had an ED visit for a sport-related concussion.
Lisa Bakhos, MD, is a recently graduated fellow who was practicing at Hasbro Children's Hospital at the time she led the study. Bakhos says, "Our data show that older children have an overall greater estimated number of ED visits for sport-related concussion compared to younger children. Younger children, however, represent a considerable portion of sport-related concussions, approximately 40 percent."

The researchers found that ED visits for organized team sport-related concussions doubled over the time period depicted and increased by over 200 percent in the 14- to 19-year old age group, while overall participation decreased by 13 percent in the same time period. Bakhos comments, "What was striking in our study is that the number of sport-related concussions has increased significantly over a 10-year period despite an overall decline in participation. Experts have hypothesized that this may be due to an increasing number of available sports activities, increasing competitiveness in youth sports, and increasing intensity of practice and play times. However, the increasing numbers may also be secondary to increased awareness and reporting."

James Linakis, MD, PhD, is a pediatric emergency medicine physician with Hasbro Children's Hospital and its Injury Prevention Center and is the senior author on the paper. He comments, "Our assessment highlights the need for further research and injury prevention strategies into sport-related concussion. This is especially true for the young athlete, with prevailing expert opinion suggesting that concussion in this age group can produce more severe neurologic after-effects, such as prolonged cognitive disturbances, disturbed skill acquisition, and other long-term effects."

Despite the apparent increase in concussions in youth athletes, there are no comprehensive return-to-play guidelines for young athletes. The researchers also note that there are no evidence-based management guidelines for the treatment of these injuries, while there is agreement that young children cannot be managed in the same way as older adolescents.

Linakis, who is also a physician with University Emergency Medicine Foundation and an associate professor at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, says, "Children need not only physical, but cognitive rest, and a slow-graded return to play and school after such injuries. As a result of this study, it is clear that we need more conservative guidelines for the management of younger children who suffer concussions." Return-to-play assessments might include such strategies as neuropsychological testing, functional MRI, visual tracking technology and balance dysfunction tracking.

Bakhos concludes, "What this research tells us is that we need additional studies to provide guidance in management, prevention strategies and education for practitioners, coaches and athletes."


Source: Lifespan and Bakhos, Linakis, Lockhart, Myers, Linakis. Emergency Department Visits for Concussion in Young Child Athletes. Pediatrics, 8/30/2010 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2009-3101

See also: Body Checking Not The Main Cause Of Youth Hockey Injuries and Science Fair Project Leads To New Sports Concussion Test

Sports Energy Drinks Actually Help Kids

Consuming energy drinks during team sports could help young people perform better, a study suggests.  Sports scientists found that 12-14 year olds can play for longer in team games when they drink an isotonic sports drink before and during games.  Researchers at the University of Edinburgh measured the performance of 15 adolescents during exercise designed to simulate the physical demands of team games such as football, rugby and hockey.

They showed for the first time that sports drinks helped the young people continue high intensity, stop-start activity for up to 24 per cent longer -- compared with players who drank a non-carbohydrate placebo solution.

The study was conducted because there is increasing evidence of young people consuming commercially available energy drinks during team games and researchers wanted to assess their impact. The findings are published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

The findings showed that drinking a 6 per cent carbohydrate-electrolyte solution improved endurance capacity but did not make young people run faster during intermittent exercise in team sports.  The solution -- containing carbohydrate, sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium -- enhances hydration, helps prevent dehydration and provides a supply of energy to the body, thereby contributing to improved endurance capacity.

The researchers say the findings help to identify the importance of regular hydration and energy intake with a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution during games to replace fluids and provide energy in adolescent games players.

Dr John Sproule, Head of the Institute of Sport, Physical Education and Health Sciences of the University of Edinburgh's Moray House School of Education who led the research, said: "The importance of hydration to improve performance during exercise for adults is well known. This research helps us further understand how adolescents respond to hydration and energy supply during exercise.  The consumption of a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution was found to significantly enhance endurance capacity during simulated games play, and this could contribute to improved performance in adolescents."

