Early Sport Specialization: Being first out of the blocks but losing the race?

When it comes to Early Sport Specialization for young athletes, perhaps Bob Dylan said it best …“the first ones now will later be last, for the times they are a changing”.  In my Sept. 2^nd blog I posted two articles concerning Early Specific Sport Specialization. Each gave a global perspective by taking a look at other countries around the world that have dealt with this problem for longer than we here in the USA have.

Considering all the negative aspects involved with Early Specialization, the following anonymous quote comes to my mind: "Never let your memories be greater than your dreams." 

Who would want their children to excel in their pre-adolescent years and be burned out, injured or passed up by peers in their mid to late teens?

What seems to be THE “recurring theme” provided by experts in the most advanced sporting countries concerns the higher rates of joint injuries in elbows, knees, shoulders and lower backs AND with muscle, tendon and ligament damage due to overuse. A large number of these injuries have required surgery and, as related below in the overview of Dr. James Andrew’s book, could have been prevented.

Think back to my post with the article on Dr. James Andrews. In that article his book: ANY GIVEN MONDAY: Sports Injuries and How to Prevent tem for Athletes, Parents, and Coaches-Based on My life in Sports Medicine was mentioned because all the proceeds from the book go to efforts to educate parents and coaches of young athletes on the dangers of early Sport Specialization.

Here is a short overview of this book:  Every year more than 3.5 million children will require medical treatment for sports-related injuries, the majority of which are avoidable through proper training and awareness. Dr. James Andrews, an orthopedic surgeon, sports medicine pioneer, and consultant to some of the fiercest teams in college and professional sports, distills his practical wisdom and professional advice to combat a growing epidemic of injury among sports’ most vulnerable population: its young athletes.

The multitude of joint injuries among young athletes can be divided into two categories:  1) Repetition Related Joint Injuries and 2) Intensity Related Joint Injuries. Both can be avoided by placing limits on high volumes of sport specific or event specific (throwing, kicking, jumping, etc.) movements, avoiding large increases in specific practice volume and year-round training for one event or sport before the age of 16-18.

In the “HIGH RATE OF LOWER BACK INJURIES REPORTED IN YOUNG ATHLETES” by Loyola University Health System, the following recommendations were given to help prevent injuries to the lower back:

1)    Practice or Training should be stopped for one week if there is pain in the low back, elbow, shoulder or knee.

2)    If symptoms last longer than two weeks, evaluation by a Sports Medicine Physician is recommended.

3)    In racket sports, athletes should evaluate their strokes to limit extending their backs regularly by more than a small amount (20 degrees)

4)    Do not spend more hours per week than your age playing sports. (Younger children are developmentally immature and may be less able to tolerate physical stress).

5)    Do not spend more than twice as much time playing organized sports as you spend in gym and unorganized play.

6)    Do not specialize in one sport before late adolescence.

7)    Do not play sports competitively year round. Take a break from competition for one-to-three months each year (not necessarily consecutively.)

8)    Take at least on day off per week from training and sport. 

Recommendations by experts from all major sporting countries consistently advises parents of young athletes make sure their children participate in a wide variety of sports IN ADDITION to making sure they are exposed to EARLY “movement education”/ “physical literacy” types classes.
These points have already been hashed over in MANY of my blogs. It is frustrating to see how many SPECIFIC SPORT TRAINING PROGRAMS are popping that are aimed at youngsters aged 10-15. If you go back to my posts on FMS and AMSC skills, you will see that exposure to these skills and activities AND participation in a wide variety of sports and “FREE PLAY” can better prepare children for athletic success in their late teens than pouring money into specific sport training.

Let’s use the latest “wonder-kid” on the block in Track and Field, Devon Allen, as an example. Allen, in his first season of Collegiate Track at the University of Oregon won the 110 High Hurdles and set a NCAA Championship Meet Record in the event. His time of 13.16, obliterated his previous best of 13.27 that he set only two weeks before in the West Regional. 

Even more unusual than a true Frosh starting his college track career in March at 14.00 and finishing it with an NCAA Championship AND Meet Record was that Devon was concurrently involved in Spring Football as well. 

In high school Devon would play Football in the Fall but divide his Winter and Spring amongst volleyball, soccer, baseball and track…at the same time!
Last Spring, he participated in Football three days a week and track two days a week and only hurdled on one of those days in addition to competing in meets. His competitive schedule also included the 400 Hurdles which is considered one of the hardest races in the sport of track. In addition to all of this he ended his track season by WINNING the USA Track and Field Championship at 110 Hurdles in Sacramento!

