JUST PLAY!

Specialization in sports has become exceedingly popular in young kids in current times. Research has shown that this is a detriment to kids sports development, it increases rates of child burnout, and leads to a higher risk of injury. Early specialization also doesn't lead to higher likelihood of college careers in said sport.

When our parents were kids, they generally played all the sports (if they were sports people) until they were in high school, then they maybe had 1 or 2 sports that were their favorite. Even if they weren’t sports people, parents usually put kids in all sports to see what/if they liked anything. This was a really great thing! Bodies are learning to move differently through all of these different sports. For instance, someone may go from soccer in the fall, to swimming in the winter, to baseball in the spring and then it was PLAY during the summer. I capitalize play here because sports didn’t go year round like they do now. When school was out and spring tournaments were over or if you missed a season of sports, kids were in their yards playing tag with the neighborhood kids or hide and seek or wrestling with their siblings or building a giant fort that you can crawl around in for hours. And you may have been barefoot for most of this free play (will get to that in another blog post).

This free play is HUGE in developing movement patterns that keep kids mobile and resilient. The reason we become less mobile and resilient as adults is because we stop doing free play activities. Sports help, but once you specialize, you do that one thing. Or, I should say 2 things. Sit in school or at work and perform a specialized sport or activity. Then your body gets used to those things and those things only. If we never stopped playing on the playground, we’d all still be able to scale across the monkey bars like we were children. We don’t lose that ability because we “get older.” We lose that ability because we stop playing.

Help out your kids and get them involved with everything. Let them try out all the sports when they are young. And they don’t have to play a sport every single season. Play a fall and spring sport and then let a kid learn to entertain themselves in the yard and around the house with friends and siblings and parents in the off seasons. Let them go up backwards on the slide. These things not only fuel different movement patterns but also fuels creativity which is both helpful in athletics, academics, and overall brain development. One of my recent clients stated they do family workouts together. That’s great. There's a little structure, sure. But you are all doing something together. Moving outside of sport. And gaining some motor control to help improve sport performance for youngsters.

Now I know that I can’t stop a child from playing soccer or basketball or baseball year round now. I just want to get the information out there to fuel other passions as well and prevent burnout. When out of the regular season, do some things that are just FUN! Go on a walk with your child, play with the dog in the yard, go on a hike, create fun games like lifesize family hungry hungry hippos (see this online, it’s fantastic!), build a pillow fort, play a family game of waterballoon tag. The options are endless, but let your kid be a kid in all the spare time. Fuel their creativity by introducing a new instrument, art lessons, reading books, or maybe cook together, whatever. (Sidenote, I was always too busy playing soccer to cook with my mom and as an adult, I regret it - I have more to learn on my own)

Overall, help build fast twitch muscles by playing (all the sports, games, romp-around-boredom-busting fun) when kids are in elementary school and early middle school, then begin specializing and getting stronger for specific sports in late middle school into high school. This will help prevent burnout and kids will truly know what sport they love and work harder for it when it actually matters.

This was all my feelings on what should be done, especially focusing on what is done outside of sport but here are some recommendations by the National Athletic Trainer's Association about sport performance in general:

"The National Athletic Trainer’s Association’s official statement was in support of the following recommendations relating to the health and well-being of adolescent and young athletes. [4, 6-21]

1. Delay Sport Specializing in a single sport for as long as possible: Adolescent and young athletes should strive to participate, or sample, a variety of sports. This recommendation supports general physical fitness, athleticism, and reduces injury risk in athletes.

2. One team at a time: Adolescent and young athletes should participate in one organized sport per season. Many adolescent and young athletes participate or train year-round in a single sport, while completing in other organized sports simultaneously. Total volume of organized sport participation per season is an important risk factor for injury.

3. Less than eight months per year: Adolescent and young athletes should not play a single sport more than eight months per year.

4. No more hours/week than age in years: Adolescent and young athletes should not participate in organized sport and/or activity more hours per week than their age (i.e., a 12-year-old athlete should not participate in more than 12 hours per week of organized sport).

5. Two days of rest per week: Adolescent and young athletes should have a minimum of two days off per week from organized training and competition. Athletes should not participate in other organized team sports, competitions, and or/training on rest and recovery days.

6. Rest and Recovery time from organized sport participation: Adolescent and young athletes should spend time away from organized sport and/or activity at the end of each competitive season. This allows for both physical and mental recovery, promotes health and well-being, and minimizes injury risk and burnout/dropout."

Read more in detail at https://www.nationalsportsmed.com/sports-specialization/#:~:text=What%20is%20Sports%20Specialization%3F,more%20common%20for%20young%20athletes.