Researchers say that this is the first study to explore the effect of a 6 per cent carbohydrate-electrolyte solution, similar to the make-up of an isotonic sports drink, on the performance of young people in team games.

Source: University of Edinburgh

See also: How Should Cheating Be Defined In Sports? and Starbucks' Secret Sports Supplement

Body Checking Not The Main Cause Of Youth Hockey Injuries

Hockey fans likely would assume that body-checking -- intentionally slamming an opponent against the boards -- causes the most injuries in youth ice hockey. But they would be wrong.  Findings from a new study, the largest and most comprehensive analysis to date of young hockey players, show that 66 percent of overall injuries were caused by accidentally hitting the boards or goal posts, colliding with teammates or being hit by a puck.

Only 34 percent of the injuries were caused by checking. Moreover, the accidental injuries were more severe than those from body checks.

These results, which appeared in June issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, were a surprise to many, including the researchers at the University at Buffalo who conducted the five-year study.

"There is an image of body checking as a form of violence that is condoned by the game of hockey," says Barry Willer, PhD, UB professor of psychiatry and rehabilitation sciences and senior author on the study.  "However, this study found that body checking did not account for a large proportion of injuries. Perhaps as important, body checking did not lead to a rise in intentional injuries."


The youth ice hockey program in Burlington, Ontario, Canada was the base of the study. The researchers compared injury rates overall for the three levels of competition: "house leagues," where there is no body checking; "select," in which checking is allowed at age 11 and older; and "representative," for the most skilled players, which allows checking in all divisions at age nine and above.
 
They also examined injury rates as level of competition and players' age increased, and how injury rates varied in games versus practices. The data covered 3,000 boys ages four to 18 for a total of 13,292 player years. Only injuries that kept a player off the ice for at least 24 hours were included.
Their analysis of the data shows that there were three times more accidental injuries than body-checking injuries in the house leagues -- 92 versus 30. Willer says accidents at this level of competition primarily are caused by players watching the puck instead of what's in front of them, of not playing "heads-up," which coaches try to instill at all levels.

The "select" level tallied the least injuries (28) with more than half intentional, as players first experience checking. In the most experienced league, however, 59 percent of the 96 injuries were unintentional, but the number of intentional injuries (39) was the highest of all the categories, as competition level increases.

As the researchers predicted, as the level of competition and players' age increases, so did injuries. "Game injuries were much more frequent among the highly skilled players on rep teams," says Willer. Rates during practice were low across all age groups and divisions.  Willer notes that this study doesn't answer two important questions: at what age should body checking be allowed in youth hockey, or should it be allowed at all?

"The study does suggest," says Willer, "that, regardless of whether young players are allowed to body check, unintentional contact with the board, the ice or other players are important sources of serious unintended injury. To avoid these accidents, hockey coaches must teach players to keep their heads up, rather than looking down at the puck."

Sources: University at Buffalo and Darling et al. Intentional versus unintentional contact as a mechanism of injury in youth ice hockey. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2010

See also: Science Fair Project Leads To New Sports Concussion Test and Lifting The Fog Of Sports Concussions

Youth Sports Coaches Should Prioritize Teaching Over Winning

Young athletes' achievement goals can change in a healthy way over the course of a season when their coaches create a mastery motivational climate rather than an ego orientation, University of Washington sport psychologists have found. A mastery climate stresses positive communication between coaches and athletes, teamwork and doing one's best. An ego climate, typified by many professional sports coaches, focuses on winning at all costs and being better than others.

"Much of life is affected by motivation and achievement," said Ronald Smith, a UW psychology professor and lead author of a new study. "Our study looked at children 9 to 13 years of age and there was no difference by age or sex. And it was also significant because it shows the influence of a mastery climate on children's achievement goals in a relatively short time, 12 weeks."

For several decades psychologists have believed that children under the age of 11 or 12 could not distinguish between effort and ability. That still may be true when it comes to academics, but the new research indicates that children as young as 9 can tell the difference between the two while participating in sports.
Frank Smoll, another UW psychology professor and co-author of the paper, said the research shows the importance of youth sport coaches at an earlier age than previously thought.  The study was recently published in the journal Motivation and Emotion.

