Over-training Threatens Future of Korea’s Youth Soccer Players

Prospective youth soccer players have been “exhausted by excessive training before they reach their full potential.”

The Korea Football Association recently conducted medical and physical strength testing at Medimajor Hospital located in Seoul for National Youth Team players under the age of sixteen.

As a result, 20 players out of 29 have been diagnosed with overuse syndrome (an abnormal condition on muscle syndesmosis) and over-training syndrome (an abnormal heart beat and chemical levels that cause a body to become acidic).

Moreover, 10, three and two players have been identified with damage in their lower back muscle, knee cartilage and the Achilles tendon, respectively. Twenty players, 70 percent of the examinees, complained of chronic fatigue.

More shocking was the fact that about thirty percent have demonstrated growth impediment resulting from excessive training. Robert Alberts, a coach for the National Youth Team, said, “Injuries to the ankle, knee, lower back, shoulders, etc. have mainly been identified. It is attributed to the fact that trainers and coaches do not conduct scientific and effective training for the benefit of young players. Instead, they are too obsessed with short-term results, which compel them to provide excessive training to the young players.”

The level of pliability, a foundation of exercise, did not meet expectations. The normal relaxation angle for the hamstring and the Achilles is 90 and 30 degrees, respectively, but the average relaxation angles for those players were 70 and 15 degrees, respectively. This is ascribed to the fact that those youth players continue training despite injuries to the ankle, knee, and lower back, so they tend to use more body parts without injuries, which solidifies muscle.

The person in charge of medical testing at Medimajor said, “It is a serious matter. More than 15 players of the National Youth Team are undergoing rehabilitation training. National Youth Team players have been selected from players in good condition. Thus, other players are likely to have more serious conditions than those examined players.”

In leading football countries, youth players are trained for two to three hours per day. However, youth players in Korea receive training at an average of 4.57 hours a day, with a maximum of 7 hours per day. Ultimately, it has been confirmed from the aforementioned findings that football training during school years which focus on short-term results are contributing to destroy prospective young players before they reach their full potential.

Such problem extends to professional players as well. Professional players are suffering from joint and muscle pains due to excessive trainings during their youth. The person in charge of the examination mentioned, “The ratio of players of the National Youth Team advancing to the National Team in Korea is significantly lower than that in leading football countries, which can be attributed to excessive training during their youth.”

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com