The Child and Adolescent Athlete

The Child and Adolescent Athlete Oded Bar-Or, Editor This book is the sixth volume of The Encyclopaedia of Sports Medicine, an International Olympic Committee Medical Commission Publication produced in collaboration with the International Federation of Sports Medicine. Dr. Bar-Or, a leading authority in the field of pediatric sports medicine, has called upon an international group of experts to write this 40-chapter book, which is organized into seven sections: 1) Growth, Maturation, and Physical Performance; 2) Training: Principles and Trainability; 3) Injuries: Epidemiology, Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation; 4) Non-orthopaedic Health Concerns; 5) Psychosocial Issues; 6) Disease and the Young Athlete; and 7) Methodology. Charts, tables, and diagrams are used throughout the text to highlight salient points. This enables the reader to better interpret the information. The strength of this book is that it provides up-to-date information on the state of affairs with regard to the responses to exercise and training of both the healthy child and the child with disease. This will be very helpful to those who are trying to build on current knowledge. As is frequently the case with edited books, some chapters are much more comprehensive and better referenced than others; however, overall the book is very well done. I found the section in each chapter entitled “Challenges for future research” particularly timely and noteworthy and a reflection of the now recognized need for further study in the area of pediatric sports medicine. In most, but not all, instances a well thought out plan of attack is provided for those who are interested in pursuing research in the pediatric exercise arena. Eight chapters in Section 7 review recommended current techniques for assessing physiological and morphological characteristics of the young child. This section will also be particularly useful to those interested in appraising the child's response to growth and exercise since developing a systematic research plan requires one to critically appraise current methodologies. This volume should provide valuable reference material for sports physicians, general practitioners, pediatricians, exercise scientists, coaches, and other professionals who are interested in the effects of sports and exercise on children and adolescents.