Early sport specialization is a topic of great interest to sport scientists, but does it factor into parental choices regarding their child’s involvement in sport?  Despite the best efforts of athlete development researchers to make their case, the level of early sport specialization continues to increase.

Being informed about child and athlete development can help parents and caregivers make the best decisions for their child and the entire family.  We all want the best for our kids, however accessing unbiased information in the world of ‘hyper-organized, competitive, adult driven youth sport, can be a challenge to say the least.

Sport performance is a result of a complex interaction of multiple factors, including genetic, social and cultural factors, making the question of when to specialize that much more challenging.  

What is early specialization?

Early Sport Specialization in its most intense (and growing) form occurs when athletes between 6-12 years of age discontinue all other sports to focus on one main sport. (Note that there are a few sports that are known as ‘early specialization sports’ and are not the focus of this article)

Why does early sport specialization get such a bad rap? 

Early sport specialization is generally recognized to have several negative consequences, namely increased risk of burnout, premature withdrawal from sports in adolescence, and a doubling of the risk of suffering an overuse injury. And for those select few early specializers who do make it to the top levels?  Early specializing elite athletes tend to have shorter, less enjoyable careers.  

When we look across multiple sports we see that most elite athletes participated in multiple sports throughout childhood and middle school before gradually narrowing into their main sport around the age of 13.  This well-established fact does not seem to influence those planning youth club sport or setting team selection criteria, however.

Then why is sport specialization still on the rise?

The main reason cited for early specialization is players’ and parents’ belief that it gives them an advantage when seeking to be selected by junior or varsity sports teams or considered for a sports scholarship   The short-term benefit of early specialization can be compelling to many, especially when some sports have team selection camps occurring early in the sport’s development process, in some cases as early as 14 years of age.   This begs the question of the role that our youth sport system plays in perpetuating the trend.

If not early specialization, then what?

Who has time for ‘Play’?  

It is important to note that adult elite athletes who played a lot of pick-up games (street hockey, backyard soccer, etc) as a kid generally stand out among top athletes as those who genuinely love playing their sport (intrinsic motivation) and have longer and more enjoyable professional careers.  

Well this is more confusing than ever…

Not to fret - The early engagement hypothesis has emerged as a pathway that many sport minded families may resonate with.. this pathway shows a trend of elite athletes who started their eventual sport of specialization at an early age, but rather than specialize, they combined this sport with participation in other sports and relatively high amounts of deliberate play.  

An example would be a professional hockey player who started playing hockey at an early age but played other sports in the off-season and had plenty of time for pick-up games at the ODR or at the ball diamond.  So, ‘early engagement’ but not ‘early specialization’.  

What about Tiger Woods?  

Key takeaways for sport organizations, coaches, parents and guardians

1. Excellence Takes Time: We don’t expect our kids to know how to do calculus by grade 3 and we don’t have them focus on only one subject in elementary school so why do we think this makes sense in sport?   
2. Be aware of the biases towards early specialization in team selection: Do we want to create athletes who are the best today or when it really matters?

• Keeping in mind that most successful junior athletes do not become successful senior athletes, whereas most of the successful seniors athletes were not as successful in former junior competitions – consider what message we are sending – and how many kids are missed - with the current competition and selection models.
• Coaches/clubs/leagues - Resist the temptation to gain a short-term advantage by weighting selection towards earlier specialization or by allowing relative age effect (selecting the bigger or faster youth, when these are temporary effects due to earlier birth dates) to influence athlete selection.
• In most cases, whether or not the young athlete reaches high performance (for example, Junior National Champion, selection to Junior World Championships), early specialization may shorten that athlete’s sport career.

3. Youth sport programs for younger children should help develop diverse movement and game skills instead of focusing on only 1 sport: In other words, whether it’s a swim, baseball, soccer, or gymnastics program, programs for children in the Discover stages (around 6 to 9 years old) should include a variety of non-specific games and movements. This helps children and reduces pressure on parents and guardians to register them in multiple different sports.  Village Kids is excited to be offering this type of programming with local minor hockey associations .

4. FUN is no joke: The # 1 reason kids stay in sport at all amateur levels is Having Fun and the # 1 reason they drop out of sport is because they are NOT having fun: Whatever sports your child is playing, talk to your child about what makes sport ‘fun’ for them and help orchestrate a sport experience that keeps them coming back. 

Additional References:

Current perspectives on multi-sport participation: https://sirc.ca/blog/perspectives-multi-sport-participation/

https://www.parentsinsport.co.uk/2020/07/01/what-parents-need-to-know-when-it-comes-to-making-sport-fun/