Early or late specialization?

Jeudi, Octobre 24, 2013 - 09:51

When you compare today's athletes to those from the past, you will notice that athletes of today tend to train pretty much all year round. Sports have become big business with a lot at stake and for this reason, the days of taking the summer off from playing hockey or any other professional sport and coming to training camp unfit are unheard of nowadays. This is the reality not only at the professional level but also at the developmental stage. Kids are specializing early in sports in order to improve their skills and ability in a particular sport. They are training all year round to become the next Olympian or get that athletic scholarship. But is early specialization the best thing?

Early specialization does have its benefits as it allows children to understand pattern recognition and strategic thinking at an earlier stage. There are also athletes such as Tiger Woods and Andre Agassi who specialized at young ages and who would become phenomenal athletes. The Theory of Deliberate Practice by Ericsson and his colleagues supports early specialization, concluding that the earlier one can begin on focused training, the greater the chance at becoming exceptional in their chosen domain.

Conversely though, early specialization limits the ability of a child to explore other sports and discover whether they have other talents. Early specialization can also increase the risk of overuse injuries at a young age and burnout. The fact is that just because your child specializes early it does not guarantee the child will be a great athlete. Though Wayne Gretzky was a great hockey player even at a young age, it should be noted that he was also good at baseball and running.

Most sport governing bodies have also moved to the long-term athlete development model encouraging girls to begin specializing at age 11 and boys at the age of 12. This type of model challenges the notion of early specialization and supports the idea that children should be able to participate in a variety of activities before specializing.

A study of collegiate soccer players concluded that it did not really make a difference whether they had specialized in soccer or whether they were multisport athlete in order to play in the NCAA.

As a parent, allowing your child to be a multisport athlete ensures that their muscles and bones adapt to different movements, thus avoiding overuse injuries. Introducing children to a number of different sports also enables them to develop other characteristics and positive social interaction with a wide rage of new friends and less pressure, since they are not playing the same sport all year round.

References from the SIRC Collection: