Why Youth Sports Injuries Keep Rising—and What We’veBeen Doing About It for 20 Years

By Jeff Martin - August 21st, 2025

Over the last three decades, youth sports have changed

dramatically. Kids are playing more often, specializing earlier, and

pushing harder than ever before. The result? A steady and

troubling rise in injuries.

Emergency room visits for sports-related injuries in kids have

increased by nearly 40% since the 1990s. ACL tears, once rare in

young athletes, have more than doubled. Overuse injuries, like

stress fractures and “Little League elbow,” now make up about

half of all youth sports injuries. And concussions have more than

doubled in the last 20 years.

For many families, these numbers are frightening. But for us at

Brand X®, they’ve been fuel.

From our earliest days, we’ve been asking: “What is best for

kids?” That guiding star led us to see this injury crisis before

most others were even talking about it.

• In the late 1990s and early 2000s, while much of the sports

world was chasing specialization, we were building

programs that prioritized physical literacy, balanced

development, and resilience.

• We warned early that chasing performance in one sport

too soon would come at the cost of long-term health and

athleticism.

• We began designing training that strengthened the weak

links—feet, ankles, hips, and core, long before “injury

prevention” became a buzzword.

Today, as more headlines highlight the cost of early specialization

and overuse, we’re proud to say this is the work we’ve been

committed to all along. We don’t just react to trends. We build

solutions that last.

Because the truth is: kids don’t need more games, more

tournaments, or more pressure. They need strength. They need

balanced movement. They need coaches who understand the

unique demands of growing bodies. And they need programs

designed to keep them healthy, capable, and ready for whatever

sport, or life, throws their way.

That’s what we’ve been doing at Brand X® for more than two

decades.

And that’s why, even as the injury statistics climb, we believe the

future can look different, if we keep asking the right question:

What is best for kids?