I want to bring up a topic that I feel strongly about, but it cuts across the grain of current practice. Id be prone to remain silent, but Ive seen the casualties firsthand over the years. The issue is youth sports specialization. If you believe putting your kid in year round sports from the age of 3-5 is the best approach, these thoughts/articles probably arent for you. Im more interested in giving tangible encouragement to those parents who feel somethings NOT right about it. Parents who feel trapped by coaches and other parents, and the threat that their kids will fall behind or not have a spot on the team later. Science and practice tell us two things: 1) Waiting to specialize allows for greater achievement at maturity. 2) Waiting to specialize leads to fewer injuries now and later. For every Tiger Woods, there are hundreds of elite athletes who DIDNT specialize. (I myself never stepped foot on a track until halfway through college, but within 5 years was at the US Championships, and finished my career having achieved several top 20 world rankings. I did, however, play 5 different varsity sports in highschool.) And unfortunately...for every Tiger Woods, there are hundreds who ended up injured and burnt out before maturity. It would be one thing if I was telling you the risk wasnt worth the reward...but what Im actually saying is the risk gets in the way of the reward! The first article is a general synopsis. The second is about Dr. Andrews and his perspective on things. The last two are about more of the science. changingthegameproject/is-it-wise-to-specialize/ cleveland/dman/index.ssf/2013/02/noted_surgeon_dr_james_andrews.html sportsscientists/2011/04/early-vs-late-specialization-when-should-children-specialize-in-sport/ humankinetics/excerpts/excerpts/multilateral-development-versus-specialization
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 16:08:12 +0000
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