I love the fall. The humidity finally drops and the crisp, dry air invigorates me. To me, fall means baking tasty dishes in the oven (and not overheating the house) or snuggling under a blanket to warm up in the evenings. And fall means soccer. Fall soccer in our household brings excitement and joy. Andrew especially loves to play soccer. After pretty well not touching a soccer ball from the end of May until the end of August, he lights up when the first day of soccer practice rolls around. I love to watch him play, because he is both energized and at peace during practice and games. If the boy ever danced, it would be on the soccer field.
Next week Andrew will start playing for a different league, where he knows none of the coaches and only two other players. He is totally looking forward to it. And this is a child who doesn’t look upon new places or new people very comfortably. But at this point, he doesn’t care about the newness of this soccer season, because he loves playing. He has been away from soccer for long enough to be eager to get back into it.
Below is a blog article that I wrote two years ago. As the fall sports kick into high gear, this still seems relevant to me, and worth re-posting.
==>Disclaimer: this will probably raise some eyebrows or possibly blood pressure, so let me first state that if you are happy with your family’s education-fitness-life balance, this conversation is not intended for you. This is more of a conversation for those families who have seemed to be seeking the right balance and especially those who are looking for help deciding which sports their child should play/when/how often. Also, note that this is my own humble opinion and not a judgment on any specific family/parent among my friends and acquaintances. I’ve formed these opinions based on many conversations and observations plus my own experience as an athlete. I’ve been cooking up this recipe for about 20 years.
To put my opinion out there as a bold statement, here’s my thoughts in a nut-shell: elementary age students should be discouraged from specializing in one sport. There, I said it! Now if you haven’t blown a gasket, here’s why:
1.) Burn-out- I really think focusing on one sport from say first grade/second grade (or earlier!!) is NOT going to lead to a lifetime love of playing that one sport. I think that most children who do the same thing over-and-over-and-over will trend towards being dead-tired of that thing. Let me give a non-sports example: I know a woman who was fed macaroni and cheese every day for three years of daycare/preschool lunch. Now she cannot stand to eat anything with melted cheese in it– makes her nauseated. Now I’m not saying that kids who do year-round gymnastics or who play select soccer will be nauseated by their sport, but I do think many will be tired of playing their sport by or before college. I’ve seen burn-out in high school and college with teammates, and I’ve talked to more than one athlete friend who loved to play their sport, but eventually became burned out/tired of playing. If you start specializing in elementary school, by the time you get to college you may have already played for 13 years. That’s a long time to be doing something formally, especially without any variety!
I specialized in running the 800 meters for four years of high school and two years of college, but that was only during the track seasons. I also played basketball and ran cross country and took time off. Even so, after switching my focus from the 800 to a whole slew of other distances later in college, I ran considerably faster than I ever ran before. And after nine years running cross country during only the fall months– nine years of racing 5K distances, I still am not to excited about racing that distance any more. I question whether I would even be running for enjoyment if I started running formally, much less exclusively, in 1st grade or even 4th grade.
2.) Injury– I really think that the human body doesn’t take kindly to doing the same type of motion over and over. Ask any non-elite marathoner whether they would rather run that distance on a totally flat course or a course with undulations– if they say flat, I say they haven’t run a marathon yet! Repetitive stress injuries are a part of our world because our bodies are not always (not usually) as efficient/flexible/strong as they should be. The more you do one motion, the more any small quirks in that motion lead to aggravation, irritation, and eventually injury.
I’ve participated over the past five years in a total of about sixteen months of physical therapy. Of the children I’ve seen rehabbing at the physical therapist’s office the vast majority were sport-specialists. Not basketball-baseball-swim kids, but one sport kids. The body needs time to rest and recover; switching sports gives some of those muscles/joints/tendons a chance to rest while others get stronger. A little uphill or downhill running in the middle of that marathon uses different muscles and different motion; even that uphill feels good after running a flat surface for a long time.
3.) College Scholarship/Parent Agenda– The best reason I can think of for an elementary age child to focus one sport is because that sport is the only one they are passionate about and love. The worst reasons in my mind are the parent’s agenda reasons– be they a desire for their child to be the best, be like the parent, or some day get compensation for the sport either through scholarship or professionally. College is crazy-expensive and I only see it getting more so. But if your child is playing select basketball in third grade because you are hoping that they can get a college scholarship to offset the costs, I would say that is a huge gamble with their future. See the burn-out and injury notes above. I would contend that this is a desperate method to finance your child’s education.
Two years ago, a statistic on CBSnews.com put the number of sports-participating high school students who received a college scholarships for athletics at two percent. Another statistic I found, on usnews.com puts the number of high school students participating in sports at 55.5 percent. So doing the math, here’s the numbers: Let’s say a child attends an elementary school with 700 students, like my kids. By the numbers, 388 of those children will participate in one or more sports in high school. Taking it to the next step, out of all the grades, a total of 8 of those children would statistically receive a college scholarship for athletics. Average that over six grades and statistically speaking we are talking about one child in each grade. So the odds are pretty terrible if you are banking on that college scholarship. And let me add one more statistic: that average scholarship two years ago was NOT a full ride, it was $11,000 according to cbsnews.com. Considering at the time of my research, the average in-state tuition for colleges according to collegedata.com was over $22,000, I would say the whole focusing on one sport to get a college scholarship is NOT a financially sensible plan.
4.) Formal Practice– There are plenty of kids who play a sport over-and-over during their school years and don’t get injured, learn great life lessons, and have a ton of fun. My son played soccer at both recesses throughout his 1st grade year. It was awesome for him. He made friends, learned how to deal with “those second graders who cheat” and blew off a ton of steam. To take it a step much further, I hear stories of many cultures where soccer is what you do– every day growing up. There are plenty of other sports and examples of this. I have no problem with the repetitive less formal pick-up games. In California where I went to school, plenty of kids played handball every day throughout the whole school year, for elementary school through high school. It seemed like a great, healthy outlet for them.
I believe the focus on one sport becomes undesirable when it involves formal practice. Some days in first grade, if my son just wasn’t feeling like soccer, he would swing with his friends on the playground. If your child is feeling under the weather or hurting particularly bad, there is much more pressure in a formal team/practice/coach setting to still compete or play. If it’s just the guys out on the recess playground, well there’s always other friends to join on the swings.
Let me close by adding this: these opinions are honestly mine that I first formulated running in high school. I was fortunate to be able to participate in the amazing competition that was California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section athletics. For those non-west coasters, the top athletes in the CIF Southern Section were good enough at cross country and track and field to run competitive collegiate level times as high school athletes. These kids are F-A-S-T on a national level. I have images burned in my mind of unbelievably fast girls running in the elite race at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. Sac). It was like watching superheroes for me. In particular, I remember watching Julia Stamps run. When I first wrote this blog I ran a web search on her, because I have lost track of her running career. I found an article that summarized all that I would have predicted; her self-described greatest moments in running came before college, and after college. During college, if you read the article, you will find burn-out and injury. When I watched her run at Mt. Sac, my honest feelings were, “Dang, she’s fast!!!” AND, “how much longer can she really keep this up?” And I wasn’t thinking in terms of seconds or minutes– more like years. I would contest that the only reason she achieved running success after college was that she had a traumatic injury which re-energized her and brought back her desire to run.
If you really love a sport, a little time off, especially when you are growing, developing, and “just a kid” can keep that love alive for longer. As Andrew illustrates, absence from a sport, even just for a summer break, can keep the joy and excitement alive. As a parent, I encourage you to make sure your child takes that time off. It’s so much easier than your child having to take time off due to injury or losing the joy of participating in the sport.
Pretty Blue Cere 