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Message: [QUOTE="sufandu, post: 3053989, member: 874"] But that doesn't have anything tp do with the youth sport conversation in thread. How many of those section champs are 7th, 8th, or, 9th graders? By the end of high school it makes sense to start to specialize. There's no reason to do it as a youth runner. Even older runners need to reduce mileage in the off season and mix in strength training to maintain proper gt mechanics and biking and/or swimming to maintain conditioning while allowing joints to recover. There's a reason I saw a bunch of ankle and foot problems when I did outpatient physical therapy. The fact that you brought up section champs illustrates part of the problem. It seems nearly every coach or parent thinks anything less than a championship is a failure. Nevermind the lifetime of pain, therapy, and surgeries it can lead to, if you throw caution and common sense to the wind to get there. [/QUOTE]