Most American students (55.4% according to Project Play) participate in at least one sport each school year, and whether it’s for fun or for the love of competition, staying strong, healthy, and injury-free is always the goal.
While parents push to keep their children moving, and the U.S. government works to get 63.3% of youth participating in organized sports in five years through the Healthy People 2030 initiative, wellness experts note it is important to always prioritize young people’s mental and physical health and safety.
“Mental health and dietary habits must be supportive of growth and sporting excellence,” Fiona Orlandella, founder of FionaFitness in Silver Spring, Maryland, told The Informer.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, about 30 million young people participate in organized sports, with more than 3.5 million injuries each year.
“By far, the most common injuries are sprains and strains,” Johns Hopkins reports.
Supporting student-athletes means taking a well-rounded approach — combining preventive care, smart conditioning, good nutrition, and the right mindset.
As the school year kicks off, experts such as Orlandella, chiropractor Dr. Scot Kampmann and Sumi Epie, a functional nutritionist, empower young people and parents with tools they need to perform their best this season and beyond.
Balancing Nutrition and Development, Fueling for Performance and Recovery
With more than 15 years of experience working with high-performing student-athletes, Orlandella knows firsthand how vital dietary wellness is to physical performance.
“The balance between physical conditioning and diet, especially for girls who are going through puberty [is important],” Orlandella said.
She emphasized the potential long-term effects of neglecting opportunities to foster well-rounded development.
“The impact on mental and physical health can lead to serious, negative outcomes when girls, and even boys, try to control their weight through unhealthy dieting,” Orlandella added, “which can lead to extreme weight loss and hormonal imbalances.”
By highlighting the connections between nutrition, conditioning, and injury prevention, nutrition experts offer some good news to those trying to improve their health and wellness: it doesn’t require a special diet or supplements.
It’s about the right foods, in the right amounts, according to KidsHealth.org. Parents are encouraged to try adding fruit to salads or smoothies, bananas to pancakes, or blending kale or spinach into spaghetti sauce for a tasty boost of fiber, protein, and carbs.
Epie, a functional and metabolic medicine expert and CEO of NTMcore, said there’s also a biological side to developing positive relationships with food and fitness.
“Parents are often eager to capitalize on their child’s talent,” Epie, a former student-athlete, told The Informer. “It is important to be wary of ‘professionalizing’ their love of the sport by tying the relationship with food to success outcomes. Keep all things in moderation and consult your pediatrician often.”
A developer of nutritional strategies for both professional and student-athletes, he touted the importance of hydration and learning what beverages help drive physical success.
“Water should be your first choice. But if you are out in the heat, going harder for longer, a sports drink that balances electrolytes is a good choice,” the nutritionist said. “I recommend that parents take responsibility for what their child consumes and avoid caffeine-based drinks for children.”
Training by Age and Stage
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in their 2023 paper “The Impact of Adolescent Development on Fitness & Conditioning Age and Stage,” provides age-specific coaching tips, while emphasizing how to meet kids where they are.
To build endurance naturally, without requiring advanced skill, children under 8 years old respond well to unstructured play—building forts or engaging in imaginative games with movement. Between ages 9 and 14, kids become more socially aware, marking a pivotal time to introduce skill-building in strength, speed, and endurance, while teaching them to measure improvement against themselves, not others.
“Youth practitioners are encouraged to monitor the age and stage of growth and development for the youth athlete,” according to ACSM.
With 32 years of clinical experience treating injured athletes, Kampmann, a licensed chiropractor based in Baltimore, also encourages building strength with close care and skill.
“I often warn parents and coaches to avoid doing too much too fast,” he told The Informer. “Early indicators of athletic potential should be protected with regular adjustments.”
This is especially common among swimmers, skaters, and gymnasts whose parents often pack in long training sessions before and after school.
Additionally, Kampmann broke down some common misconceptions of physical workouts, further highlighting the body’s natural ability to adapt to the training it’s repeatedly exposed to.
“Lifting weights does not create stability,” he told The Informer. “The current trend of building a muscular gym body may look attractive and even appealing, but it does not maximize the ‘form dictates function’ rule.”
In other words, if athletes only train for strength, they may lack agility or stability.
“We have all seen muscle-bound bodies that do not have flexibility,” the chiropractor explained, “hence they have no flexibility to survive sudden lateral twists or movements.”
Mental Toughness, Self-Worth and Winning Within
Winning is often the goal in competitive sports — but experts and athletes alike note that learning to navigate setbacks is just as important.
“People put too much seriousness into success and failure, especially on a basketball court. If you take a shot, you can only do two things: make it or miss. That’s how simple it is, and that’s what you try to get to your kids, so they’re not afraid of that simple act,” celebrated basketball player Michael Jordan once told a group of parents.
Parents, coaches, and counselors can play a key role in helping athletes bounce back after a loss and build emotional resilience, and that starts with separating the athlete’s identity from performance.
“You don’t put the end of the world on [making a shot] and kids sometimes have a tendency to do that,” Jordan, a three-time All-Star MVP, continued. “So as a parent, you have to simplify as much as possible to show them that either way, ‘I still love you if you miss that shot.’”
As they gear up for the sports season, health and fitness professionals suggest taking time to check in with young athletes, ask about their goals and be sure to engage with them throughout the year.
Orlandella encourages youth to listen to their body and mind, build trust within teams and coaches, and speak up when something doesn’t feel right. With the right support, there’s opportunity for an enjoyable, winning season.
“The mind-body connection becomes unconscious muscle memory,” Orlandella told The Informer. “Building this connection will ensure decades of expert performance in the years to come”