4 Things to Consider About Specialization in Youth Sports

Kurt Putnam

Kurt Putnam

In the many studies carried out on youth sports specialization the major health concerns center on both physical and emotional burn-out. The repetitive nature of the exercises used for technical development can lead to clinical injury risks known as “overuse," which can cause pain, stress and long term damage to joints, tendons and muscles, as children move into their teenage years. The fact is that most children are neither physiologically or psychologically mature enough for the commitment to one sport.

Often pre-teenage athletes cannot cope with the physical demands placed on their bodies or understand the ramifications and responsibility associated with a single year-round commitment. Too often the pressures imposed on performance with win-at-all-costs directives can cause burn-out and then, more critically, drop-out. And unlike those children that may play other sports or have other interests, the children that play one sport, often under the guise of starting earlier makes them better, can encounter clinical injury risks in later teenage years and turn their back on something they've dedicated their entire youth to.

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U.S. Youth Soccer Director of Coaching Sam Snow noted that up to 25 percent—and maybe more—of their affiliated soccer programs expect players eight years old and above to play year round, such that children are being pushed to specialize in sports too soon. Breaks from the repetitive nature of skill development and the forces placed upon joints and muscle are essential, and those breaks should be other activities. I don’t think the sports science community is opposed to single sport participation but it should be monitored closely. There is clear evidence that the activities need to be a balanced variety of skill development, deliberate practice, competitive play, free play and an emphasis on fitness, core strengthening and flexibility. Sports provides such a vital education into lifelong wellness that often the overemphasis of skill training and instructor centric training takes away from the missed opportunities for education.

Sampling has become a buzz word in youth sports over the past decade as a push-back to specialization. Participating in multiple sports allows athletes to work different muscles groups and have the chance to take part in both anaerobic and aerobic activities. And the potential benefits playing various sports aren’t limited to health. Children who move away from specialization and practice sampling, a term for trying multiple sports, are less likely to fall into a troubling pattern that has developed among teenage athletes.

Research suggests that we (parents, coaches, clubs and even national federations) are turning sports into work for children at a really young age and that has long-term ramifications. While it cannot be argued that there are short-term benefits and often an immediate noticeable improvement in skill acquisition, we don’t do well with being patient to see the longer-term benefits. There appears this need to keep up with other children whose parents have them working individually with a coach and taking additional speed, agility and quickness (SAQ) classes to get the edge. Sadly we have lost sight of what sports are about and that is fun, competitive engagement and socialization. One of the big problems in the United States is that children stop playing sports after they’re out of middle and high school, at the time when the longer-term perspective should be of continuing sport into adulthood.

Having painted a fairly bleak picture for single sport specialization, is there a set of circumstances though in which it makes sense, or when it may be right for your child?

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Drawing on my experiences of 25 years of coaching and being the product of a single sport, specialization can be right for certain children—but here are some important things to consider:

1. It's important to engage the child in the decision-making of whether one, two or three sports (or other athletic activities) are pursued.

The child experiences the stress from competition, the highs and lows from winning and losing, the pain from injury, the physical exertion from playing, and the time committment to the sport. It is essential that at a young age — before age 12 — children have played or tried several sports because they can only offer an honest and informed opinion of what they like or don’t like.

The increased specialization and competition in youth sports have made it difficult for kids to bounce from one sport to the next. Today’s sports landscape may make it necessary for athletes to specialize if they intend to play beyond high school, but focusing on a single sport shouldn’t begin until 12 or so. Without these experiences children have no point of reference from which to draw from.

2. Now with an appropriate age of 12+ in consideration, it is essential to evaluate the program that your child will be playing in.

Ask the important questions and don’t assume that every coach or instructor is truly qualified to develop your child. What are the program’s philosophies on coaching—on winning versus development? How are practices split up in terms of warm-up, technical development, competitive and free play? How does commitment and attendance affect playing time? Does the club have a player development model? Does the commitment to a sport frequently take your child away from school, thus creating greater stress to make up work?

3. Encourage school sports to be played both in teams and at recess.

They act as a great way of having unconscious time away from the specialized sport. There should be a considerable amount of time in free play away from deliberate practice. Believe it or not, children tend to develop better problem-solving skills in these unstructured environments free from instructional intervention.

In 2014 one of my players at Greenwich High School, Nick Bartels, was awarded the Connecticut Player of the Year, while being both an Adidas and NSCAA All-American (top 50 players in the USA). What became apparent after coaching him several years before high school was his ability to gain possession of an aerial ball through the use of his body. When most players would play the ball, Nick, played the space and the player.

It then dawned on me that this skill was completely transferred from basketball which he had also played since he was 7 or 8. Second, his ability to make runs in advance of the pass was notable. Through other sports, he developed the realization that the player without the ball can actually dictate the play, thus he would not wait for the pass but in fact initiate it with his own movement. His ability to switch from defense to offense in a split second is a direct correlation to basketball just as in soccer, where possession changes fast and frequently.

It was no wonder then that in a three-year varsity career he was directly connected to 65 percent of the team’s goals. A report by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play cited that when the Olympic Committee surveyed its athletes 70 percent grew up as multi-sport athletes to which most said it was “valuable” to their overall development.

4. It's important to have regular conversations with your child about their learning, their enjoyment and their successes.

I was fortunate to have parents that did not pressure me at any level with soccer, never told me what I should or could have done on the field and only ever asked if this was what I wanted to do. For many years I have witnessed parents miss the opportunity to simply be engaged and supportive from the sidelines. More often than not it is those parents who I do not hear screaming instructions from the sidelines, that have the most engaged, driven and content child-athlete, who is capable of making the right decisions for themself.

Kurt Putnam

Kurt Putnam

Kurt Putnam has been coaching soccer much of his adult life after playing collegiate soccer at Loughborough University in England. Licensed with the English FA, USSF and NSCAA, developing soccer players at club and high school level, in addition to his camps, has become a lifetime passion. Giving back to the game that gave him so much is something he treats as a privilege. As his own children begin their athletic journeys there are many questions relating to his own experiences as a player, coach and Athletic Director that are being raised and which he hopes to share with the Whitby community.