Just another of MANY examples of high level success built upon the platform of multi-sport participation which resulted in the acquisition of a complete arsenal of movement skills, speed, strength, stamina and overall athletic ability. Look for him this Football season as a Duck Wide Receiver!

With the booming Fitness and Sports Training Industry that is so aggressively marketed to athletes of all ages, I think the following perspective by a coach from one of the leading Athlete Development Facilities in the world provides some insight on the RIGHT philosophy for young athletes and coaches.

In an interview for his new coaching job with World Athletic Center, Kyle Hierholzer, former Kansas State track coach gave great advice to BOTH young coaches and young athletes. Below are the questions and his answers.

What is the single most important piece of advice you would give to a young coach looking to become the best they can be?

Find good mentors and communicate. I consider myself very blessed to have been around some awesome mentors in my career like Cliff Rovelto, Chris Beene, Don Hood, Galina Bukharina, Mike Smith, Boo Shexnayder, Todd Lane and several others I’m forgetting who all took the time to answer the questions of a young coach and athlete. My purpose is not to name drop when I mention them, but I think it’s important that people who are so willing to give back to our sport be recognized though many of them wouldn’t even want to be. I am looking forward to continuing to learn from all of the world-class coaches at the World Athletics Center. I don’t think it ever stops. As coaches we can learn from athletes, therapists, teachers, etc…Find what you believe in, and know what you won’t compromise about, then continue to search for knowledge.

And a young athlete?
Depends on what we mean by young, but one of my biggest soap box issues for really young athletes is to try and become as well rounded as possible! So many athletes are specifying in an event or in a sport at such a young age that we are seeing, at least anecdotally, a less well rounded generation of athletes who may be limited in the long term, by being so specific at a young age. Other than that I think finding a program you believe in, keeping a positive attitude, and staying the course through the ups and downs of training and life can go a long way for young developing athlete.

The answer above by coach Hierholzer concerning being limited in the long term IS exactly what Training Centers for Pro and Elite Athletes are discovering. Regardless of the high level of athletes that places like The World Athletic Center are working with, they OFTEN find it necessary to blend in FMS and AMSC skill education and development. This is due to the fact that those who are most athletically gifted often times advance to the “elite” or “pro” ranks despite not having the complete foundation of movement skills. In order to take their performance to a higher level, it is necessary to infuse these foundational movement skills into their training programs.

These facts speak volumes about failure of earl Sport Skill Specialization to consistently produce high performance athletes  that not only make it into collegiate competition BUT continue to improve through their college years.

Please read the following two articles with the first providing more evidence about the problems associated with Early Specialization by young athletes and the second a great philosophy developed by a world renowned coach that has simplified the process needed for successful development of young athletes.

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Effectiveness of early sport specialization limited in most sports, sport diversification may be better approach at young ages

Source:American Medical Society for Sports Medicine

Ever-increasing requirements for success in competitive sports has created added pressure for young athletes to train with greater intensity at earlier ages. The goal to become the next Olympian or more commonly, to obtain a college scholarship, motivates many parents to encourage their children to specialize in one sport at a young age. This has resulted in an increased demand for year-round sport training programs, facilities and products. But is this approach really an effective way to generate long-term success in competitive athletics?

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John P. DiFiori, MD, President of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, Chief of the Division of Sports Medicine and Non-Operative Orthopaedics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Team Physician for the UCLA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, says that few who specialize in one sport at a very young age make it to elite levels. "With the exception of select sports such as gymnastics in which the elite competitors are very young, the best data we have would suggest that the odds of achieving elite levels with this method are exceedingly poor. In fact, some studies indicate that early specialization is less likely to result in success than participating in several sports as a youth, and then specializing at older ages."

Dr. DiFiori encourages youth attempt to a variety of sports and activities. He says this allows children to discover sports that they enjoy participating in, and offers them the opportunity to develop a broader array of motor skills. In addition, this may have the added benefit of limiting overuse injury and burnout.

A UCLA sports specialization study surveying 296 NCAA Division I male and female athletes, average age 19, found that 88 percent participated in an average of two to three sports as a children, and 70 percent did not specialize in one sport until after the age of 12.
In a similar study of Olympians in Germany, results found that on average, the Olympians had participated in two other sports during childhood before or parallel to their main sport. Both studies support the concept of sports diversification in adolescence -- not specialization.