"A coach can be the first non-parental figure who is a youngster's hero. People who volunteer to coach year after year don't affect just a few kids. They can be influencing thousands at very early ages," he said.

The study involved 243 children -- 145 boys and 98 girls -- playing basketball in two separate Seattle leagues. The athletes ranged in age from 9 to 13 and 80 percent were white. They were given questionnaires to fill out twice, once prior to the beginning of the season and again 12 weeks later when the season was almost over.

A previously published paper by the researchers from the same project showed that young athletes who played for coaches who were taught how to create a mastery climate reported lower levels of sport anxiety compared to youngsters who played for coaches who were not trained. The research also was the first to show that a coaching intervention is as effective with girls as it is with boys.

The new study found that athletes who played for coaches who used a mastery climate showed such things as greater enjoyment of basketball over the course of the season. In addition, levels of ego orientation dropped. The opposite was true for athletes playing for coaches relying on an ego-oriented style of leadership. These finding held for athletes across all ages.

"One consistent finding of our research is that a mastery climate retains more youngsters in sports. It keeps them coming back," said Smith. "Retention is a huge problem in some youth sports programs. An important reason to keep kids involved in sports is that it reduces obesity by helping them be more active."

Source: University of Washington

See also: Teaching Tactics and Techniques In Sports and Sideline Raging Soccer Moms (and Dads!) 

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Little League Arm Injuries Jump Up

Throwing arm injuries are on the rise in Little League and other youth baseball programs. After these injuries occur, many players are out for the season; others require surgery and must refrain from play for an even longer duration; still others sustain injuries so severe that they cause permanent damage and are unable to continue playing baseball.

Three new studies presented at the at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) address this critical issue, each offering new solutions to help prevent these injuries.

Pitchers and catchers under the age of 15 often experience tightness of a shoulder ligament known as the posterior-inferior glenohumeral ligament. If this ligament is not stretched, it will become increasingly tighter and more prone to pain or injury as the player ages, if that player continues to play baseball.

A study of 1,267 youth baseball players, led by Charles Metzger, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in upper extremities in Houston, Texas, found that a simple stretch known as the posterior capsular stretch can help.



"A posterior capsular stretch is done after play and since it is different from the general stretches players already know, it must be taught," says Dr. Metzger. "Once learned, however, it is very simple, and takes only five minutes to complete. Nearly 97 percent of young players who performed the stretch properly and consistently reported shoulder improvement."

Dr. Metzger supports Safe Throw, an injury-prevention and rapid return-to-play program. Instructions and diagrams showing how to perform the posterior capsular stretch can be found on www.safethrow.com.


The elbow is the most frequently reported area of overuse injury in child and adolescent baseball players. One type of overuse includes osteochondral lesions, which are tears or fractures in the cartilage and underlying bone, covering the elbow joint.

In a study led by Tetsuya Matsuura, MD, Department of Orthopedics, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, Institute of Health Bioscience in Tokushima, Japan, 152 baseball players were observed (ranging in age from 8 to12) for one season to study the injury incidence in relation to their playing positions. These players had no history of problematic elbow pain.

The results were as follows:

* 38 players, or 25 percent complained of elbow pain
* 26 (68.4 percent) had limitations of range of motion and/or tenderness on the elbow, and/or valgus stress pain (a stressful force placed upon the ligaments on the inner side of the elbow joint); and
* 22 (84.6 percent) had osteochondral lesions including:

• 12 pitchers (54.6 percent)
• 6 catchers (27.3 percent)
• 3 infielders (13.6 percent)
• 1 outfielder (4.5 percent).

Dr. Matsuura concluded, "Twenty-five percent of child and adolescent baseball players have elbow pain and nearly 15 percent sustain osteochodral lesions per year and pitchers have the highest rate of osteochondral lesions. If overuse injuries such as osteochrondral lesions occur, prompt diagnosis and treatment can prevent this injury from causing long-term damage. Better awareness and education among parents, players and especially coaches about risk factors can help prevent these injuries."

