Sport Specialization in Youth: A Literature Review

Journal of the American Chiropractic Association, Apr 2004 by Hecimovich, Mark

Sport administrators should have a thorough understanding of structural and functional differences that exist between children and adults and design programs that are safe in both training and competition. Special education/certification programs (clinics/seminars) need to be organized and systematically implemented for coaches working with the children of a defined age group.9

Sport managers/administrators as well as all those involved with athletics need to know that not every child is going to be an elite athlete, but every child deserves to have an opportunity to participate. There should be a variety of programs within the sport to ensure that the needs of the vast majority of the children are not sacrificed for the highly skilled minority. Organizational and administrative policies should support coaches who emphasize skill improvement, rather than winning, as long as the coaches provide a good atmosphere for athletes to succeed. Sport administrators should control participation in two respects: (a) costs-to make it affordable for young athletes and their parents, no matter their economic standing; and (b) intensity-the balance of participation and competition must not interfere with the young athletes' and their families' social lives.9 The balance between developing a successful sports program and understanding the dimensions associated with sport specialization creates difficult decisions for athletic directors/managers, but these decisions should be viewed within the proper context that sports in schools should be fundamentally educational and child-based.

Parents should understand that their children's training will be long-term. The phrase, "a champion cannot be made overnight," while taught to athletes to ensure adherence and loyalty to a demanding schedule, ideally is a long-term training program's guiding philosophy. Such a program should allow for appropriate training breaks crucial for physiological and psychological recovery from training, at which time an athlete could balance complete rest from the sport with participation in other sports or activities at a lower level of intensity. When a child reaches an age at which he or she is physiologically and psychologically mature enough to handle increased training loads, specialization at that time may be justified to optimize the positive adaptations accompanying the advanced intensity and duration of training.8 Parents should be advised to allow the child to participate in important decisions, respect the child's aspirations, and be wary of overinvolvement.44

Sport managers/administrators should work with parents to ensure that the child athlete has coaches who are knowledgeable about proper training techniques, equipment, and the unique physical, physiological, and emotional characteristics of young competitors.74

Coaches should strive for early recognition and prevention and treatment of overuse injuries. Child athletes should never be encouraged to "work through" such injuries.50 Also, no sport program should restrict the diversification of physical skills or social development of athletes before 15 years of age. The child must also be permitted the freedom to choose programs that are less intense and allow for participation in other sport and non-sport activities without the guilt sometimes experienced by talented athletes who are pressured by adults to remain in a sport.8