Hidden Problem of Early Sport Specialization

Early sport specialization is not only about children getting injured too young because of only playing one sport (and, therefore, not reaching their potential as athletes - this is the club sport model), it is also about - and dare I say this is the more important, yet less discussed part - how the early sport specialization model removes the opportunity to teach children how to take care of themselves from a physical movement and strength perspective, by focusing solely on sporting success and mastery. 

In our fanatical quest to produce the top athletes, we effectively are a country producing adults who do not know how to eat healthfully or keep their bodies strong. We set them adrift in adulthood to fend for themselves. Many only knowing to search out an adult league [soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc.]. High school sports were, for many, the last time they were “in good shape.” It is understandable how this would be what is naturally sought out.

Recently, I caught the end of a conversation between Ryan Wood, one of SAPT’s coaches, and one of our interns, Iman. They were talking about the problems with early specialization in sports and how that affects the general population over the long term. 

What is early sport specialization? The more traditional definition: when a child younger than age 15 plays one sport year-round. My expanded definition: when children are taught from a young age via PE that physical health is found in competitive team and individual sports.

During this conversation, Ryan brought up a great point that I had never thought of before: All of the conversations surrounding early sport specialization generally consist of explaining why these athletes that are specializing in one sport at a young age are getting injured and how detrimental this is for developing athletes to their full potential. True.

But what Ryan pointed out was that this is a very short-sighted concern. You see, Ryan teaches physical education (PE) and is very focused on long-term human development. So he really gives a lot of thought to what we, as a society, are doing in PE and more specifically about what PE should be doing for us. 

In my opinion, the concept of physical education is just the same as learning math skills or learning science skills. We should be learning how to take care of our physical bodies in a step-by-step process and then taking these skills with us into adulthood and using them over a lifetime. 

Learning how to take care of our physical bodies (Physical Education) at a young age and progressing appropriately through high school could help us - again, as a society - dramatically reduce injuries and illnesses associated with inactivity and poor food choices. And, honestly, just produce happier adults.

As best I can recall, I’m not using anything that I learned from my 12-years of physical education. I remember learning to play dodgeball, kickball, ultimate frisbee, archery, dancing, volleyball, and basketball, but that was about it. 

Teaching while modeling how to care for yourself physically should be the foundation of Physical Education programs.

For the most part, PE was the time to goof around while looking forward to my volleyball practice after school. Getting to shoot a compound bow for a couple weeks was pretty cool, but a life skill? Not quite.

I would have been far better served by being taught some strategies to help me stop spraining my ankle regularly and learning to become more mechanically sound in throwing a ball to lessen the painful tendonitis I developed in my elbow. Both of these issues prevented me from competing to my fullest, but in the long-run [read: even today] are both recurring issues that harken back to when I was 14 or so.

Everything in PE was and is at an introductory level. The skills being taught do not effectively build on each other. Think about it this way: how do we learn to read and write? It starts with simple things like learning the alphabet, learning sounds, and learning words. Over time, we gain varying levels of mastery of the language(s) we’ve focused on learning. The skills build on each other. 

We can generally say that physical education is not currently working the same way as other subjects are taught - and it should be! Children are learning a rotation of specialized sports skills. Not the knowledge they need to take care of their physical bodies.

Please check out Part 2 of this blog: How America’s PE approach normalized the inefficient and dangerous youth sports development model at the club level.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT

Coaching Advice: Trust Your Gut

This post is really for strength coaches, those already working in the field and those working towards their degrees and gaining experience. One thing I want you to remember is, trust your gut. There have been many times in my career where I felt like I was being questioned or told what to do by those who weren’t in the position to make those calls. However, they felt like it was their role to tell me how to fulfill mine.

I just want to encourage you, if you're a strength coach, even if you're new, open your eyes, observe what’s going on around you, and if something looks off, speak up in an appropriate way. You don’t want to be constantly challenging people, that’s usually just annoying and disrespectful. However, it will be valuable for you to speak up, voice your observations and voice your opinions. I say this because after probably fifteen years of experience, I’ve realized our eyes are about the most important thing for what we do.

Watch practices, watch how the players move their feet, their hips, how they turn. Watch every little detail of how they move. After thousands and thousands of hours of images logged into your brain, it is shocking what you are able to notice.

If something doesn’t look right to you, after all the data in your brain about movement patterns, you should speak up. There will be many times where someone will disagree with what you have to say, and that’s alright. Take their opinions and information and try to make sense of it. Do some research and really give their opinion an unbiased look to see if it works out. If it truly doesn’t make sense, move on and continue with what you are doing.

I think the tides are changing in the strength and conditioning field, I think strength coaches are beginning to be viewed as extremely knowledgeable and a foundational component to any performance program. They are the experts on performance, not the medical staff. The medical staff are sometimes the people that believe they know better than you, but in truth have no idea what they are doing when it comes to the nuts and bolts of a safe, effective, and up-to-date performance program.

Trust your gut, performance is your profession, not theirs. They don’t have the eyes you do, they haven’t seen the things that you have seen. They would most likely never be able to notice a correct movement pattern from a faulty one at full speed. Stay in your lane, but make sure others stay in theirs as well.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT

Sarah Walls Interview with Dr. Pam Peeke on RadioMD

I had the great opportunity to chat with Dr. Pam Peeke a couple weeks ago for HER podcast on RadioMD.

Dr. Pam has built an incredible resume over her career, but the part that struck me was this is a physician could talk-the-talk with me (as physicians can rarely do with fitness professionals). Plus, as a lifelong competitive athlete - now at the masters level - she has a great perspective on the process of competing or simply getting fit for the first time.

I highly encourage you download and listen to my episode on getting Fit & Fabulous - I go over some of my favorite exercises - plus, you'll learn about my tips on getting started and maintaining progress.

Coach Sarah Walls, founder of SAPT, is a professional performance development coach and personal trainer with over 15-years experience. SAPT offers athletic training programs for individuals of any age and background. Please contact us below if you'd like to learn more.