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Dear SEM community, our journal is open access and does not charge you to publish. Every submission is reviewed by our editorial team and to external reviewers, if applicable. We are welcoming innovative ideas and discussions in the form of opinion editorials (see our guidelines) or case discussions. We encourage you to reach out to our team if you are interested to contribute to the journal in a less conventional way (as in, not a «typical manuscript»), we are willing to hear you out. Our journal and website wishes to engage the worldwide SEM community in valuable exchanges and knowledge sharing.

Introduction: Assessment of exercise training load (TL) can identify mechanisms of fatigue and injury. At present, techniques to monitor TL in young athletes are lacking. Objectives: To examine the adherence to two monitoring techniques to assess TL among young judokas. Methods: Over a 10 week study period, TL was assessed by completion of a daily training log and by weekly measurement of heart rate variability (HRV). The satisfaction to HRV method was assessed by survey at study completion. Results: Among national caliber judokas (n=10, age 16 ± 2 y, weight 63 ± 5 kg, height 169 ± 8 cm,), training logs were completed at a 98 ± 5% rate, while HRV measurement was successful 57% ± 37%. HRV was comparable to young and athletic population. Difficulties in performing HRV measurements were rated 3.3 ± 1.9 (1: not constraining to 10: extremely constraining). Conclusion: Excellent adhesion for training diary completion was only possible with regular demands from coaches for ratings. Judo seems to enhance cardiac autonomic control in young national level athletes. HRV monitoring compliance was suboptimal among young judokas and opportunities for future improvement are suggested by our data.
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The prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide, and excess body weight is associated with a substantially increased risk of adverse health conditions. Exercise supports the prevention and management of obesity; however, when used for weight loss, exercise (even at high volumes) is usually relatively ineffective, frequently producing less weight loss than expected based on measured energy expenditure.
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Exercise is medicine. This motto has become widely accepted. However, we are far from implementing it in clinical practice. This concerns both the advice given in the medical doctor and the knowledge of how to properly apply exercise as medicine. Only about 20-30% of medical doctors advise their patients to be physically active during a GP visit.
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Increased sports participation has resulted in an increased incidence of sports-related injuries. It has become increasingly clear that different sexes present with different injury profiles [1]. For instance, female athletes are more likely to sustain lower extremity injuries than males [2]. The underlying static factors include a wider pelvis, increased hip varus, femoral anteversion, as well as increased knee and external tibial torsion in the female body [2], and dynamic factors include dynamic valgus during landing [2].
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Vor einigen Monaten meldete sich eine Abiturientin bei mir mit der Bitte um ein Interview für ihre Maturaarbeit. Thema ihrer Arbeit war das (mögliche) Verbot von Kopfbällen bei Kindern und Jugendlichen im Fussball. Kurz darauf stellte sich im Rahmen der Generalversammlung der Gesellschaft für pädiatrische Sportmedizin (GPS) dieselbe Frage: Wieso sind in England/USA Kopfbälle im Jugendbereich verboten, in Deutschland und der Schweiz aber nicht?
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A few months ago, a high school graduate contacted me with a request for an interview for her “Matura thesis”. The topic of her thesis was the (possible) ban on headers in children and adolescents in soccer. Shortly afterwards, the same question came up at the general assembly of the Society for Paediatric Sports Medicine (GPS): why are headers banned in youth soccer in England/US, but not in Germany and Switzerland? Reason enough to take a closer look at this topic and try to find evidence-based answers to this question.
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Sedentary lifestyle levels are on the rise; global estimates show that one in four adults and 81% of adolescents do not engage in enough physical activity (PA). The changes in transportation patterns, increased use of technology, cultural values and urbanization have influenced this behavior [1]. Furthermore, sedentary behavior represents the lower level of the spectrum of PA; the construct is defined as those activities that represent a low energy expenditure.
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Sports physicians who take care of both leisure and elite athletes tend to be confronted with doping practices in various facets. The authors of this article aimed to examine attitudes, knowledge and experiences regarding doping practices and anti-doping resources in a specially trained population of board-certified Swiss sport and exercise physicians using a questionnaire.
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In this issue, we present the results of a survey named “Doping and the Sports Physician’s Role – The Swiss Experience”, in which the primary aim was to get an impression of the current situation among the community of Swiss sports medicine practitioners in terms of experiences and attitudes towards “doping” in sport. The purpose of this study was solely descriptive and explicitly not designed for declaring neither the opinion of the society of “Sports & Exercise Medicine Switzerland» (SEMS), nor the view of “Swiss Sport Integrity”.
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Children and young people should be physically active as much and as often as possible. This applies always and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to massive restrictions in the everyday lives of children and young people. Following hygiene and distance rules, vaccination and staying away from sports with typical SARS-CoV-2 symptoms can minimize the occurrence of infection foci and the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. However, if an infection does occur, there is only a low risk of serious secondary/accompanying diseases, in particular the occurrence of myocarditis with a possible fatal course.
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Most of us will agree that sports medicine is a very interesting, broad and multidisciplinary specialty. Those are certainly main reasons why many of us hold this latest issue of the SEMS Journal in their hands. The latter two adjectives, broad and multidisciplinary, lead to a plentitude of challenges.
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