Reviving Casual Play: The Importance of Free Play in Youth Sports

Joining us today is one of the world’s leading researchers and experts on injury prevention. Dr. Neeru Jayanthi, the Director of Emory Sports Medicine and Research, chats with the guys about healthy training models and sport specialization for young athletes. Dr. Jayanthi has been on HBO’s Real Sports, ESPN, ABC, NBC, CBS, while also working with MLB, NFL, US Soccer, ATP/WTA Tennis, among others. We discuss his research on thousands of young athletes on topics such as:

- high intensity sports impact on young athlete bodies

-research results on risk-rewards of early age sport specialization

-injury propensity for male vs female athletes

-load management advice by age

-benefits of multiple sport playing

-benefits of "free-play" sports activities

-benefits of multi-sport participation and breaks