Objective Overuse injuries are more associated with highly specialized youth athletes in individual sports than those in team sports; however, as baseball, softball, and volleyball involve frequent repetitive motions, these repetitive motion team sports (RMTS) may see a greater proportion of overuse injuries than non-repetitive motion team sports (non-RMTS). The objective of the present study is to compare the distribution of injuries (overuse vs. acute) in RMTS to non-RMTS and individual sports among highly specialized youth athletes. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of 805 highly specialized athletes (aged 12.00-17.92 years) who presented with a sports-related injury between January 2015 and June 2022. The injury distribution (proportion of overuse vs. acute injuries) for each sport type group (Individual, RMTS, non-RMTS) was compared to each of the other two via chi-square, and linear regression was used to evaluate the relative odds of any given injury being overuse for sport type and various demographic and sports participation variables. Results Among 805 patients, 487 (60.5%) were individual sport athletes, 83 (10.3%) were RMTS athletes, and 235 (29.2%) were non-RMTS athletes. The proportions of overuse injury were 67.1%, 57.5%, and 40.0% in the individual, RMTS, and non-RMTS groups, respectively. Overuse injury proportion was higher in RMTS than non-RMTS (p = 0.0105), though it was not significantly different between RMTS and individual sports (p = 0.098). Patients participating in individual sports (Odds Ratio = 2.93, 95% CI = 2.00-4.29) or RMTS (OR = 2.28, 95% CI = 1.31-3.97) had greater odds of overuse injury relative to acute injury when compared to those in non-RMTS. Conclusions Among highly specialized youth athletes, individual sport and RMTS athletes had similar proportions of overuse injuries, and both had a higher proportion of overuse injuries than non-RMTS athletes. Preliminary evidence suggests that RMTS athletes may share some risk characteristics with individual sport athletes, which may help guide future research into injury patterns in this group to help better inform clinicians in counseling highly specialized youth athletes regarding overuse injuries.
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