Reviewing -- and adhering to -- youth baseball throwing guidelines can help prevent injury

In another presentation, led by George A. Paletta, Jr., MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Orthopedic Center of St. Louis and Medical Director/Head Team Physician of the St. Louis Cardinals, discussed the increase in elbow injuries of young baseball players, including the increasing number of ligament reconstruction or "Tommy John" procedures performed.

Despite these increases, Dr. Paletta says there are identifiable -- and controllable -- risk factors of which young athletes, parents and coaches should be aware, to help reduce injury.

"A young athlete should never throw through pain or continue to pitch when he or she is obviously fatigued," says Dr. Paletta. "Additionally, parents should familiarize themselves with the recommended single game, weekly and season total pitch counts, suggested recovery times, and recommended ages for learning various pitches."

Dr. Paletta stresses that there must be a greater focus on education and research in this area, or more young baseball players will sustain serious injury.

Source: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

See also: Kids' Baseball Injuries Down But Some Still Play "Until It Hurts" and Baseball Brains - Pitching Into The World Series

Month Of Birth Determines Success In Sports

The month of your birth influences your chances of becoming a professional sportsperson, an Australian researcher has found.  Senior research fellow Dr. Adrian Barnett from Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation studies the seasonal patterns of population health and found the month you were born in could influence your future health and fitness.

The results of the study are published in the book Analysing Seasonal Health Data, by Barnett, co-authored by researcher Professor Annette Dobson from the University of Queensland.
Barnett analysed the birthdays of professional Australian Football League (AFL) players and found a disproportionate number had their birthdays in the early months of the year, while many fewer were born in the later months, especially December.

The Australian school year begins in January. "Children who are taller have an obvious advantage when playing the football code of AFL," Dr. Barnett said. "If you were born in January, you have almost 12 months' growth ahead of your classmates born late in the year, so whether you were born on December 31st or January 1st could have a huge effect on your life."

Dr. Barnett found there were 33 percent more professional AFL players than expected with birthdays in January and 25 percent fewer in December. He said the results mirrored other international studies which found a link between being born near the start of school year and the chances of becoming a professional player in the sports of ice hockey, football, volleyball and basketball.

"Research in the UK shows those born at the start of the school year also do better academically and have more confidence," he said. "And with physical activity being so important, it could also mean smaller children get disheartened and play less sport. If smaller children are missing out on sporting activity then this has potentially serious consequences for their health in adulthood."

Dr. Barnett said this seasonal pattern could also result in wasted talent, with potential sports stars not being identified because they were competing against children who were much more physically advanced than them. He said a possible solution was for one of the sporting codes in Australia to change the team entry date from January 1st to July 1st.


Source: Springer and Analysing Seasonal Health Data.

For Exercise, Kids Do As Parents Say Not As They Do

According to a new study, there is no direct link between parents' own level of physical activity, and how much their child may exercise. In fact, parents' perceptions of their children's athleticism are what have a direct impact on the children's activity.

The study by Oregon State University researchers Stewart Trost and Paul Loprinzi, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, studied 268 children ages 2 to 5 in early childhood education centers in Queensland, Australia. Of these children, 156 parents or caregivers were surveyed on their parental practices, behaviors related to physical activity and demographic information.

What they found is that parents' level of physical activity is not directly associated with their children, but instead that the direct link was between parental support and a child's level of physical activity.

"Active parents may be more likely to have active children because they encourage that behavior through the use of support systems and opportunities for physical activity, but there is no statistical evidence that a child is active simply because they see that their parents exercise," Trost said.

Trost, who is director of the Obesity Prevention Research Core at the new Hallie Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families at OSU, is an international expert on the issue of childhood obesity.

His study found that parents who think their children have some sort of athletic ability were much more likely than other parents to provide instrumental and emotional support for young children to be physically active.

"I think this underscores the need for parents to provide emotional support, as well as opportunities for activity," Trost said. "Regardless of whether a child is athletic or is perceived to be physically gifted, all children need opportunities and encouragement of physical activity."

However, Trost said parental support of physical activity did not translate to a child's behavior once they were not in the home and were in a childcare setting. He said this adds to the body of research showing that both parents as well as childcare providers must provide support for physical activity.

