‘Starting them young’ often abused

HONG KONG — Because of space constraints, the last paragraph of last week’s column ("Social Capital and Basketball Situation") could not be accommodated. 

That last paragraph reads, "Also, too many people speak on behalf of the parties concerned. FIBA has only one spokesperson: (Patrick) Baumann (FIBA secretary general). It may be instructive to remember when too many voices are being heard, proper dialogue or argument is almost impossible as people trade slogans and clichés (that make good copy but not much else) and, worse, abuse."

I also had stated that were it not for the new episode in the controversy, I would have written about the undue pressure on the youth to excel in organized competitive sports in the name of the saying "starting them young." People, especially parents, misuse and abuse that saying by putting more meaning into it than was intended.

This Holy Week break in Hong Kong provided the new opportunity to write about the dangers of what has now become known as premature sports specialization especially at pre-puberty or around 13 years.

During this visit, I accompanied my five-year old grandson (first born of my daughter Jennifer and son-in-law Bryan Villanueva) Rafael to a summer camp at the South Island School. There I saw how the kids were being exposed to a variety of sports (as opposed to specialized training in one sport). That three-hour visit affirmed what the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stated in its policy statement, "Intensive Training and Sports Specialization in Young Athletes."

The AAP states, among other things, "Children involved in sports should be encouraged to participate in a variety of different activities and develop a wide range of skills. Young athletes who specialize in just one sport may be denied the benefits of varied activity while facing additional physical, physiologic and psychology demands from intense training and competition."

Another authority, Tim Alan Kauppinen cites four dangers of specialization. Kauppinen who has over 20 years of experience as an athlete and coach states that overuse injuries is one such danger. 

The three others are burnout, non-achievement of full athletic potential and the college scholarship myth. Playing one sport day after day, week after week, year after year can lead to burnout and overuse injuries at a fairly early age. Non-specialization provides breaks and other experiences to keep a primary sport interesting, challenging and fun, according to Kauppinen.

With respect to the danger of not achieving one’s full athletic potential, while focusing on one sport will help the athlete develop the necessary sport-specific skills, the athlete will not develop other athletic skills that would transfer to his/her primary activity. Speed, balance, mental focus, jumping, twisting are all stressed differently in different sports.

By engaging in multiple sports, athletes gain the opportunity to learn transferable skills such as the volleyball player who learns balance from taekwondo and timing from ballroom dancing.

Another article, "Too Much, Too Early: Hidden Risks of Early Sports Specialization," from AdvantEdge, a sports performance training service of Integrated Performance Systems in El Segundo, California, states, "A recent study of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention found children ages five through 13 had the highest sports related injury rate of any age group, with 59.3 injuries per 1000 people. The American College of Sports Medicine suggests that approximately 50 percent of overuse injuries sustained by youth athletes could be prevented if more emphasis was placed on the development of fundamental and fitness skills."

Perhaps a simple way of explaining this is to imagine a child who is gifted in math. If that child is made to master math, his ability to gain knowledge and develop his ability in other subjects such as English, science and social studies could be curtailed.

As pointed out by former Philippine Sports Commission chairman Perry Mequi, the growing and developing body of a child entails maturation in the muscular, skeletal and nervous systems. 

If a child just swims, his musculature may just be developed for swimming. He will then lack the muscular strength and quick reaction time that may be developed by, say, basketball, badminton or table tennis. Most of all, by not being exposed to sports that require split-second judgment, he may not develop the mental ability to make quick decisions.

Proponents of early specialization, on the other hand, point to the media-powered high profile successes of tennis mega stars like Venus and Serena Williams, golfer Tiger Woods and basketball’s Michael Jordan.

On the other hand, David Susanj of Butte Public Shools in Montana and Dr. Craig Steward, Professor at the Department of Health and Human Development in Montana State University cite in their article, "Specialization in Sport: How Early, How Necesssary?" several studies (Bill, 1977 and Hill, 1987) that show there is little to suggest that specialization makes an athlete better at a sport.

The two authors also say that though Hammel (1974), Yaffe (1982) and Ryan (1995) cited several examples of great athletes who began specializing in early childhood, there are many examples of successful latecomers to sports as well. Bill Rogers, New York and Boston Marathon winner, began his running career at age 15, and Jordan wasn’t good enough to make his varsity high school team until his junior year (DiFiori, 1999).

To be sure, more empirical studies, especially those mundane to the Philippines, are needed to help us make more informed policy statements on this sensitive issue and to guide us in our acts. To begin with parents who have made tremendous emotional, psychological and financial investments on their children, and thus have high expectations of their children should find such studies helpful.