Hannah
Freibert
Mr.
Logsdon
AP
English Language & Composition
13
December 15
Detriments of Specialization
Time. Swimming is all about time. Counting
it. Dropping it. Adding it. For eleven years of my life, I have figuratively
revolved around time. It’s almost remarkable to me, then, how easily I lost
track of it. And now I stand before you presenting a speech that was
frantically thrown together over the course of 48 hours. But wait, let’s
rewind. Eleven years. That’s a decent sized chunk of time. Now, imagine me as a
wee lass. Circa 2004, I swam, I played soccer, I did ballet, hell, I even did
karate. Karate was the first to go when I cried because I wasn’t able to chop
the two by two plank of wood in half. Next came ballet, because it was getting
difficult, neigh impossible, to juggle three sports, especially as the demands
of each increased as I aged. And, if you know me even somewhat intimately, then
you also know that by age 10, swimming had claimed the last man standing.
Coincidentally, a study by Sports Health
shows that it’s at this age that young athletes typically specialize in a
sport. This specialization, this elimination, came naturally, in my mind. It
seemed logical. When in fact, there is nothing logical about this. Rather than natural,
it is damaging.
Early sport specialization refers to
intense year round training in a specific sport, usually with the exclusion of
breaks or other sports (Journal of the Canadian Chiropractor Association). Studies
show that this form of hyper-specialization leads to both to physical and
psychosocial problems.
A few weeks ago, my anatomy teacher Mr.
Rexford had our class raise our hands if we know someone who has torn their ACL.
Granted around 75% of hands were raised, it was clear that this wasn’t any
deviation from the norm, no Kevin Ware injury. But then, Mr. Rexford revealed
that in his entire middle and high school lifetime, he did not know a single
person who tore their ACL. The reason? There was no push for early
specialization. Most kids of his era would play football in the fall,
basketball during winter, track come spring, and take the summer off. With the
intensity and frequency that young athletes train today, our bodies aren’t
built to sustain the pressure. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractor
Association did a case study that attests just this. The subject of the study began
playing baseball year round at age 6. Once older, he played for a local team in
addition to an elite travel team. During in the “off season”, he engaged in
high intensity throwing programs. The result? A sprained ligament in his elbow.
So he lets it rest for a while and goes back the following season. He pitches
again, throws out his shoulder. This is the story of just one individual; there
are multitudes by his side.
Personally speaking, my team offers 12
practices a week. Do I go to all of them? No. I mean, how often does a teen
really want to get up at 4 AM to get in a pool? However, there was a time when
my schedule consisted of the full 12. Day in and day out, I trained, along side
of others. And soon, one of my teammates was out for the season for shoulder
problems. And then, another needed surgery to repair a knee injury. And
another. And another. And then I, myself, pulled my groin. And, shockingly
consistent with the case study, I rested it for 6 months, jumped back into
training, and pulled it again. I know, every athletes dream, right?
Layola University found that youth who
engage in specialized training are 70% to 93% as likely to be injured as those
who, lets call it, balance their training (Changing the Game Project). In fact,
specialized youth athletes have a 35% chance of injury overall (Akron
Children’s Hospital). And I think I could make a safe bet that if I told the
parent of an eight year old that there is only a 65% chance their kid will
emerge unscathed, they would think twice before signing them up for U8 travel
soccer.
The deleterious effects do not stop
here, but extend their reach into the psychosocial realm of health. Youth
athletes specialized in a single sport are affected by high levels of stress (Wiersma).
“Children who specialize early are at a far greater risk for burnout due to
stress, decreased motivation and lack of enjoyment” (Changing the Game
Project). 12 practices per week? Where is the time? The time for school? The
time for friendship? The time for sleep? The 24 long hours that fill the day
are in fact too short to house this kind of hyper-specialization in a healthy
adolescent. It’s like handing a 10 year old a pen and sheet of paper with,
“Dedication
to:
-Academics
-Athletics
-Biological Needs
-Socialization”
listed
on it and instructing them to just “circle two”. Student athletes shouldn’t
have to choose between something that should be easy, something that should be
enjoyable, and biological needs, sleeping, eating.
And I know what you’re thinking; if
what I say is true, why do so many kids further this trend? I mean, these
people are young but they are not incapable of thinking. They can’t be blind to
the harm being inflicted, can they? John O’Sullivan, founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project, suggests that
youth sports have done just that. Changed. Now, there’s this push to become
“elite” at a younger age. Coaches will tell parents,
“Hey, you know I think you’re kid has a lot of
talent, and want them to play on my travel team this winter. But if he doesn’t,
there may not be a spot for him come spring.”
Likewise, these high commitment
teams at ages as early as 7-8, provide an outlet for college “opportunity”.
With the push coming largely from coaches and parents, kids feel as if their eight
year old travel soccer team is preparing them to play in college, or even pro.
In reality, around 6% of all youth athletes with play in the NCAA. And what’s
more, less than 3% will go on to the pros (Journal of the Canadian Chiropractor).
Which brings me to my next point,
the pressure from parents. But every parent thinks his or her child is special,
so don’t get me wrong. You’re child could
be in that 6%. Or, they could be in the 94%.
I have a friend who swims as well.
His parents, we’ll call them Ted and Mary, are also his coaches. So how he
performs in the pool carries over to the dinner table, and I found out that I
mean this quite literally. In a conversation once, he told me that when he swam
poorly, his parents would put a lock on the snack cabinet so that he was only able
to eat at family mealtime. And by no means do I mean he was starved, but what
parent locks their kitchen up? Those
aren’t the actions of a parent; they are the actions of a coach… and a poor one
at that.
So what I encourage for you, then,
is to find this balance. Young athletes shouldn’t suffer from the physical and
psychosocial detriments that these pressures are producing. They shouldn’t have
to choose. If an athlete is 12, then let them play three sports. If you’re
seventeen, and you’ve committed to baseball, take the summer off and compete in
summer league swimming. Whether you’re balance is fully resting an injury, or
playing ultimate Frisbee along side of swimming, or taking seasonal breaks, or even
just taking the week of finals off when you know you will spontaneously combust
into tiny little atoms if you even think
about swimming, find that balance.
Bibliographies:
Jayanthi N, Pinkham C, Dugas L,
Patrick B, Labella C. SPorts specialization in youth athletes: Evidence based
recommendations. Sports Health: A Multi-disciplinary Approach. 2013; (5): 251
Ferguson, Brad, BSc, DC, and Paula
J. Stern, BSc, DC. "A Case of Early Sport Specialization in an Adolescent
Athlete." Journal of the Canadian Chiropractor Association (2014):
n. pag. Web.
Colgeni,
Joe, DR. "New Study Finds Fault in Hyper Specialization in Youth
Sports." Akronchildrens.org. Akrons Children Hospital, 19 June
2014. Web.
O'Sullivan, John. "The
Detrimental Effect of Early Sport Specialization." Changing the Game
Project. N.p., 3 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
O’Sullivan,
John. “Changing the Game in Youth Sports.” TED. Apr. 2014. Lecture.
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