My Account
One of the most dramatic developments in youth sports over the last 10 or 15 years has been the explosive growth, at seemingly ever-earlier ages, of the number of highly selective, highly competitive sports teams, and the related trend toward early specialisation. The trend towards early specialisation (to be distinguished from starting early, which, for some sports, is important), and an increasingly professionalised approach to youth sports, appears to be driven by half-truths, a herd mentality, the ever-burgeoning youth sports industry, and by adults more intent on winning than acting in the best long-term interests of children.
There appear to be three main reasons for this trend:
2. Parents believe that more is better.
3. Parents think it is a matter of competitive survival. The international evidence (a 2012 study, by Franzen J, Pion J, et. al.,) found that boys aged 10 to 12 who play multiple sports, especially many hours a week, instead of specialising early, are physically fitter and have better gross motor coordination than those who specialise.The majority of studies suggest that early specialisation can have significant negative consequences on the development of an athlete over time. Far from being supported by hard scientific evidence about youth talent development, the trend towards early specialisation and playing on travel or select teams at an early age is a bad idea for many reasons. For instance, it:
• comes with psychological risk from stress associated with over-involvement and expectations of parents
• doesn’t guarantee future athletic success
• hurts, rather than helps, skill development
• is elitist
• leads to overuse injuries
• promotes adult values and interests, rather than those of children
• increases the chances that the child will suffer burnout and quit sport
• reduces the chance that children will stay active in sports as adults. (Brooke De Lench)In New Zealand college principals say they are worried that the intense competition between schools is prompting them to put a lot of pressure on their students. Rob Nichol, chief executive of the NZ Rugby Players Association, says students are specialising in sport too early. “Kids are giving up other sports that they enjoy to specialise in a particular sport and effectively put all their eggs in one basket only to find out four to five years later that actually there’s not much at the end of the road for them,” he says.
His concerns are backed up by sports researcher Craig Harrison, who says some school sports stars are being harmed by excessive training. “We’re getting athletes who have to attend a number of practices a week,” he says. “We’re ending up with athletes that are burning out and they’re experiencing injuries that a lot of the time are putting them on the sideline for extended periods.”
