'I love watching you play?'

After three decades of informally surveying hundreds of college athletes, two former longtime coaches have become advocates for athletes and voices for youth. Both Bruce Brown and Rob Miller of Proactive Coaching LLC, have spent their last 12 years speaking to millions of athletes at colleges, high schools and youth leagues about their views on parents and sport.

When the college athletes were asked “what is your worst memory from playing youth and high school sports?”, the most popular response was: “the ride home with my parents.” The reason behind this is that young athletes are quicker in moving on from the game to everyday life, while often parents use the car ride home to analyze the game. After a young athlete has taken off his equipment he reverts back to being a kid.

On the other hand when asked what makes the young athlete feel great after a game,  the most popular response was hearing: “I love to watch you play.” This makes it clear to the athlete that their parent has taken notice of their son or daughter playing. Kids want their parents to be just that, the unconditional loving parent, leaving the sideline coaching to the coach, the calls to the officials and the game critiquing to the team.

However, it is noted that that parents aren’t making the ride home from games unbearable for their child on purpose. These aren’t the stereotypical angry parents who spends the game hollering and harassing the referees but rather the regular parent who can’t help but talk about the game on the ride home. So the important part is finding the balance when showing your child that you are involved with his or her activity.

Maybe parents should take a lesson from their parents ... “Overall, grandparents are more content than parents simply enjoy watching the child participate.” Brown explained while speaking to a high school. The grandparent is more than content watching the game and giving a hug or kiss after the game. They also support the child with “I love to watch you play” and at not criticizing play.

Signs of a overzealous parent

• Overemphasizing sport at the expense of sportsmanship
• Having different goals then your child
• Treated your child differently after a loss than a win
• Undermining the coach
• Living your own athletic dream through the child 

 Signs of an ideal sport parent

• Cheer on everyone on the team, not just your child
• Model appropriate behavior
• Know what is suitable to discuss with the coach
• Know your role
• Be a good listener and a great encourager 

Reference 
Henson, S. (2012) What Makes a Nightmare Sports Parent - - And What Makes A Great One. Retrieved from the Internet March 19, 2012.

Contact SIRC for more information on parents and sport!

Spécialisation précoce ou tardive?

Les athlètes d’aujourd’hui, comparativement à ceux d’hier, ont tendance à s’entraîner à longueur d’année. Le sport est devenu une grosse entreprise où il y a beaucoup à gagner; de nos jours, il n’est plus question de se reposer pendant l’été de la saison de hockey ou de tout autre sport professionnel et de se présenter au camp d’entraînement en piètre condition physique. Cette exigence s’applique au niveau professionnel ainsi qu’en période de croissance chez les athlètes. Les jeunes se spécialisent très tôt afin d’améliorer leurs habiletés et leurs capacités dans un sport donné. Ils s’entraînent toute l’année pour devenir le prochain Olympien ou obtenir une bourse destinée aux étudiants-athlètes. Toutefois, la spécialisation précoce est-elle avantageuse?

La spécialisation précoce présente des avantages*: elle permet aux enfants de reconnaître à bas âge les scénarios de jeu et de développer une pensée stratégique. Par exemple, Tiger Woods et Andre Agassi se sont spécialisés à bas âge et sont devenus des athlètes extraordinaires. La théorie de la pratique délibérée* d’Ericsson et collaborateurs appuie la thèse de la spécialisation précoce selon laquelle plus on se consacre tôt à l’entraînement, plus grandes sont les chances d’exceller dans le domaine retenu.

En revanche, la spécialisation précoce limite la capacité des enfants à explorer les autres sports et à découvrir, le cas échéant, leurs autres talents. La spécialisation précoce peut aussi accroître le risque de blessures dues au surmenage* à bas âge et l’épuisement*. De plus, la spécialisation à bas âge n’est pas le seul facteur pour devenir un grand athlète. Wayne Gretzky* était un joueur de hockey phénoménal à bas âge, mais il faut savoir qu’il était aussi bon au baseball et à la course.

La majorité des organismes de sport ont adopté le modèle du développement à long terme de l’athlète; ils encouragent les filles et les garçons à commencer à se spécialiser à 11 ans et à 12 ans respectivement. Ce modèle conteste donc la thèse de la spécialisation précoce et encourage la participation des enfants à diverses activités avant de songer à la spécialisation.

Une étude* réalisée auprès de joueurs de soccer de niveau collégial conclut qu’on ne peut pas vraiment faire une différence entre les joueurs à spécialisation précoce comparativement à ceux à l’approche multisport pour jouer dans la NCAA.

En permettant à leurs enfants de pratiquer plusieurs sports, les parents font en sorte que les os et les muscles des jeunes s’adaptent à différents mouvements; les enfants évitent ainsi les blessures dues au surmenage. L’apprentissage de différents sports permet aux enfants de développer d’autres caractéristiques et de socialiser d’une façon positive avec un grand nombre de camarades, et ce, sans pression, car ils ne jouent pas au même sport à longueur d’année.

