Have any of you actually researched or studied over training? Or are we just repeating somthing you thought sounded hip & intelligent?
If emphasis is placed on nutrition/sleep in between work outs, over training turns into a myth.
Remember the days of old? Grabbing a ball in the morning and playing all day till it got dark, every day, all summer? Throw in some swimming days and foot races with your friends... Etc.... Etc.....
Was that over training? It's a lot more then some of these kids are doing now inside and out of their clubs.
Organized sports have become the new "play" because kids don't go outside to play with their friends.
I'm with you. I would add that I think some people mis-identify speed and strength training with massive repetitions. A qualified trainer will focus much more on proper technique than reps. I will venture a guess that more injuries are caused by improper technique than over training, and that many "over training" injuries are the result of bad technique.
A typical club soccer player is only getting 4.5 hours of training/play a week. Adding in another hour or so of speed/agility should be beneficial and not a problem. All kids are different physically and mentally, but 6 hours of training a week should be nothing for a competitive youth athlete. As I've mentioned before my daughter trains 12-20+ hours a week for dance which is more physically demanding than soccer, other than the contact. In 7 years at this pace she has not had an injury ('knock on wood"), and overtraining injuries are uncommon at her studio. We don't push her and always ask if she wants to scale back. She never complains, she loves it.
Now I'm not going to pretend that any kid can train at that level, very few can. And there are probably some kids that can't handle even 4.5 hours of training a week. The point being is that we can't generalize what is too much or too little training for kids, each child is different.