By recent postings, there are a few skaters here who have experience of injuries and dealing with them.

Does anybody who trained or is training competitively have any particular advice for youngsters and their parents on how to structure training and/or lifestyle to avoid injury?

Its actaully difficult to totally stay away form injuries because most of them are just freak accidents. But a skaters should definetly warm up and stretch before they skate. You are asking for it if you do outwith cold muscles and try to do you best. You are most likely to pull a muscle or hurt yourself further. Most of all when you get hurt LET IT HEAL there is no point in actaully skating and having the chance of getting hurt further