Sources:  Oregon State University and Parental influences on physical activity behavior in preschool children, Preventive Medicine

Kids' Baseball Injuries Down But Some Still Play "Until It Hurts"

At a recent baseball game, the 12-year-old second baseman on my son's team had a ground ball take a nasty hop, hitting him just next to his right eye. He was down on the field for several minutes and was later diagnosed at the hospital with a concussion.

Thankfully, acute baseball injuries like this are on the decline, according to a new report. However, several leading physicians say overuse injuries of young players caused by too much baseball show no signs of slowing down.

Our unlucky infielder's hospital injury report may become part of a national database called the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), part of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It monitors 98 hospitals across the country for reports on all types of injuries.

Bradley Lawson, Dawn Comstock and Gary Smith of Ohio State University filtered this data to find just baseball-related injuries to kids under 18 from 1994-2006.

During that period, they found that more than 1.5 million young players were treated in hospital emergency rooms, with the most common injury being, you guessed it, being hit by the ball, and typically in the face.

The good news is that the annual number of baseball injuries has decreased by 24.9 percent over those 13 years. The researchers credit the decline to the increased use of protective equipment.

"Safety equipment such as age-appropriate breakaway bases, helmets with properly-fitted face shields, mouth guards and reduced-impact safety baseballs have all been shown to reduce injuries," Smith said. "As more youth leagues, coaches and parents ensure the use of these types of safety equipment in both practices and games, the number of baseball-related injuries should continue to decrease. Mouth guards, in particular, should be more widely used in youth baseball."

Their research is detailed in the latest edition of the journal Pediatrics.

The bad news is ...
 

While accident-related injuries are down, preventable injuries from overuse still seem to be a problem, according to author Mark Hyman. In his recent book, "Until It Hurts," Hyman admits his own mistakes in pressuring his 14-year-old son to continue pitching with a sore arm, causing further injury.

Surprised by his own unwillingness to listen to reason, Hyman, a long-time journalist, researched the growing trend of high-pressure parents pushing their young athletes too far, too fast.

"Many of the physicians I spoke with told me of a spike in overuse injuries they had witnessed," Hyman told Livescience. "As youth sports become increasingly competitive — climbing a ladder to elite teams, college scholarships, parental prestige and so on — children are engaging in a range of risky behaviors."

One expert he consulted was Dr. Lyle Micheli, founder of one of the country's first pediatric sports medicine clinics at Children's Hospital in Boston. Micheli estimates that 75 percent of the young patients he sees are suffering from some sort of overuse injury, versus 20 percent back in the 1990s.

"As a medical society, we've been pretty ineffective dealing with this," Micheli said. "Nothing seems to be working."

Young surgeries

In severe overuse cases for baseball pitchers, the end result may be ulnar collateral ligament surgery, better known as "Tommy John" surgery. Dr. James Andrews, known for performing this surgery on many professional players, has noticed an alarming trend in his practice. Andrews told The Oregonian last month that more than one-quarter of his 853 patients in the past six years were at the high school level or younger, including one 7-year-old.

Last spring, Andrews and his colleagues conducted a study comparing 95 high-school pitchers who required surgical repair of either their elbow or shoulder with 45 pitchers that did not suffer injury.

They found that those who pitched for more than eight months per year were 500 percent more likely to be injured, while those who pitched more than 80 pitches per game increased their injury risk by 400 percent.  Pitchers who continued pitching despite having arm fatigue were an incredible 3,600 percent more likely to do serious damage to their arm.

Hyman encourages parents to keep youth sports in perspective. "I think that, generally, parents view sports as a healthy and wholesome activity. That's a positive. But, we live in hyper-competitive culture, and parents like to see their kids competing," he said. "It's not only sports. It's ballet and violin and SAT scores and a host of other things.  It's in our DNA."

Please visit my other sports science articles at Livescience.com.

Kids Who Exercise Can Get Better Grades

The end of 2008 brings some discouraging news about our kids' brains and brawn. Recent results from an international math and science test show United States students are performing near the middle of the pack compared to other countries, while their levels of obesity continue to climb.

