Teo Ser Luck: “Are youth specialising in sports too early?”

Hi all, this is a very important issue to take note of. I will start my comments by assuming that the title question is refering to local Singaporean youths. However there are no documented empirical evidence that our youths are specialising early, although there are quite a few anecdotal evidences that I have gathered through observations of my own and the people I worked with.
Now having said that, the next 2 questions we have to ask is “What is considered early specialisation” and “What is the problem with early specialisation?”
Briefly, early specialisation means that most of the child’s time is devoted to only 1 sport or activity (eg. music as well) at a very young age. Very little time is left for him/ her to explore and try other sports.
So what is/ are the problems? Well, there are many scientific and social research that indicates a high risk of getting chronic injuries, early burn-out and early drop-out, loss of motivation in other areas of life, psychosocial problems (as in having problems in maintaining normal interpersonal relationships) and losing the passion for the sport, etc. The child will missed out on other important motor skills and strategic thinking skills that are important in the later period of adult life.
Yes, we can counter argue that if we miss out on the ‘window period’, then we will miss the chance to develop a world champion. But hang on, we cannot be 100% sure that the child whom we thought have the fullest potential will really become a world champion! Please bear in mind of our limited population size, compared to other sports power houses. We cannot afford to ‘waste’ or ‘destroy’ a child’s future by having him/ her to devote most of his time on just 1 sport. Also, What are the odds of having a success story? I say 1 in a million. I met 1 athlete from a major country in Asia who was sent by her parents to a sports school in hr home country. All she does is to train. No academic schooling, just train. Her hope: To achieve an olympic medal. But what if she fails halfway? She will hae nothing to fall back on. Even countries like Australia and USA are very careful with how they train and prepare their young athletes.
Next, many people think that the purpose of talent identification is for early specialisation. My personal take is that this is a misinformed decision to make. Yes, talent ID has to be conducted early but that does not warrant in removing the child from other activities and plonked him/ her into just 1 sport. What we should do is to take note of such children and track them as they grow. Schools, schools sports councils and NSAs have to work closely on this. We must be aware that as a child grows, puberty sets in and can affect future performances. A child can be a star champion but a few years later he/ she may not. Another crucial factor to take note of is the change of interest. One can like baseball during primary school but in JC, he/ she may swtich to tennis, for example.
The thing is that if the child is not expose to a variety of sports, the child will lack the experiences to make an informed decision of what they like to do when they grow up. So what then is the recommended age to specialise? Anwser is 18 yrs and above. Before that the child just need to have a go at as much variety of sports as possible.
My parting shot: As parents, are we clear headed enough not to neglect other aspects of their lifes and insist on them to make it to the national team for example, just to relive our own childhood dreams or just because everyone else is doing the same thing? As teachers, are we aware of the possible long term physical and psychosocial damages that we may inflict on them? Who takes responsibility of their problems in future? As officials and specialists in sports, are we educating the public, parents and youths ehough to recognize this potential problem? Can we start by having a detailed plan on youth preparation, from grassroots to world-class standards and assure ourselves not to rush the kids? I believe we all can.

Our athletes should indeed be exposed to a whole host of different sports, a mixture of sports will help the athlete develop all the necessary motor skills to improve overall coordination, dexterity and agility. That way there is cross training and a transfer of knowledge from sport to sport, like table tennis to soccer to improve goal keeper reaction time, or even Badminton to capt ball agility movements. Coaches also use cross training to ensure their athletes remain interested and do not get bored, like letting rugby athletes play beach soccer or even waterpolo.

Looking at our western counterparts, most of their olympic athletes are mature athletes in their 20s, whereas our singapore talent is drying up after 16 years old, and we’re only recognised on the world sporting arena at an age group level. One can say that specializing early might lead to early burn out long before our athletes reach their prime age for elite level competition.

Perhaps MOE/SSC should reconsider their policies for promoting a variety sports in schools, so that coaches and teachers will not feel the pressure to win competitions in order to get fundings, but rather the focus should be on participation, learning and promoting sports to the students. Some schools even do not allow their athletes to take more than one sport.

Perhaps even teaching sports science knowledge to students would help shed light on the problem of early specialization, thus teaching students what they’re in for if they specialize early.

I think specialization should not be practiced too early. this applies also within a sport such as athletics where a runner may be exposed to events of different distances before specializing in single event. even though the national coaching accredition program teaches coaches to refrain from specializing at too young age but due to the competitiveness of theinter school competition coaches are forced to specialize their students to produce good results. however removing the inter school competition is not a solution either. this is a deep rooted problem of having the mindset to produce quick and fast results without proper long term planning. just my 2 cents worth! 🙂