This is a topic I’ve been excited to write about. This blog is going to look at problems associated with kids specializing in a certain sport early in life.
Since I moved to Canada, it’s been pretty common to come across families who have their kids playing hockey 3-5 times a week. This starts at a pretty young age and I believe it’s at a detriment to the child’s athletic potential.
There are a lot of studies that you can find which have data on a lot of what I will mention here, but I’m going to share some of my thoughts and what I think is best to develop your kid’s athletic abilities.
I spoke to a guy at my gym recently and one of his children is looking like he will get a scholarship for school. So my question to him was what does he think the likelihood of his son making the NHL…he replied maybe 1%.
I admired his honesty as I think a lot of people could have high expectations at this point, and they would probably be valid given the level his son is playing at.
We talked about his kid’s hockey over the years and how often he played etc. This kid is on the ice pretty much 7 days a week. To me, this is crazy!
We can use hockey as a sport for this blog, but it doesn’t really matter as this applies to all sports.
So, as a parent, you decide to get your kids involved in hockey for an after-school activity from a young age. In Canada, kids can be on the ice around 3-5 years old. It starts off maybe once or twice a week and they might have some other activities like swimming on other days. Great! This is a perfect start to developing their athletic potential.
The problem is that they start to show some potential in hockey, so when they are 6 or 7, the ice time is up to about 4 times per week. Other activities start to drop out of the schedule as time, cost and logistics just don’t allow for anything extra. This cycle continues as they get better and coaches want them training more. The kids enjoy the sport so they want to keep playing, and the parents think the best way for them to get better is to play more…
WHAT IF THAT’S WRONG?
What if you are hindering their potential by specializing in a sport too early…
The first humans on earth didn’t do the same thing day in day out. Their most physical task would probably be the hunt or battle. This wouldn’t be done every day though. Generally, we aren’t designed to do the same task day in day out. Everyone knows that sitting at a desk all day causes problems with posture/back pain etc. Well, think about skating every day and what that could do to the knee/ankles etc.
Remember this could be any sport. I’ve absolutely nothing against hockey, I enjoy watching it and would’ve loved to play it as a kid. Unfortunately, nobody even knows who Wayne Gretzky is in England, let alone how to shoot a puck.
SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
I believe you want to incorporate many different types of fitness into a child’s program and a 4 pronged attack works well:
- A Team ball Sport – team sports are essential for developing character and becoming a sportsman. Most team sports involve a ball (or puck) which is great for developing hand-eye coordination.
- Swimming – As a parent, I think it’s essential for peace of mind that your child can swim. It makes holidays much more enjoyable. This is also a great sport for developing mental toughness. During long swims, there is a lot of time to think and learn how to cope on your own.
- Gymnastics/Functional Training – Body awareness, moving the body through full ranges of motion, developing different energy systems and getting stronger are what any professional sportsman is constantly working on. Getting ahead in this game is HUGE!
- Martial arts/Wrestling – Learning how to control emotions and getting ‘beaten up’ once in a while is another great way to build character. These sports can be a hard grind, especially wrestling.
A lot of the top pros in sports did not specialize in that sport at a young age. I was watching the Kansas City Chiefs and their QB Patrick Mahomes II was playing three sports at a high level all his school years. He only quit baseball in 2016 and I believe having multiple sports added to his athletic capacity and has made him the player he is.
A good way to implement the 4 pronged attack is to pick two sports which are quite different, swimming and hockey for instance, and train each for 4-6 months twice per week. Have a few weeks of doing nothing other than playing with friends and then do the same for another two sports, Jiu-jitsu and gymnastics.
You can start this process as early as you like and rotate through all the sports over 5-6 years until they are around 10 years old. It good to have a base strength and conditioning program going during this period, not lifting max weights, but developing positional strength, agility, and mobility etc.
Once your child is 10, you will understand which sports they are good at and most importantly which sports they enjoy. Now you can get more serious with 2 or 3 of these which they can carry on throughout high school. The longer they can keep up multiple sports, the better their athletic development and the lower the chance of injuries due to repeated movements.
Think of it like school education. When they are younger in junior school there are lots of different subjects. As they get older, the subjects become more specialist until they are studying a small niche for a Masters degree. This is how I believe sports should be.
As I mentioned, this is my opinion and you can find a lot of information out there that can give you some solid cases. If your a parent that wants your child to be athletic and maximize their potential in sports, then doing your research around this topic is important. Winning at 8 years old means nothing, enjoyment and developing lots of different skills is what will count when it matters most.
Thanks for reading
Darren