Page 10 - The Hockey Academy News June 2018

To specialize or not to specialize in youth sports; that is the question...
The landscape of youth sports has certainly changed over the past 20 years with more and more coaches and parents advocating for year round participation in a single sport or what has become known as sport specialization. Early sport specialization is defined as “intense year-round training in a specific sport with the exclusion of other sports at a young age” while diversification is “participation in a variety of sports and activities through which an athlete develops multilateral physical, social, and psychological skills.” The motive behind this shift to the former varies from the thought process that early introduction and frequent repetition of a particular skill leads to increased mastery of that skill to the attainment of college scholarships based on athletic ability. While one cannot argue that the purposeful, deliberate practice of a given skill ultimately leads to a greater level of expertise, we must also consider the negative effects this early participation and specialization is having on our athletes. And to what end I ask? When you take a look at statistics from the NCAA they show that the probability of high school athletes competing in college athletics ranges from 3.4% in men’s basketball to 5.5% in men’s soccer, 6.9% in men’s football, 7.1% in baseball, 11.9% in men’s ice hockey and 12.4% in men’s lacrosse to name a few. Among women the stats show that 3.8% of basketball, 3.9% of volleyball, 5.4% of softball, 6% of track and field, 7.1% of soccer, 10% of field hockey, 12.6% of lacrosse and 24.5% of women’s ice hockey high school athletes advance to the collegiate level. As one can imagine, the probability of collegiate athletes achieving professional status is even lower.
It is important to understand that the negative impact that early specialization can have is not exclusive to the physical domain but also applies to an athlete’s social and psychological wellbeing. Although research on the effects of early sport specialization is limited at this time, some common themes arise in the literature that is currently available. First, the time commitment that goes along with frequent, high intensity training often results in missed opportunities for social interaction with peers and poses the risk of social isolation. Also, when we consider the psychological health of a young athlete a term that is frequently mentioned is burnout. Burnout is described as “physical and emotional exhaustion from the psychological and physiological demands of the athlete’s sport” and may manifest as a decrease
10 JUNE 2018 | THEHOCKEYACADEMY.COM
in performance, agitation, sleep disturbance, nausea, frequent illness, lack of energy, withdrawal and in some cases depression. Lastly, there are the inevitable repetitive strain injuries that tend to accompany early specialization. Repetitive micro-trauma to immature bone. Muscle and tendon associated with the constant repetition of sport specific movement patterns may result in injuries including, but certainly not limited to, spondylolisthesis (a stress fracture of the spine), Osgood-Schlatter in the knee, Sever’s disease in the ankle and instability of the shoulder. Increases in training intensity and/or volume result in a greater likelihood of such injuries as there is a linear relationship between exposure and likelihood of injury.
On the other hand, if we allow our children to participate in a variety of sports at a young age, one can argue that there is a transfer of cognitive and motor skills between them. The hand eye coordination developed during the lacrosse or baseball season for instance, will transfer to hand eye coordination while handling the hockey puck. Cardiorespiratory fitness gained during the track season will transfer onto the ice during hockey season. The increase in type II muscle fibers that results from strength workouts will transfer to strength and power during hockey shifts. Along with this transfer of skill, we are also allowing for active rest which is paramount to decreasing the likelihood of injury. The question becomes, how do we navigate this new dynamic in youth sports? I recommend we step back and take a look at our priorities. Let’s consider all of the wonderful benefits of youth sports participation such as the development of lifelong friendships, the development of leadership skills, the opportunity to work as a team toward a common goal, the opportunity to play for coaches who will turn into lifelong mentors, learning how to accept constructive feedback, persevering in the face of adversity, the list goes on and on. Let’s encourage our kids to develop a love of the game and if he or she is one of the few lucky ones who is able to continue playing in college, so be it.
Crystal L Fontas, DPT Manager of Facilities Practice
Emerson Center for Rehabilitative and Sports Therapies