The Dark Side of Sport Specialization
By Athletes' Acceleration | June 19th, 2008
I got a lot of responses to my email yesterday.
I want to share a few of them with you, as well
as my response. Because some of the points raised
get to the root of the problem.
I recorded separate audios for each email because
I know how short my attention span is, so yours
might be too (plus I talk a lot).
I hope you’ll take the time to listen, think and
respond below.
******
Latif,
I have an 8 year-old daughter that is playing
soccer almost year-round because she loves the
game. She also plays basketball in the winter and
will play anything else (swimming, tennis,
softball, biking, etc.) she can when the weather
is nice. I agree with your points, but why is it
that more soccer programs are going to year-round
schedules? Even going back 20 years, soccer has
been a 2-season sport (spring & fall). Your
expert opinions came from MLB, NFL & NBA people,
but no MLS (soccer). Has this sport circled the
wagons around the concept of year-round training?
I’d be interested if you can find a credible
source to explain why soccer should be played
year-round.
Thanks,
Mike
You can listen to my response to this email here:
*******
Next email:
This has been a major problem in the UK for
several years with the primary culprits being
soccer and rugby. Children and I use the word
deliberately are being recruited as young as 8-10
years of age by national clubs for their junior
teams and some of them are also playing for
school teams. I have several youngsters come to
do athletics but only for mid May to mid July i.e
the close season for soccer training. Sports are
now competing at junior school level 8-11 years
old and even younger to obtain recruits before
they are snapped up by the other competing sports
and of course they are all targeting the same few
really natural athletes.
The problem is that when recruited the children
are expected to focus exclusively on the one sport.
We are no longer looking at sport as a healthy
pastime it is an almost obscene abuse of the
influence of the major professional games soccer
etc and like you I consider it is tantamount to
child abuse. To this scenario add parental
ambition and we have a major problem.
Regards Keith B. (Sprints coach, Derby, UK)
You can listen to my response here:
*****
Next email:
Hello Latif,
No, I’m not offended or defensive right now. I am
one of those coaches who “has to” promote a sport
year round. Why??
Reason 1.) Because if I don’t, I will lose a fair
amount of players to other programs and we won’t
have a team. . . believe it! I’ve been coaching
this current team since they were 9 year olds
(core group of perhaps 9 players as some kids
come and go). We are now a U14 team and most kids
will be 8th graders in the fall. I have tried as
best I could to encourage other sports,
and there are kids who take me up on it. . . great.
But just like you say, they are playing multi-sports
to stay in the sport I coach, soccer. Latif,
if it’s anything where you are at aslike here,
soccer has become too big business. Which leads
to:
Reason 2.) When we register with the league (and
all leagues in northern Illinois are like this)
we must commit the team for playing seasons fall
and spring. So OK, even though I HATE this
over-competitive philosophy (I’ll make more sense
later below I hope) I love coaching and I have to
adapt. Why? Because if I don’t another coach will
within our own local organization. So I feel I’m
best qualified to keep a level head and try to
balance the multiple sports. I, like you, believe
kids come back “hungrier” when they are away. I
see it DURING the season. Upon sensing burnout, I
gave the kids a week off DURING this past spring
season. The assistants, parents and some players
thought I was crazy. We were cruising along in
first place, then lost two games, playing in an
upper level division, and I gave the kids
a week off. WAS I CRAZY?? We needed MORE practice
to get back on track. Right?
NO! I knew what would happen. That week
re-energized the kids and they came back to win
the last four and take first. Now lest you think
this is all about the W’s and L’s, it’s not. . .
not for me. I look for player development.
But getting to what you stated, I’m partly on
your side, but with a caveat which may be an
answer below.. Also, if you want to make your
point, go to the Leagues not us coaches. We are
stuck. Forget a mutiny, there are too
many coaches to pick up the baton and carry on.
Lastly, to show my predicament, I wanted to give
the kids the past winter off. Go play basketball,
volleyball, ANYTHING, just get away from soccer!!
Again resistance. And HERE is where I got an
education - blind SOB that I am. What did I do.
Well, OK, you want to play winter, fine. So
instead of putting the kids in a league and have
structured practice, I leased our
usual indoor time ha, ha. And what did I do,
walked out there on week one and threw a ball on
the field and said - PLAY. “What?” I was asked.
“Play. You guys pick teams and just have fun. No
score, no coaching, I’ll stand on the side and
watch. . . period.” Parents thought I’d finally
went over the edge. By week four the parents
thought I was a guru! The kids were having
FUN!. It was the best winter we had and reminded
me of when I was a kid. No structure, just pickup
games.
So, getting back to the “year round” issue.
Perhaps playing a sport year round isn’t the
problem. I grew up playing hockey and I played
year round. But half that time was “pickup” games.
