Growth spurts in young athletes can be a confusing stage for both kids and parents. One month your child looks strong, coordinated, and confident. The next, they are suddenly dealing with sore knees, tight ankles, awkward landings, or hip discomfort that seems to appear out of nowhere. During this stage, the body is changing quickly, and sport can start to feel harder even when your child is trying just as much as before.

That does not always mean something is seriously wrong. It often means the body needs support, not just more effort.

Why growth spurts in young athletes can change movement

When kids grow quickly, their bones, muscles, tendons, and coordination do not always adapt at the same pace. That temporary mismatch can affect control, balance, and movement quality. Research has shown that injury risk and injury burden can rise around peak height velocity, which is the period of fastest growth in adolescence.

This is why growth spurts in young athletes often come with common lower-body issues. Parents may notice knee pain, ankle soreness, hip tightness, heel pain, or a child who suddenly looks clumsy when running, cutting, or landing. These changes are especially important in sports that involve jumping, sprinting, and fast direction changes.

A child who used to move well may suddenly show knees collapsing inward when they land, poor single-leg balance, or reduced ankle movement. These are not signs of laziness. They are often signs that the body is adapting to rapid growth and needs the right training support.

Common pain points during growth spurts in young athletes

The most common areas we watch closely are the knees, ankles, and hips.

Knees often take on more load when landing mechanics are poor. If a young athlete is landing stiffly, letting the knees cave inward, or struggling to absorb force through the hips, the knees can become irritated quickly.

Ankles can also become restricted during rapid growth. Stiff ankles can reduce shock absorption and change how a child squats, runs, or jumps. When that happens, the body often shifts the load elsewhere, usually to the knees or hips.

Hips matter just as much. If the hips are weak or poorly controlled, a young athlete may not be able to stabilize well during single-leg tasks, deceleration, or change of direction. That can affect both performance and injury risk.

Research on maturation and landing has shown that youth athletes around growth-related stages can display altered landing mechanics and movement patterns, which is exactly why movement quality should be monitored, not assumed.

Warm-ups matter more than ever during growth spurts in young athletes

A rushed warm-up is one of the easiest things to fix.

During a growth spurt, a young athlete benefits from a warm-up that prepares the body to move well, not just one that “gets them sweating.” A good warm-up should include mobility, balance, landing control, and basic strength-based activation. It should help the athlete wake up the ankles, hips, trunk, and feet before hard training starts.

There is strong evidence that structured warm-up and neuromuscular training programs reduce sports injuries in children and adolescents. Studies have found that these warm-up-based injury prevention approaches can lower lower-limb injury risk, especially for knee and ankle problems.

That means warm-ups should not be treated like filler. They are part of training.

For young athletes in this stage, a useful warm-up may include:

• ankle mobility drills
• skipping and marching patterns
• controlled landing practice
• single-leg balance work
• glute and hip activation
• low-level deceleration and change-of-direction mechanics

These small pieces build better movement habits over time.

What parents should watch for at home and at sport

Parents do not need to diagnose every ache, but they can notice patterns.

Watch for repeated complaints of knee, ankle, or hip pain after training. Notice whether your child is landing heavily, avoiding one leg, losing balance more often, or looking unusually stiff. Pay attention if they are growing quickly and suddenly seem less coordinated than usual.

Also watch training load. Sometimes the issue is not just growth. It is growth plus too much sport, too little recovery, and not enough movement support.

This is where growth spurts in young athletes need a smarter approach. Instead of pushing harder, it is often better to adjust load, improve landing mechanics, and build resilience around the areas taking the most stress.

How Exercise Physiology can help

This is where Exercise Physiology becomes especially valuable.

An Exercise Physiologist can screen how a young athlete moves, identify risk factors, and spot the patterns that may be increasing stress on the knees, ankles, or hips. That may include looking at squat control, single-leg stability, landing mechanics, mobility, and strength through the lower body and trunk.

At East Coast Athletes, an injury risk screen can help families understand whether pain is being driven by growth-related changes, poor movement control, limited mobility, or training load that is no longer matching the athlete’s needs.

From there, the plan is not just about avoiding injury. It is about building confidence and resilience.

That is where BSF resilience training also fits in well. Young athletes need more than just rehab-style exercises. They need a progressive way to improve control, absorb force better, move with more confidence, and handle training demands with less breakdown. That support can make a big difference during growth spurts in young athletes when the body is changing fast.

The goal is not to stop sport

Parents often worry that pain means their child should stop everything.

Sometimes rest is needed, but often the better answer is guided adjustment. The goal is to keep young athletes active while helping them move better, recover better, and handle growth more safely. With the right screen, warm-up, and resilience work, many kids can keep training while reducing unnecessary stress on growing bodies.

Growth spurts in young athletes are a normal part of development, but ongoing pain should never be ignored. When movement quality drops, the body often gives warning signs before a bigger injury happens.

If your child is going through a rapid growth phase and dealing with knee, ankle, or hip pain, now is a good time to act early.

Book an Exercise Physiology injury risk screen with East Coast Athletes and give your young athlete the support they need to move well, train with confidence, and build resilience through every stage of growth.