The Impact of Overtraining on Injury Rates in School-Age Athletes-A Scoping Review

Background/Objectives: In developed countries, an increasing number of children are participating in sports activities. However, according to current evidence, early sport specialization and overtraining are associated with an increased risk of injuries in youth athletes. Despite the prevailing practice of early sports specialization, there is a paucity of publications summarizing the influence of overtraining on injuries in youth athletes. As a result, the objective of this study was to conduct a review of publications investigating the influence of overtraining on injury prevalence in sport-active children aged between 7 and 14 years. Methods: The review included publications from January 2015 to March 2025 searched via PubMed, Science-Direct, and Scopus. Results: This review examined five publications, across which in three papers, the authors analyzed the influence of training load on the incidence of injuries during a certain period. In one study, the authors retrospectively analyzed whether there is a relationship between training frequency during skeletal growth and femoral neck deformity in adults. The other study was a case report of reactive osteochondromatous lesions of the femoral neck due to youth athlete training. In four publications, the authors reported the negative effects, and in one, no effect of training load on youth athletes. Conclusions: The current evidence suggests a potential association between high training load and elevated injury risk in young athletic populations. Nonetheless, inconsistencies across studies indicate that this relationship is likely multifactorial.