The next few issues will deal with timetables in an athlete's career: when to start a sport, when to retire, and whether or not to attempt a comeback.
How Early Should an Athlete Begin a Sport?
This question is something relatively new in the history of sports. It used to be that kids played games and participated in sports as soon as they learned them from each other. Sports were activities one did with friends. There were no long-term goals. Most kids didn't grow up dreaming of sports careers.
But nowadays, some parents begin planning their children's sports careers at birth. For example, tennis player Andre Agassi, gymnast Dominique Moceanu, and golfer Tiger Woods all have fathers who began training their children in infancy.
There are a number of reasons why parents may feel a sense of urgency about exposing their children to sports at an early age:
Competitive advantage. They assume kids who start early will get the jump on the competition.
Teenage pros. They see athletes in some sports starting pro careers and winning major competitions by the age of fourteen or fifteen so they worry that a late start will be too late.
Years of training. They know that some sports, like figure skating and gymnastics, involve learning so many skills that it takes a long time for athletes to rise to the top.
Other kids are doing it. They see other young athletes excelling and want their own kids to keep up the pace.
These are all understandable reasons why parents may push kids into sports early. Most parents don't want to hurt or pressure their kids and they don't want to burn them out, but they assume that there is no alternative if they want to raise successful athletes. Usually the only role models they have are other parents who've done exactly the same thing.
Parents start their kids in sports early because they assume that it works. And they often get this idea from the people they turn to for advice, such as coaches and sports organizations. Even with the concern about athlete burnout, some sports professionals advocate youth development programs to identify and begin training talent at an early age.
For example, at least one observer suggested that the United States Tennis Association sends out a very strong message to parents by giving its money, coaching, and attention to those players willing to devote their preteen and teen years to full-time tennis. "All the focus has been placed on, all of the work is being done on and all of the money is being spent on the kids," according to Ron Erskine, an agent for Advantage International, a sports management firm handling many tennis players. "No matter what the U.S.T.A. says, the youngest kids are all they're really looking at." (1)
Similarly U.S. Soccer wants to work with younger athletes. "It is very clear that we need to identify stellar talent earlier. Now we'll be starting at age 11 and 12, like they do overseas," said Hank Steinbrecher, U.S. Soccer executive director. (2)
But from a sports career standpoint, is it a good idea to start kids in sports early? And if not, when is it?
According to a study of 108 former and present American Olympians conducted in 1995, a third said they started competing in their sports at age 10 or younger, but 54% said they waited until they were teenagers or young adults, and 20% said they were over 21. (The total adds up to more than 100%; apparently some athletes gave answers for several sports.) (3)
On the other hand, some recent studies have suggested that an early start in sports does bestow some advantages. According to a study conducted by Dr. Anthony Kalinowski, swimmers reaching the national level started training, on average, at 10, while those reaching the Olympic level started, on average, at 7. (4)
The benefits of early training appear to come from the additional hours of training over a competition lifetime. It seems that fewer hours per day over more years is better than more hours per day over fewer years.
There also may be physiological advantages from early training. (Too little research has been done in this area to know for sure.)
In addition, certain skills, both physical and mental, appear to be best learned in childhood. According to neurologist Harold Klawans, "There are critical periods, or windows of opportunity, for different types of learning. If a skill is not acquired during its critical period, then the acquisition of that skill in later life will be harder, if not impossible." (5)
But this does not necessarily mean the younger, the better. Says Klawans, "Having a youngster at age five hitting [a baseball] off a tee could be like reading to a six-week-old baby--it could be just too early to matter at all." (6)
On the other hand, since we tend to hear only about successful athletes, we don't know how many potential champions were lost because they began sports too early or too late. There has been little research to establish the optimum age at which to start any particular sport. Therefore, we have only a general sense of what works and doesn't work.
The next issues of The Creative Athlete will cover some of what we have learned from experience about young athletes.