Introduction: With China`s commitment to promoting youth football in schools, more and more players engage in more frequent, intensive and organized sports training from a young age despite the controversy over early specialization (ES). Supporters claim that ES allows players gain advantages in the competition, better training resources and career opportunities, but some literature on youth sports link ES with burnout and injuries. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the correlation between the training volume and ES level of elite Chinese youth players and potential risks of ES. Method: A cross-sectional survey study was used. Players who participated in the National School Football Winter Camp were invited to fill out a questionnaire that included the data of ES, sports volume, injury history, and burnout (n=178 children, n=88 boys and n=90 girls). Results: Confirmatory factor analysis obtain a good overall fit of the model (CMIN/DF=2.016; CFI=.927; RMSEA=.076; GFI=.943; RMR=.041). The internal consistency of the questionnaire were satisfactory (Cronbachs a=.73). The results have shown that 80.3% of the players is high-ES, while 2.8% is low-ES and 16.9% is moderate-ES. Almost all the players (96%) played one sport more than eight months of the year, most of them (75.8%) spent more than twice of the time on organized sport than leisure activities, and 30.3% of them trained exceeding average weekly hours per week based on age in years. In response to the burnout scale, the M±SD values were 1.48±0.65 for emotional/physical exhaustion, 1.64±0.66 for reduced sense of accomplishment, and 1.27±0.55 for sport devaluation. Binomial logistic regression showed the odds of reporting an injury were higher for high ES players compared to players categorized as low and moderate ES (OR=3.046; CI=1.155-8.03; p=.024). It was also higher for high ES players compared to players categorized as low and moderate ES (OR=2.451; CI=1.071-5.61; p=.034) when reporting more injuries. The MANOVA tests showed differences for: (a) burnout by the level of early specialization (F=2.72, p=.046), especially showed significant difference for sport devaluation by the level of early specialization (F=4.99, p=.027); (b) reduced sense of accomplishment by the sports volume (training one sport more than eight months of the year), (F=5.901, p=.016); and (c) emotional/physical exhaustion by the sports volume (the time spent in organized sports is more than twice than leisure activities), (F=8.17, p=.005). Conclusion: The following conclusion can be stated from our findings: (i) high level of ES will increase the odds of injury and lead to sport devaluation; (ii) Excessive training volume is associated with an increased probability of reduced sense of accomplishment; and (iii) Notably, paucity of leisure activities will increase the odds of emotional/physical exhaustion.
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