Essay on Sports Specialization

One of the major reasons why adult think youth sports are being too intense is that sports specialization is at a record high. Although this is true it is still only at 25 percent. Sports specialization should not happen until 15 or 16 according to a harvard study(Sirs). If 25 percent of people are specializing in one sports that mean 75 percent of youth are not focusing on one sport. So even though some youth are specializing in one sport he majority of of youth players do not focus on one sport but rather play multiple sports. Jane Cray, a parent whose child specialises in hockey, says that the main reason she lets her son, who is 10, specialize is she believes that this will help him earn an athletic scholarship to a major college. This is not true. There was a study done by harvard in which they found out that specializing does not make you a better athlete or better at that one sport. Playing multiple sports when youth athletes are young helps develop to the athletes athletic potential quicker than they would.

As sports sign-ups sneak up every year, many parents find themselves wondering, how many sports should my young child be playing? Sports specialization is defined as “intense, year round training in a single sport with the exclusion of other sports” (Jayanthi). This concept of devoting one’s career to a single sport from a very young age in order to reach higher physical success in the long run has always been around, but recently it has been drawing an increasing amount of attention. The media places great emphasis on athletics as a whole, which for some, means working towards a luring Division One collegiate scholarship. Others are driven by the miniscule possibility of playing at the professional level. More often than not, this results in unnecessary stress and heartbreak (Committee on Sports). Along with the psychological disadvantages of specializing in only one sport, young athletes are oftentimes the victims of overtraining, overuse injuries, and other negative effects on the growing body (Jayanthi). Sports specialization is not beneficial to young children and poses multiple potential risks to the mind and body.

The purpose of this paper is to argue the fact that youth sports are not becoming too intense. After reading the New York Times article I decided to pick this topic and argue against this theory because as a division one athlete I have my own opinions. I picked three sources which can back up and prove that sports being too intense is very much your own opinion.

In the article “For Children in Sports, a Breaking Point” by Jane Brody the author discusses the underlying problem on whether or not young athletes should be encouraged to push themselves to their physical and mental breaking point in sports from their coaches, parents, or even themselves. Meanwhile, in “Why Parents Should Let Their Kids Play Dangerous Sports” by Jeb Golinkin the writer deliberates why parents should let their children participate in risky sports to understand the significance of failing, teamwork, striving, and succeeding.

Sports are not for everybody, not only because of talent level, but because a certain mindset is to be had to be successful at any sport. A commitment is made. Forty hours of practice a week, the average amount of time spent practicing for football players, all for a one hour game, the average time of one game of college football, takes dedication. That is not even counting the time spent icing, resting, and studying the playbook or film, not to mention the school work to be kept up with for college and high school students. Most athletes have become used to the grind and juggling three or four time consuming activities all at one time while being successful at each. Waking up at the break of dawn, following a schedule, and suffering consequences when a bad choice is made creates character and discipline that is often needed for many little league, high school, and college athletes. The most important non tangible thing sports teach anyone is how to get back up after falling, how to get knocked down but get right back up and keep going, how to move on from failure and overcome it, focusing on the next important part of life. These skills of determination and courage taught through sports are essential for being successful in any part of life and are hard to come by anywhere

At a young age, children tend to start participating in sports as a way to get active and learn both athletic as well as life skills. Their parents might start them off with one sport and then before you know it the child is juggling a handful of sports to see, which ones they like. As these young athletes get older, they tend to get stuck at a crossroad. The athletes are posed with the same decision: to specialize in one sport or to continue playing all the sports they love. However, do athletes that specialize in one sport perform better as they grow up compared to those that continue playing multiple sports? It is important to resolve this question because there has been a rise in early youth sport specialization over the last few years due to pressure put on athletes by their coaches and parents, rather than a logical rationale (Myer 2015).

The boy’s father is not alone since many other parents dream of their child to become the next famous sports player. Although, some parents let those dreams get the best of them and eventually they start pushing their children to win. Avery Faigenbaim, an associate professor of exercise science at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, has asked kids why they quit sports and their typical response is that they didn’t think sports were fun anymore. Young children play for fun and to make new friends but parents have gone to the

More than 35 million kids and teens play sports in the United States. And because there are only so many scholarships and sports team positions open (pages 13-15), many kids will be unable to "go pro". This causes kids to work harder and specialize in one sport (page 14) and can cause overuse injuries (page 13). Also, because there are only so many scholarships and positions open, many kids are forced to deal with rejection on a regular basis. Even though they may be an amazing player, there are just too many kids and too much competition. The rejection wouldn't be as big of a deal if the kids were playing for fun, as they used to (page 13), but now, kids are just playing to make it to the college level and gain the fame. Although they are

