Is There Such A Thing As A Youth Elite Athlete ?
September 28, 2008
Dr.Kwame Brown of the Blog Move Theory wrote this provocative ,insightful perspective on the “Elite Youth Athlete” in response to the post What is an Elite Youth Athlete? Dr. Brown will be contributing from time to time and I look forward to his contribution.
There is no such thing as an elite youth athlete. There is a such thing as a child that shows an ability. However, that child is still a child.
Creating normal childhood experiences should BE the norm, not something we find time for. Yes, I know that when child shows athletic talent and promise, it almost feels like we HAVE to accelerate them as far as they are physically capable of going. The same thing happens with academically talented kids, although on less of a scale.
What are the long term costs of a child associating their self concept with how fast they run?
The fact is, it would have been perfectly ok 30 years ago for a child to be the fastest in their neighborhood, then their school, and then move on to national competition at a later age. But now, as early as a child shows promise, we start packing them off to every competition available and specializing them in one sport at the age of 8. Kids are having to sign contracts for some sports, and may see their opportunities to even play a sport competitively dwindle unless they commit year round. Kids are not little professionals, no matter how impressive that concept may seem.
Most pediatricians, child development specialists, and youth fitness specialists recommend against this early specialization. The long term effects are both psychological and physical.
Sports training issues for the pediatric athlete .
Pediatric Clinics of North America , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , Pages 793 - 802
Expectations of pediatric sport participation among pediatricians, patients, and parents .
Pediatric Clinics of North America , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , Pages 497 - 504
Parents, make sure this is not what you are doing. What does it mean to develop something to the fullest? Does that mean take advantage of every opportunity to practice, and developo it as soon as possible? The research overwhelmingly shows “no”. The best approach is to let your child’s ability to develop along with the rest of their life, not to make them into some sort of prodigy.
Kids should play sports for fun. If they are good at sports, they will continue to be good at sports. How good? Time will tell, not you.
This movement toward developing young athletes as quickly as possible and making their whole lives revolve around this one thing: This almost always at its deepest core has money (for someone, not necessarily the child or the parent) or prestige (feeding the ego) as the root. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Dr. Kwame M. Brown
Consultant, Physical Education
www.movetheory.comExecutive
Director, Advisory Board Chair
Int’l Youth Conditioning Association
www.myyouthfitness.com
www.iyca.org
Related posts:
- What is an Elite Youth Athlete?
- What Is The Financial Cost Of An Elite Athlete
- Part 2 Common Charactersitics of the Elite Child Athlete (continued)
- At What Cost ?….The Elite Athlete
- Common Characteristics Of Elite Youth Athletes
This is a great article and a great academic response. There are well known examples of athletes who were identified and trained since an early age for greatness, ex. Tiger Woods, Williams sisters-tennis, Manning brothers-football, Michael Phelps and the list goes on and on. The average parent or coach does not have the vision to see how well a child can do in the future. There are some geniuses like Earl Woods, and Phelps childhood coach who had this uncommon vision though. IMHO success doesn’t just happen. Most successfull people were identified early on by a teacher, parent, coach and guided toward that success. Highly successful people like Tiger Woods, Phelps are less likely to have a “normal childhood”. In the end the parent can still chose the level their child competes on and how the child trains.
[...] necessary? For more on the topic of Elite Youth athletes see What is an Elite Athlete , Is There Such A Thing As An Elite Youth Athlete ? and What is the Financial Cost Of An Elite Youth [...]
Hello, while I have no idea how I actually came about your blog. I thought I would spend a moment reading some of the information listed. I was really interested to find such great information on the topic. While I don’t have children, I have loved track and field since elementary school. I love the fact that you are promoting excellence in this area. I enjoy following track and field throughout the year.
Thank you for doing your part to keep young Americans, happy, healthy and engaged in such wonderful physical activities that will benefit them as they become adults.
While I agree with the panel that there is no such thing like an elite athlete, some children show great athletic ability at a young age. While Tiger, the Williams sisters are considered great athletes they are no different than some of the kids we see today. I believe some of the kids have better athletic ability than Venus, Serena or Tiger. The difference here is that their parents had a vision and decided to pursue it to the fullest. Without their parents, even though they had the athletic ability they would not have been where they are today. There parents were financially able to do so and they did. Most African-American children are athletically gifted. Our problem is we don’t always have the finances to help them pursue their dream and the sports agencies are not eager to give afro-amer. money as much as they invest in caucasian kids. But with financial help for these kids the sky is the limit. Their athletic skills are natural in their DNA.
I know, because I have a young afro-amer. tennis player soon to be a professional. check out my website at http://www.sportsparentsonline.com. See my daughter on the “Catch a Rising Star’ page. Your kid could be next!