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Remember not to pick up seedlings to help grow
In the just-concluded Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics freestyle ski women's big jump event, 18-year-old Chinese player Gu Ailing is particularly eye-catching.
Source: @CCTV News
Before the Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing's body was shrouded in various auras, and her experience perfectly interpreted "other people's children". Under the influence of her mother, who graduated from a famous school and loved skiing, Gu Ailing was exposed to skiing at the age of 3, began to receive professional training at the age of 8, and has won more than 50 gold medals since she officially participated in the adult freestyle ski competition at the age of 13.
The development of the Olympic Games has also aroused the public's enthusiasm for competitive sports, looking at the wonderful resume of the "talented girl", some parents can't help but wonder, if you train your children to participate in sports from an early age, let the children "win at the starting line", can they get the same results?
Maybe the answer is not as simple as you think, we will talk about the disadvantages of premature exposure of children to 3 common competitive sports today.
skiing
In recent years, skiing has become a popular snow sports. Skiing is thrilling, alpine skiing is usually carried out on very steep terrain and extremely fast, athletes can ski at a maximum speed of more than 140 km / h in international downhill competitions, while freestyle skiing also requires high aerial skills, and the probability of sports injury is high.
Studies have shown that there are many influencing factors in the occurrence of skiing injuries, including age. A follow-up study found that athletes whose actual age and physiological maturity do not match are at greater risk of injury, that is, athletes of the same age, the actual degree of physical development is not necessarily the same, in the training need to control the exercise load according to the actual situation, can not exceed the range of the body.
In the opening video of the Winter Olympics, a 1-year-old "ski baby" attracted everyone's attention, and when the baby was 11 months old, he already showed an amazing sense of balance on the skis. However, this baby is only an isolated case, skiing requires a lot of balance on the body, in general, professional instructors recommend that children's skiing safety age is best after 5 years old.
Source: People's Daily News
For children and adolescents, injuries caused by skiing cannot be ignored. Recently, an 11-year-old boy in Zhengzhou fractured his epiphyseal due to a ski fall, and the attending doctor said that the epiphysis is the growth point of the bone, and if there is damage, it may affect the child's bone development. As a challenging and dangerous sport, parents should take safety precautions when taking their children to ski, and once a fracture occurs, they should immediately use a splint or snowboard to fix it, and call for help nearby.
swim
Now more and more parents choose to teach their children to swim from an early age. Because the mother's body is full of amniotic fluid during pregnancy, and many newborn babies will show the phenomenon of "natural" swimming, there is a view that newborn babies are the best time to learn to swim. As a result, many newborn babies are thrown into pools of water and practice floating.
But the national organisation for swimming and water safety teaching in Australia advises against forcing babies to float backwards and be submerged in the water, which can lead to a negative water experience that instead affects children's learning in formal swimming lessons.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also does not recommend that children under the age of 1 learn to swim, because children do not have the skills to master swimming and the way to survive in the water.
So when is the best age to learn to swim?
A study from Australia [2] showed that no matter what age children start classes, they can only begin to master basic water skills at about 4 years old, and they can have the skills needed for freestyle swimming at age 5 and a half. But some evidence suggests that swimming lessons can improve the perception of swimming in younger children (2 to 4 years old), even if they don't fully master swimming skills.
That is to say, children aged 1 to 4 can learn to swim, but generally cannot learn, and they cannot really master the skills of swimming until they are 4 years old. Swimming is a sport that requires brain and limb coordination, for children under 4 years old, the degree of physical development is not enough, and the instructions for training are not understood, so parents should not be too hasty.
gymnastics
If you usually pay attention to sports, then you can easily find that gymnasts are generally younger. Guan Chenchen, who won the women's balance beam at the Tokyo Olympics last year, was only 16 years old at the time, so why are gymnasts so young? This is because gymnastics requires enough flexibility and flexibility, and it is easier to achieve difficult movements at a young age and with a small body.
In addition to ultra-high-intensity training from an early age, gymnasts in order to have a light posture, their diet is also strictly controlled, but children during this time are often in a period of vigorous growth and development, if the nutrition is insufficient, physical development is easily affected.
According to a survey by a domestic sports college[3], the skeletal age of female gymnasts is about 1.7 years later than the average normal person of the same age. Another survey showed that female gymnastics athletes had significantly higher menarche ages than primary and secondary school students, and the incidence of menstrual disorders was significantly higher than that of primary and secondary school students. This is mainly related to their low body fat rate.
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All in all, appropriate sports can enhance children's physique and cultivate children's tenacious will, while unscientific, ultra-high-intensity, and sports that do not conform to the laws of children's growth and development may bring unexpected harm to children. In our daily lives, we can observe the children's athletic talents, give appropriate guidance, and remember not to promote seedlings.
bibliography:
Wu Xiaohua,Zhang Zhen,Zhu Zhiqiang. Research progress on competitive alpine skiing sports injuries[J].Chinese Journal of Sports Medicine,2019,38(11):993-1000.
[2]https://theconversation.com/when-is-the-right-time-for-children-to-learn-to-swim-173144
Wang Zhen, Zou Xiaohong. Effects of high-intensity training and insufficient nutrition on adolescence of professional female gymnasts[J]. Journal of Xi'an University of Physical Education, 2003.
ZHANG Xiang. Investigation and analysis of menstrual status of outstanding female gymnasts[J].Chinese Journal of Sports Medicine,2008,27(5):640.
This article was first published: Pediatrics Channel of the Medical Professions
Author: Yuzu
Editor-in-Charge: CiCi