1.Farrey and Sagas argued against the mentality that early sport immersion and early specialization will lead children to successful careers as athletes. Early specialization was described as children around the age of six choosing only one sport and concentrating only on that specific sport’s performance and practice (Sagas,2013). People in society might presume that specializing children at young ages will help guide them into becoming great athletes, however, “early specialization can have significant negative consequences on the development of an athlete over time” (Sagas, 2013, p.2). Some evidence that Sagas’ (2013) mentioned in his article to dispel the myth of early specialization included multiple studies where it showed children that were early specialized had an increase of dropping out of sports, burnout, social isolation, physiological imbalances, and limited range of motor skills. Farrey also presented evidence that early involvement and early specialization in sports doesn’t lead children to greater success. One argument that Farrey made was that early specialization can cause mental exhaustion and overuse injuries which made the “AAP now formally opposes specialization before a child reaches puberty” (Farrey, 2008, p.58). This evidence proves that overtraining children at young ages will inevitably have negative effects. Farrey also discussed the data that was found from surveying the training patterns of U.S. Olympians. From this data Farrey concluded that “many [U.S. Olympians] played multiple sports as teenagers, dispelling the myth of early specialization” (Farrey, 2008, p.191). Overall, Farrey and Sagas proposed several valid reasons that early immersion and early specialization in sports has negative impacts on children rather than helping them to achieve success.

In regards to the development of young athletes, a controversial question exists; will the path of early sport diversification or the path of early sport specialization ultimately lead to greater sport expertise and elite performance? Specifically, what effects can each pathway have on development of a child’s physical fitness and motor coordination as well as a young athletes career development? Stakes run high for sports with limited scholarship availability and national team sports, so, when it comes to athletes who are identified as talented at a young age, in many cases they are pushed to specialize in that sport early by parents with high expectations and aggressive coaches eager for success. Early sport diversification begins with the

“Many advocates of early specialization also cite the “10,000-hour rule,” which indicates that it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours of practice to reach the highest level of performance in an activity. If an athlete starts intense, focused training before the age of 12, chances are, they’ll hit that 10,000-hour mark much sooner than an athlete splitting their time between multiple endeavors.(Duffek). If you played a sport for 10,000 hours wouldn’t you get bored of that too?“A study by Ohio State University found that children who specialized early in a single sport led to higher rates of adult physical inactivity. Those who commit to one sport at a young age are often the first to quit, and suffer a lifetime of consequences’’(O'Sullivan). Specializing in a sport at a young age more likely causes inactivity as an adult because they have no motivation to workout or exercise. “Children who specialize early are at a far greater risk for burnout due to stress, decreased motivation and lack of enjoyment”(O'Sullivan). Would you want your child to quit a sport because they are so stressed out with it and to them it’s not enjoyable anymore. These three pieces of evidence support specializing in a sport at a young age can cause a child to burnout because its not enjoyable anymore and causes inactivity as an

Côté et al (2009) further describes the intense training as serving the ultimate purpose of improving performance as opposed to the enjoyment of the activity. In the United States, participation in organized sport has increased from approximately 9 percent of children 6 years and younger in 1997 to 12 percent in 2008 (Malina, 2010). The increasing trend in early sports specialization is supported by the growing number of 7 and 8 year olds participating travel leagues (Metzl, 2002) as well as a surge of young Olympic athletes (Wiersma, 2000). A 2011 study of 519 U.S. Tennis Association junior tennis players found that 70 percent began specializing at an average age of 10.4 years old (Javanthi et al., 2011). As demonstrated from the data, the prevalence of early sport specialization is on the rise in the United States. Anyone could argue that early sports specialization can play an important role in the development of athletes and can optimize the opportunities to expand athletic skills, however, the question becomes at what

Athletes narrowed their interests to one or two sports during the Specializing Years (Bush, Salmela, 2001). This decision was often made around the age of thirteen and was influenced by encouragement from parents, coaches, and the enjoyment they experienced within their sport (Bush, Salmela, 2001). Practice became more structured during this time but fun and excitement remained a central piece to prevent athletes from blistering out (Bush, Salmela, 2001). Interestingly, the parents in all four families put more importance on achievement in school than sports (Bush, Salmela, 2001). The parents were also able to provide for their children and did not expect them to work outside their home (Bush, Salmela, 2001).

Early sport-specialization may impede or impair the quality of life of children. Starting as early as 3 years old (Wojtys, 2013) kids are selected for specialized sport training for a singular sport. Supported by parental/adult figures, a person in early to middle childhood ( 1 to approximately 10 years of age, varying with gender ) is selected for intense practice in a single sport. Thought to be beneficial, ESS can be detrimental to the child(ren)’s health. Dependency on sporting, uncertain success in future sport, psychological stress in early life, physical stress and injury affecting growth, and continuation in sport falls off are all considerable factors in how ESS is problematic.

Having gone through both elementary and middle school, we have all run into peers who spent a lot of time and energy trying to act like the most popular athlete in any given time period. Kids often try to imitate controversial athletes to bring attention to themselves. Such behavior can bring popularity to a young person. A sad outcome of violence in adult sports is that youth sports end up mirroring adult sports. Young people are encouraged to be aggressive, and often those who are the stars of the team are those who know how to "stretch the rules". Often, young people who do play by the rules are relegated to the bench. As a result, youth athletic teams, even