How about we stop worrying about kids
playing a sport year round (some kids just like a
single sport or two) and put the FUN back into it.
I did. It worked. You want to straighten alot of
this out? Get rid of the professional training and
coaches, the big business, on a year round basis
(because man it’s definitely what I see here
in all sports), save it for one season and just
go have FUN!!
Marco M.
PS I use your methodologies for our warm-ups and
speed workouts, there is none better as far as
I’m concerned.
*****
You can listen to my response (and a few tangents) here:
Don’t forget to add your comments below.
Latif Thomas
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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 11:22 am and is filed under Speed Training . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
i dont know much about soccer, but our football team does something like that, we have the regular season then after the season is over we have like a 3 to 4 month break well then track starts then football has spring practice i tell my football coaches that i have to do track because if i can get faster it will help me in football as well, they understand, but of course they need me, but my team needs a lot of people, but thats a different story, but for some reason during the year as soon as we start track i feel real fast and i just do great but wen the seaon gets old i start to slow and im not training daily, its like i need to rest my body so i can be fast, but they say practice makes perfect, but if i practice then my muscles are tired and i wont preform the best to my ability, same for football we have practice every day after school during the regular season and soon we will be starting our two-a-days in late summer, so i think an athlete will play better with rest than working out every day because your muscles tear up( not llike an injury) when you work out and when you rest they attach back together and get stronger and bigger in my opinion, but thats me.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Latif,
In West Tennessee the year round sports are girls basketball and cheerleading. The parents aren’t thrilled, but if you don’t commit to year round training you child won’t make the team. The coaches feel they have to train all year because that is what every other coach is doing and if you don’t keep up you’ll lose games and then lose your job. The kids and parents are stuck because in these sports there are no club teams to go play on, only the school team. Thankfully the state has begun to regulate the time, but there are loopholes - especially through AAU teams.
Your information is great. I wish we could go back to the days when you could play a fall, winter and spring sport at school and then pick up games or a summer sport during school vacation. Around here everyone is trying to outwork each other.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
DEAR LATIF,I WAS A HIGH JUMPER FOR SEVERAL YEARS AND NOW I AM A DECATHLETE,IN MY FIRST COMPETITION I SEE THAT I VE GOT PROBLEM IN RUNNING.100M 11,53 400M 53,92 110M HURDLES 16,62 1500 5.30.00!!!(THE WORST!)I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU WHAT TO DO IN TRAINING IN ORDER TO BE BETTER IN RUNNING AND CONNECT THE TRAINING WITH THE TRAINING OF JUMPS AND THROWS.THANK YOU
June 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Finally someone has talked about the perils of specialization at a young age. I come from a very small school where recruiting for my track team is very challenging. I still have coaches and parents who insist on their athletes concentrating on one sport. This not only hurts other sports who need these good athletes but I have seen injuries coming from overuse. Baseball and soccer tend to be the biggest culprits in my school.
It drives me nuts when I hear talk along this line of reasoning. I couldn’t agree more whole heartedly that athletes need to do and try other sports. Talking about my sport in particular, track, really prepares the athlete for most other sports. Athletes in all sports need quickness, speed, flexibility and strength. All these things I use in my program to develop athletes. I know and understand that many of my athletes don’t have track as their first love. I’m fine with that and my objective is not only get my athletes better at track but for the sport they particularly love.
My objective is to develop a better overall athlete not just become a better trackster. I think parents and coaches have bought into a philosophy that only through doing their sport year round can an athlete improve. It smacks to me of the philosophy of the old Iron Curtain nations when they were developing their athletes to beat the “West”. That philosophy treated athletes as “fodder” for their particular sports trying to find that one or two elite athletes to showcase.
I firmly believe that athletes should enjoy sports and not treat it as big business. That may change for elite athletes but I still believe a love of the sport is important. Where has the joy of participating gone to? I think we as coaches need to be promoting sports for the joy of competition, comradery and the sense of accomplishment from having made improvement.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Latif,
I’m an AYSO soccer coach in Albuquerque, NM. My players are currently 10 year old boys. Our soccer season is 12 weeks in the fall and 12 weeks in the spring - roughly August 15 to November 15 and February 15 to May 15. That gives us off seasons in the winter and in the summer. During the soccer season, we train two days a week and have games on Saturday.
I have players who want to play indoor soccer in the winter because it’s great fun. So I signed up some of my players for the indoor league, which consisted of one game per week with no training between games.
Many of those same players want to play 3v3 in the summer because it’s great fun. So I signed up some of my players for a 3v3 league. They play one evening a week and do not train between games.
