Elite Club National League

Sport Specialization and Injury

The CAHP presents the first prospective study of youth soccer athletes, controlling for both training load and preseason fitness. The study followed 80 athletes from a single club over two competitive seasons, collecting preseason fitness testing data, daily training load and any time-loss injuries throughout the study period. It then compared athletes who only participated in soccer (specialized) to those who participated in other sports during other parts of the year (not specialized). The study found no differences between the groups with respect to preseason fitness or in-season training load. It found no difference in the proportion of the specialized and not specialized that had an injury during the study, and after adjusting for training load, it found no difference in injury incidence between the two groups.

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References:
McGuine et al, 2017; Post et al, 2024; Nakaichi et al, 2025; Field et al, 2019; Watson et al, 2026

Predictors of Mental Health and Quality of Life

The CAHP has previously shown that improved sleep is associated with a reduced risk of injury in young athletes. Prior work has also found that increased sleep is associated with a broad range of performance outcomes. This current study advances this further and suggests that young athletes who sleep more report significantly lower levels of anxiety and depression and improved quality of life. In fact, this relationship was independent of, and stronger than, the effects of age, gender, race/ ethnicity, athletic identity, and match and training volume. This suggests that improved sleep among young athletes, whether through individual-level intervention or system-level programming, can have significant impacts of mental health, performance, and injury risk in young athletes.

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References:
Gupta S, Haraldsdottir K, Sanfilippo J, Staresinic I, Anderson S, Behrendt J, Steiner Q, Watson A. Risk Factors For Mental Health And Quality Of Life In Elite Adolescent Athletes. Med Sci Sports Exercise 2025; 57:645.

ECNL Injury Risk Reduction Program

In order to generate actionable evidence in elite youth soccer athletes, an innovative, nationwide, embedded in injury data collection infrastructure was developed to record injuries at ECNL events, determine the relationship between injury incidence and various risk factors, and guide future decision-making.

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References:
Watson, A., Behrendt, J., Staresinic, I., Sanfilippo, J., & Haraldsdottir, K. (2025). Match Injury Incidence and Risk Factors in American Youth Soccer: The Elite Clubs National League Injury Data Collection Program. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.14.25323901