Historically, these two trends were studied independently with plans of action developed for each. However, several researchers and a new book have been making the case for linking these two problems by showing the effects of aerobic exercise not only on a student's fitness level but also on their test scores.

Last month, the latest (2007) TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) scores were released. They compare fourth grade students from 36 countries and eighth grade students from 48 countries. They were tested on subjects that were common to all of the countries, including algebra, geometry, chemistry and physics. Overall, 425,000 students participated in the test, which is administered every four years.

In math, American fourth graders came in at 11th place of the 36 countries while eighth graders scored ninth out of 48. Hong Kong and Taiwan ranked first for fourth grade and eighth grade, respectively.  In science, Singapore topped the list for both fourth grade and eighth grade, with U.S. science students taking eighth place and 11th place.

While the American math scores have improved slightly, the science scores have dropped. In 2003, U.S. fourth graders were in sixth place in the world and eighth graders were in ninth place.

Only 6 percent of U.S. eighth-grade students reached the TIMSS "advanced" level in math, compared to 45 percent of students in Chinese Taipei, 40 percent in Korea, 40 percent in Singapore, 31 percent in Hong Kong, 26 percent in Japan and 10 percent in Hungary.

Regarding student fitness, the most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the percentage of overweight or obese 6- to 11-year-olds has tripled since 1980, with more than 125 million children at unhealthy levels.

Leaping backward

Ironically, one of the solutions proposed for raising test scores, No Child Left Behind, encourages schools to focus more of the school day on the core academic subjects while reducing class time in peripheral subjects, like art, music, and physical education.  In fact, only 6 percent of American high schools offer a daily gym class. Yet a 2002 Virginia Tech study showed no relationship between reduced class time in those subjects and higher overall standardized tests.

In his latest book, "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" (2008, Little, Brown), John Ratey, a Harvard clinical associate professor of psychiatry, argues for more physical fitness for students as a cure for not only their obesity but also their academic performance.

"I cannot underestimate how important regular exercise is in improving the function and performance of the brain." Ratey writes. "Exercise stimulates our gray matter to produce Miracle-Gro for the brain." That "Miracle-Gro" is a brain chemical called brain-derived neurotropic factor, or BDNF. When we exercise, our working muscles send chemicals into our bloodstream, including a protein known as IGF-1.

Once in the brain, IGF-1 orders the production of more BDNF. The additional BDNF helps new neurons and their connections grow. In addition, levels of other neurotransmitters are increased after a strenuous exercise session.

"Dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine — all of these are elevated after exercise," says Ratey. "So having a workout will help focus, calming down, and impulsivity — it’s like taking a little bit of Prozac and a little bit of Ritalin."

Evidence mounts

Research showing a link between fitness and academics is growing. The California Department of Education (CDE) looked for a correlation between fitness scores and test scores. They found that kids who were deemed fit (by a standard test of aerobic capacity, BMI, abdominal strength, trunk strength, upper body strength and overall flexibility) scored twice as well on academic tests as those that were unfit.  In the second year of the study, socio-economic status was taken into account, to possibly eliminate that variable as an explanation. As expected, those in the upper-income brackets scored better overall on the academic tests, but within the lower-income set of students, the same results were observed — kids who were more fit performed better academically.

Charles Hillman, associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Illinois, was able to duplicate these findings with 259 third and fifth-grade Illinois students. His team also noticed that two of the tests, BMI and aerobic capacity, were significantly more influential to higher academic scores than the other four fitness factors. Digging deeper, he isolated two groups of 20 students, one fit and the other unfit. They were given cognitive tests of attention, working memory and processing speed while their brain's electrical activity was being measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG) test.

The fit kids’ brains showed more activity in the prefrontal cortex, known for its executive function and control over other brain processes.

So, just send the kids on a fast jog and they will ace all of their tests?  Not quite.

“The exercise itself doesn’t make you smarter, but it puts the brain of the learners in the optimal position for them to learn,” Ratey said. “There’s no way to say for sure that improves learning capacity for kids, but it certainly seems to correlate to that."

Please visit my other articles on Livescience.com

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