Youth Specialization

Having kids as young as five years old specialize in just one sport is 'damaging'

It used to be that children would change sports with each season or balance two or more sports at the same time.

Nowadays, it's more common for children as young as five years old to train in one sport year-round.

Rick Bevis, sports psychologist and professor of sport, health and physical education at Malaspina University-College, thinks parents are the main force behind the growing trend.

"Parents have stars in their eyes. They treat their kids like little professionals," said Bevis.

What the parents aren't taking into consideration, Bevis says, are the technical, physical and psychological damages limiting a child to one sport can cause.

Early specialization can lead to physical and psychological burnout, loss of transferable athletic skills, a greater risk of overuse and repetitive stress injuries, higher levels of pre-competitive anxiety and difficulty coping with athletic failure.

"Children who play one sport for a long period of time don't get to use different muscle groups, obtain an uneven body balance and their movement patterns become rigid and uniform," he said.

The Journal of the American Chiropractic Association says that the period between the ages of five to 13 should be "sampling years." A time when children can try a variety of sports with a de-emphasis on competition and winning.

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