Over Scheduled Youth
I was having a conversation today with the owner of RPM Athlete Performance in Boston, brainstorming how we can get more of our athletes up there into the gym on a more regular basis. During the course of the conversation, he mentioned a conversation he had with the father of two athletes. The gist of it being that although yes, the father does recognize the value of training with us, his kids are already training/playing/practicing on at least one, if not two teams each season, sometimes across disciplines (in this case, lacrosse and hockey), and to add something else to that workload is asking a lot. (These kids are high achievers in an ISL school, impact players on their teams, and doing something sport-related 7 days a week, on top of the school!)
I recognize that the landscape of youth athletics has changed, with seismic shifts coming in the past three decades. Recreational sports programs have fallen more and more by the wayside, the amount of money dropped by parents to help their child get a leg up on the competition has reached staggering heights, filling their schedules with travel team and school team practices, extra training sessions with skills coaches and strength coaches, all in addition to tournaments, travel, combines, and, oh yeah, school. I feel like what is missing from this is unstructured play and time away from having a stick or ball in hand. Time where an athlete can disconnect from their sport and just have a bit of fun or relax (and no, I am not talking about wasting away in front of a computer screen).
The reason this is an important thing for an athlete to do, primarily, is to give their body and brain a break from the patterns of their sport. Everyone, parents and players alike are aware of the dreaded overuse injury. Well, how does that come about? Short answer, it's from spending too much time working one pattern of movement over time and as a result the body slowly loses its ability to maintain homeostasis (balance) and this lack of balance leads to an injury. By breaking the pattern, or pulling the body into different patterns that are in opposition to or completely divergent from the overtrained one, you actually begin to create resiliency within the body.
What do these patterns look like? Well, let's say you’re a skier, than running would be a great way to add a little diversity to your training program. Lacrosse or Hockey player? How about some soccer? Learn to move without a stick in your hand while still playing a game that involves a lot of the tactical skills seen in the primary sport. What if you want to do something a little more lowkey? Yoga or a dynamic stretching class/session might be a great option. I am personally a really big fan of meditation as an option for reducing stress within the body and allowing for better recovery between training sessions.
Although the first response to this might be “great, when exactly are we supposed to do this with our already full schedule?” I would suggest that you look at your schedule and see what might be repetitive and excessive. This might come as a shock to some parents, but if your son or daughter isn’t the best 13 year old in their league, it’s not the end of the world. I did not decide on my sport until I was a sophomore in high school and I still managed to earn a scholarship to a Division 1 program and have a very successful college (and now post-college) career. The fear that your child will be “behind” because they didn’t do all the extra training other kids have done is understandable, but it’s also not the whole story. The most important thing is that you allow your kids to develop into good athletes, not good lacrosse players, not good basketball players, but good athletes. If they are a quality athlete, then it will not matter the sport they chose to go within the end, they will have the tools to be successful in it and will learn HOW to be successful in it quickly. Give them a wide and varied toolbox of skills that they can then refine over time.
I have included a list of suggestions and a timeline of when young athletes should look to specialize in a sport. This is by no means the only way to go about it. If you want to use it and realize your 12-year-old has already been specializing for a few years now, don’t pull a complete 180 and throw them into anything but their sport, simply open up the option for other sports or activities and let them decide what they want to do (with some gentle nudging if they are stubborn about trying something new).
Expose kids early to a wide variety of sports. Most youth leagues start as young as preschool, get them out there!
Kids should be participating in at least 2 or 3 different activities. They don’t all have to be sports, they can be an instrument, yoga, acting, arts and crafts. Whatever they are, make sure there is some variety, remember, we are trying to provide a wide and varied toolbox for them, not a single tool.
Specialization should not begin before the age of 10, I personally feel like freshman year of high school might even be too early, but there are some sports (gymnastics) that require the early commitment. If that’s the case, try and maintain balance around the sport. In all likelihood, when their career is over they will still be under the age of 18, that’s alot of time left to do different and new things, don’t place them in a position where they can’t pivot out of their sport when the time comes.
Once specialization occurs, time for other sports and activities will decrease, but try not to let it disappear entirely. Again, this is all about balance.
Good alternative activities to supplement specialization in a sport include yoga, meditation, swimming, running, strength training, music, and dance. Whatever it is, make sure its low stress and mentally relaxing. You have enough going on with your sport and in school that more stress will not be what you need.
Colleges can officially start reaching out to prospective recruits by junior year, you have until then to decide what you want to do, so don’t panic if you’re not sure before then, you aren’t alone.
Please leave any comments you might have below. If you have any questions or would like to talk about this, please shoot me an email at thaddeus@goaldrivenhabits.com