The players, parents, and I all find the winter and summer soccer to be great fun, so there is a demand for it. AYSO is a non-profit organization, and I am a volunteer coach. Our obsession with soccer year-around is not driven by profits or by fear of losing players; it’s driven by the players desire to play the game.
I’ve been coaching soccer for 10 years, and I have seen the demand for more and more soccer grow as more and more programs are offered. As a result, I am on uncertain ground. I have not yet seen any negative effect of the amount of soccer I described, but my players have only been involved in that amount of soccer for a couple of years.
So, is that too much sport-specific training? As I indicated, it doesn’t seem like too much.
Are the kids at risk of overuse injuries? Perhaps. Even without training demands, the players never go a week without executing soccer movements. They run, move laterally, turn, kick, head, and tackle in every game and have little time for the muscles to recover.
Would the players be better off if they joined a basketball team in the winter and a swim team or track team in the summer? I think that would be great for them, and In fact, some of them do. Because summer and winter soccer is optional, and the time demand is limited to one hour a week, the ones who want to enjoy other sports during the off season have that opportunity.
So, is it necessarily bad for a child to play a game they love every week?
Is it bad for them to play for fun with no pressure?
Is it bad for them to spend time playing with their friends?
You said Marco was making the best of a bad situation, but I think that may be overly pessimistic. I think by giving the kids who want it a chance to play a game they love, with no training demands, limited time demands, and no pressure to perform, you help them maintain their passion for the game.
I hope you and your readers will share more thoughts on this topic.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
You are sooooooooooooooo correct!!!!!!!!!
June 20th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Latif,
I guess I am one of those “hardcore” coaches that listened to the whole audio clip ;-), but I agree wholeheartedly with what you said!! Marco M (the innovative soccer coach) is a gem and I believe he will see the benefits of his creativity far down the road, in the way of successful athletes that still have the passion for the sport.
I am experiencing the overtraining issue, as well, right now, during summer track. We have several athletes that are spreading themselves like peanut butter between track and other commitments such as, football camps, swimming, and soccer…… AND unfortunately several of them are experiencing such injuries as, stress fractures, high ankle sprains and chronic shin splints.
Our sprint coaches tell our parents the same thing… and in many cases, to no avail. I’m glad to hear the same “sermon” coming from a track “notable”!
Thanks for all you do for, not just track (which happens to be MY passion), but for all athletes and sports, in general! Maybe in time, the concept of “rest and recovery” and “cross training” will catch on a bit more.
You’re a blessing!
June 20th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Some sports support other sports such as Track supports Baseball and Football (others?). Weight Training supports most sports since the athlete is more than likely getting stronger and this aides with injuries. Cross-Country/Track support Soccer and vice-versa.
Can’t understand why some coaches REQUIRE their kids to come to an off-season session that should be OPTIONAL.
I live in South Texas and have repeatedly heard of coaches that tell the kids that they will not play Varsity Basketball if they join the Football team or they don’t go to “open-gym” in the summer…
Worst of all these coaches are telling this to their Middle School kids… they are not even in High School yet…
Its just sad how competetive our lives have become that we have to pressure kids to make decisions when they should be able to try the sports they want to try and make their own minds if they want to specialize.
June 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Marco,
Possibly one of the best e-mails from a youth coach I’ve read anywhere online. Parents’ and athletes’ should be lucky to have you. As a trainer, working with young athletes, I enjoy working with athletes who want to be the best they could be, if that means, AA, AAA or making the H.S. team, or D1, 2, or 3 college. I appreciate their drive, dedication, and committment to being the best they could be. This country needs more youth coaches like you.
Frank
June 21st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Before I make my point, I want to note that I am just a highschool senior from a very small town. Therefore, I may be to young and niave to post an opinion on this site. I figured I would give it a shot anyway. That being said, I would like to say I am sorry in advance for any logical errors I make in my post.
I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the writings of famous Russian strength coach, Pavel Tsatsouline, but I think he makes some good points that may apply to this topic. I don’t mean this as an indorsment of Pavel, I just want people to understand where I am making my points from.
One point that Pavel makes in his strength book “Power to the People” is that of the concept of cycling. Cycling, as I understand it from Pavel’s book, is where an athlete prograssively adds more intensity to his workouts until he reaches a peak in his performence. After the peak is reached, the athlete drops down to a much lower intensity and then progressively adds more work until he eventualy reach another peak. According to Pavel, elite athletes use this method because it prevents platueas and over use injures and provides better results than simply working at 100% capasity at all times.
( pages 50-51)
If you think about it, this is almost exactly what Marco (the coach from the 3rd email) did for his soccar team. Once his team had peaked and began to fail, he dropped the intensity and workload down and started building up again to a higher peak. My point is that even hardcore strength coaches like Pavel, who used to train elite russian special forces, understand that pushing an athlete to his limit all of the time is destructive, yet many highschool and youth coaches think that it is the only way to improve an athlete.
