Heerey et al recently published a valuable article regarding the reactive nature of current approaches to hip osteoarthritis (OA) in athletes.1 We agree primary prevention is a desirable path to decrease the incidence of hip OA and pain, but as stated, reducing workloads is challenging as it corresponds with (and worsens) critical sport development timelines of talent identification and skill acquisition.1 We believe addressing physical literacy, another crucial aspect associated with skeletal loading during adolescence, is warranted. Revisiting the challenges of load monitoring during vulnerable skeletal development time periods is also needed.2 These align with the Oxford consensus, which advocates for load monitoring.3 This article will address physical literacy and periodisation as potential strategies to optimise force vectors experienced at the hip in youth athletes during critical skeletal developmental stages. We suggest this as a line of research that can be investigated by multiple independent researchers.

Adolescent athletes are often deficient in physical literacy: the ability to move with poise, economy and confidence in a variety of movement patterns (squatting, lunging, hinging, etc).4 Achievement of movement quality (physical literacy) promotes strength, endurance and balance.2 We theorise that when young persons properly execute these patterns within multiple planes, the pelvis may better align to manage forces experienced at the weight-bearing hip.2 Pelvis control is …