Pat, a runner, visited my office last week. He had been having pain in his knee since the fall track season began. Pat wanted to know if he would be able to compete in a large meet coming up soon.

Even sitting across from him in the exam room, I could tell Pat was serious about his performance. He was built like a runner and he kept meticulous notes on his workouts.

He was coming off a really productive summer in which he trained six days a week for the fall season. He recently had begun using a heart rate monitor to track his workouts and recovery, and he knew a lot about good nutrition.

With all this training, Pat was worried he might have overdone it. He had read about stress fractures and he thought he might need an X-ray.

In many ways, Pat is very similar to a lot of other athletes I see each week. But there is one important difference: Pat is 12.

Pat is part of an alarming national trend. Sports medicine specialists have been diagnosing an increasing number of professional-type injuries in younger athletes. These might include overuse injuries like Pat’s that come from running 40 miles a week or from traumatic injuries never before seen in youngsters.

Almost half of all sports injuries occur in kids under age 14, and they can be seen in those as young as 5. About a quarter of all concussions in children are the result of sports participation.

Finally, among these young athletes, about half of the injuries are the result of overuse rather than any accident. Every overuse injury is entirely preventable.

Sports medicine specialists from several national organizations have developed a new program called the Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention (STOP) Sports Injuries Campaign to decrease these unnecessary injuries.

Physicians, the media, parents and coaches can get information through the campaign’s website about the most likely causes of sports injuries, as well as helpful hints on how to prevent them.

Baseball coaches can read charts that provide guidelines about pitch counts and the types of pitches young athletes should be throwing. Cheerleaders can learn which types of stunts are most dangerous. Parents and athletes can get tips on injury prevention in sports as different as basketball and dance.

The most helpful aspect of the campaign may not be in the information itself. While there are plenty of helpful tips on the website, one of the most important points is the one not explicitly made.

Overuse injuries are preventable. To be sure, runners like Pat benefit greatly from their athletic accomplishment. But sometimes the most important training for young athletes is not done on the field or in the weight room. Sometimes that training involves taking some time off and just being a kid.

You can learn more about the STOP Sports Injuries Campaign at www.stopsportsinjuries.org.

Dr. James Glazer is a sports medicine physician for Coastal Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Freeport. He serves as a consultant for the Portland Pirates and the U.S. ski team.