* Seulement disponible en anglais

Références de la collection de SIRC:

1. Callender S. The Early Specialization of Youth in Sports. Athletic Training & Sports Health Care: The Journal For The Practicing Clinician. November 2010;2(6):255-257.

2. Côté J, Lidor R, Hackfort D. ISSP POSITION STAND: TO SAMPLE OR TO SPECIALIZE? SEVEN POSTULATES ABOUT YOUTH SPORT ACTIVITIES THAT LEAD TO CONTINUED PARTICIPATION AND ELITE PERFORMANCE. International Journal Of Sport & Exercise Psychology. March 2009;7(1):7-17.

3. Ford P, Ward P, Hodges N, Williams A. The role of deliberate practice and play in career progression in sport: the early engagement hypothesis. High Ability Studies. June 2009;20(1):65-75.

4. Jenkins S. Leading Article: Digging it out of the Dirt: Ben Hogan, Deliberate Practice and the Secret. International Journal Of Sports Science & Coaching. December 15, 2010;5:1-21.

5. Malina R. Early Sport Specialization: Roots, Effectiveness, Risks. Current Sports Medicine Reports (American College Of Sports Medicine). November 2010;9(6):364-371.

6. Moesch K, Elbe A, Hauge M, Wikman J. Late specialization: the key to success in centimeters, grams, or seconds (cgs) sports. Scandinavian Journal Of Medicine & Science In Sports. December 2011;21(6):e282-e290.

7. Roberts W. EDITORIAL: Youth Sports: Who's Pushing the Cart?. Current Sports Medicine Reports (American College Of Sports Medicine). November 2010;9(6):323.

Early or late specialization?

When you compare today's athletes to those from the past, you will notice that athletes of today tend to train pretty much all year round. Sports have become big business with a lot at stake and for this reason, the days of taking the summer off from playing hockey or any other professional sport and coming to training camp unfit are unheard of nowadays. This is the reality not only at the professional level but also at the developmental stage. Kids are specializing early in sports in order to improve their skills and ability in a particular sport. They are training all year round to become the next Olympian or get that athletic scholarship. But is early specialization the best thing?

Early specialization does have its benefits as it allows children to understand pattern recognition and strategic thinking at an earlier stage. There are also athletes such as Tiger Woods and Andre Agassi who specialized at young ages and who would become phenomenal athletes. The Theory of Deliberate Practice by Ericsson and his colleagues supports early specialization, concluding that the earlier one can begin on focused training, the greater the chance at becoming exceptional in their chosen domain.

Conversely though, early specialization limits the ability of a child to explore other sports and discover whether they have other talents. Early specialization can also increase the risk of overuse injuries at a young age and burnout. The fact is that just because your child specializes early it does not guarantee the child will be a great athlete. Though Wayne Gretzky was a great hockey player even at a young age, it should be noted that he was also good at baseball and running.

Most sport governing bodies have also moved to the long-term athlete development model encouraging girls to begin specializing at age 11 and boys at the age of 12. This type of model challenges the notion of early specialization and supports the idea that children should be able to participate in a variety of activities before specializing.

A study of collegiate soccer players concluded that it did not really make a difference whether they had specialized in soccer or whether they were multisport athlete in order to play in the NCAA.

As a parent, allowing your child to be a multisport athlete ensures that their muscles and bones adapt to different movements, thus avoiding overuse injuries. Introducing children to a number of different sports also enables them to develop other characteristics and positive social interaction with a wide rage of new friends and less pressure, since they are not playing the same sport all year round.

References from the SIRC Collection:

1. Callender S. The Early Specialization of Youth in Sports. Athletic Training & Sports Health Care: The Journal For The Practicing Clinician. November 2010;2(6):255-257.

2. Côté J, Lidor R, Hackfort D. ISSP POSITION STAND: TO SAMPLE OR TO SPECIALIZE? SEVEN POSTULATES ABOUT YOUTH SPORT ACTIVITIES THAT LEAD TO CONTINUED PARTICIPATION AND ELITE PERFORMANCE. International Journal Of Sport & Exercise Psychology. March 2009;7(1):7-17.

3. Ford P, Ward P, Hodges N, Williams A. The role of deliberate practice and play in career progression in sport: the early engagement hypothesis. High Ability Studies. June 2009;20(1):65-75.

4. Jenkins S. Leading Article: Digging it out of the Dirt: Ben Hogan, Deliberate Practice and the Secret. International Journal Of Sports Science & Coaching. December 15, 2010;5:1-21.

5. Malina R. Early Sport Specialization: Roots, Effectiveness, Risks. Current Sports Medicine Reports (American College Of Sports Medicine). November 2010;9(6):364-371.

6. Moesch K, Elbe A, Hauge M, Wikman J. Late specialization: the key to success in centimeters, grams, or seconds (cgs) sports. Scandinavian Journal Of Medicine & Science In Sports. December 2011;21(6):e282-e290.

7. Roberts W. EDITORIAL: Youth Sports: Who's Pushing the Cart?. Current Sports Medicine Reports (American College Of Sports Medicine). November 2010;9(6):323.