In another of Pavel’s books, he quotes one of his friends, a power lifter named Marty Gallagher:”Marty Gallagher told me that a perfect strength year is made up of two 12-week competition powerlifting cycles,,, and two 12-week off-seasons when a variety of exercises are practed” (found on page 157 in “Enter The Kettelbell”) Even elite athletes have some variety in their year-round training. Young athletes should defenitily have variety in their training year. It is not only ethical, it is essential to the athletes progress,
Finally, I would like to point out a bit of satire regarding russia’s training methods. Even though their athletes were probably treated like fodder, if the evil empire was anything like Pavel says it was, their athletes did not train like our athletes do in their year round programs. After all, periodization, along with the cycling method, is an old Russian concept, which means that even Soviet Russia understood the concept of an off season. I don’t mean this to be an attack on anyone else’s post. I just wanted to point out that this problem is even bigger than we think. Even Soviet Russia treated it’s athletes better then we do ours.
The only way that I can see of fixing this problem is to change the thinking of the coaches and parents of kids at the youth and even highschool level. Convince more coaches and parents that, as Marco seems to understand, the human body cannot perform at its peak all of the time, and that performence doesn’t fallow a straight line, but has peaks and drops like the stock market ( another one of Pavel’s analogies.) Certianly it isn’t fair to pick on just the coaches and the parents, but things are not likely to change at the top of the tree if you don’t start with the roots. parents in particular need to be educated, as they have the most power with this issue.
As I said before, I don’t mean to promote Pavel ( especially on a website that already offers plenty of excellent resources anyway), I just mean to be ethical with my use of other’s information (after all, kids aren’t supposed to plagerize. right.) Therefore, if you want to know were I found Pavel’s books and training methods, they can be found on dragondoor.com
Again, I wish to point out that I am a simple highschool athlete that felt the need to rant about this particular issue. I hope none of my foolishness has affended anyone (nor my poor grammatic and spelling skills for that matter.)
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
Latif, I totally agree with you & have heard the same thing for years (that it’s bad to play one sport year round due to muscle/joint overuse & injury). I have 2 boys (9 & 10 years old). My philosophy has been for my boys to try & play different sports to see what they like (soccer, baseball, basketball, football, tennis, golf & wrestling…they’ve tried all of these). I’ve never had them play the same sport more than once in a year.
Now I do encourage them to play something 3 out of 4 seasons in the year, because I want them to stay active & healthy. I don’t want to see them sitting in the house watching TV & playing video games.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Hi Latif
I love to watch soccer and rugby I play rugby myself but the problem I acurd was that the fittniss traning of the difrent sports have taken iets toll on me and I dicided to only concentrate on one sport and only do the other for fun, about 1 year has past after I made the disision and I can’t tell you how much beter it feels to do only one kind of fitniss instead of 3 (atletic’s soccer and rugby)
Wessel du Toit
(400m hurdels athlet, boksburg, South Africa)
July 9th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Year round soccer is a by-product of every training system ever devised. If one is good then ten must be better. Secondly you will find that behind this process is a revenue stream.
Having spent most of the years of my youth trying to become a great athlete and many of my adult years coaching I know fro where I speak.
These programs and attendant coaches hold out the holy grail that this is the way to a college scholarship or a pro career. I have two words for this…B… S….
The true secert is GENETICS plain and simple.
That doesn’t mean that proper training as demonstrated by Mr. Thomas will not make you a better athlete but if you don’t have the right genetic make up no amount of legal training will give it to you. At 6 feet 145 pounds I could dunk a basketball and had a measured VO2 of 74, Frank Shorter was 78 at the same time. I never played basketball above the high school level and never ran faster than 15 minutes for 5k, why?
I could not squat my own weight and/ or I was constantly getting nagging injuries.
Year around competition only let’s you learn to do what you already know how. I have learned from the best, Igor Verhosanky (progenitor of plyometric), Michael Yessis,PhD. Mel Siff, PhD. Baruch Elias ( coach of 30+ individuals to high jump better than 7′ including 3 past American Record holders).
If you look at a pro baseball player and a 10 year old they both throw the ball with exactly the same motion. The difference? A muscle biopsy of the pro player will fast twitch fibers are nearly 100% while for the average child they will propably be in low 80’s. With very specific training you may get some of the intermediate fiber s to help but you will NEVER approach the abilities of the pro athlete, THEY ARE BORN.
Point in case: None of the children of Jim Ryun or Micheal Jordan have aven approached the performance of their parent.
LET THE KIDS HAVE FUN. Teach them the proper techniques in game skills and training and get out of the way.