S B Coaches College - Tip of the Month July 2005




		S B Coaches College Tip of the Month July 2005

Athletes of all ages are becoming less and less athletic. Today’s athletes don’t possess as many movement skills as in the past. Technology and society have played a key role in decreasing the amount of movement we perform daily. The rise of computers and the internet has allowed us to do everything from writing letters to grocery shopping all from a seated position. Kids are more interested in the latest sports video game than they are with going outside to actually play sports. It is also not as safe as it used to be to just go out and play for our children. We hear at least once a week about another kidnapping, and we warn our children about wandering too far.

Another critical factor is early sport specialization. Many of our athletes are encouraged to specialize in one sport at an early age. This is one of the worst decisions a parent and athlete can make for their progression as an athlete. By investing a great amount of time into one sport:

An athlete can become uninterested and bored.
Developing athletes often lack attention span and get bored very easily. The more they perform the same activity over and over again, the greater the chance that they will lose interest. The beauty of engaging in multiple sports is that each season, they will play another sport…fall: soccer, football, field hockey; winter: basketball, hockey, swimming, diving; spring: baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis. Athletes should play as many sports as possible and specialize late in their high school careers.
They expose themselves to a greater risk of overuse injuries.
When performing the same activities over and over again, the same muscles and movements will be worked, which can lead to overuse injuries. Developing athletes should perform a variety of movements to develop the entire body. This will help to ensure proper muscular balance and reduce the chance of injuries.
Lack of motor skill development.
Performing the same movements over and over again can not only lead to overuse injuries, but will also stunt the development of the complete athlete. It is generally understood that the more motor skills an athlete possesses, the better they will be later on when they specialize in a particular sport. A greater variety of motor skills increases an athlete’s spatial awareness, body control, and obviously the amount of motor skills he can perform. The ability to perform a variety of different movements will help later on in an athletic career when the athlete decides to specialize in one sport. Having the ability to perform a number of skills allows the athlete to easily learn new skills because of the aforementioned benefits.

We hope you can see that having your children play a variety of sports early in their careers will benefit them in more ways than one.