In his nearly 20 years serving as a team physician for the UCLA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Dr. DiFiori appreciates the benefits of sports participation in general -- increased self-esteem, self-discipline, development of leadership qualities and social skills, and overall health and well-being. But he warns external pressure on a child to train and compete in one sport at an early age may cause more harm than good. Social isolation, lack of independence, preferential treatment, abusive relationship, burnout and injury are some of the potential negative effects.
"Physical activity contributes to a happy and healthy childhood," says Dr. DiFiori, "however, parents, coaches and children should monitor and measure their involvement level in a singular sport against the overall well-being and future success of the participant."

Dr. DiFiori presented, "Early Sports Participation: A Prescription for Success?" on Thursday, April 18, 2013, at the annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine in San Diego, Calif.
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From the Blog: Mcmillan Speed/Strength

Saturday, 9 June 2012

By Stuart McMillan

Last week, in Regensburg, Germany, Adam Gemilli ran the 'A' standard for the 2012 London Olympic Games, and the two fastest times in the country this year: 10.11 and 10.08. Adam is 18 years old, and just began full-time sprint training in January of this year. He is destined to become the next Usain Bolt then...right?  

(he's already faster than Usain was at 18)  

Well, not necessarily....

This result, and the emergence of another world-class British junior sprinter (there have been many over the years), got me thinking again about the macro-development of the athlete - how is it that some athletes seem to get faster year on year, while others peter out soon after (or even before) making the jump from junior to senior ranks?  

There is much in the literature regarding the long-term development of athletes (Atko Viru is the leading researcher in this regard, and offers an excellent review of adolescent athlete development and critical windows of trainability in Critical periods in the development of performance capacity during childhood and adolescence. European Journal of Physical Education. 4(1): p. 75-119. 1999 - http://www.sportmanitoba.ca/downloads/LTAD%20workshop%20history%20&%20science.pdf). 

As well, the now well-used (and abused) LTAD (long term athlete development) model developed by Canadian Istvan Balyi is liberally applied throughout the world in various sporting federations (although I feel Balyi’s model is excellent, and - learning as a coach in the Canadian system in the 90s, I was one of the first to be exposed to it -  the evidence of its efficacy is limited - either empirically or scientifically;  if interested, read Ford, P., M.D.S. Croix, R. Lloyd, R. Meyers, M. Moosavi, J. Oliver, K. Till, and C. Williams, The long-term athlete development model: Physiological evidence and application. Journal of Sports Sciences. iFirst article: p. 1–14. 2010 - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02640414.2010.536849 - for an excellent review).    The LTAD model identifies various key stages of development through an athlete's adolescence; but there is little that speaks specifically of the period after this - i.e. the main professional career of the athlete. 

Although probably not novel, I have developed a three stage macro-development system that identifies key qualities and their relative importance during the athletes' career. Please accept that this is a massive over-generalization, and there are many exceptions to it - but for my simple brain, it helps to organize things in this way. It is truly a work in progress, and there is much to add and refine.  I base the model on what I feel are the limiting factors of the three stages of an athletic career: genetics, programming, and lifestyle.  For those familiar with and/or who follow Balyi’s model, the first stage of my model incorporates the first four stages of his (up to the “training to compete’ stage).

Stage 1: Genetics

This stage follows the athlete from the time they get into the sport, until 'maturity', which normally is between 15 and 17 for girls, and 17 and 19 for boys. The adolescent growth spurt (puberty) occurs as a result of a large increase in the rate of production of growth hormones, thyroid hormone and androgens. During this time, there is also a significant improvement in brain organization - particularly an increase in the rate of myelination in the pre-frontal cortex, positively affecting the efficiency of information processing.  Together, this neurological and endocrinological acceleration accounts for great changes in the young athletes' physical potential. it is here where the talented young athlete will begin separating himself from his peers. 

After this period, the rate at which improvement of these processes occur slows down significantly, and it is this period of 'stabilization' which signifies the end of the first stage in the development model. 

Although the rate at which these changes occur can be affected somewhat by what the young athlete does (I.e. what he eats, how he trains, what he thinks about, etc.,), it is mostly controlled by genetic factors. Although there are exceptions, for the most part, the performance of the athlete will fall between a fairly narrow band-width, no matter his or her coaching and programming situation. The young athlete can get away with having poor nutritional habits, poor mechanics, poor coaching, etc., and still perform to a very high percentage of his or her potential. This is why we see young athletes in all sports succeeding in spite of their programs and coaching situations - genetics is by far the largest indicator of success during this period. 

This is not the case, however, as they continue with their athletic careers. 

Stage 2: 'The Program'

Let's assume that two athletes enter the second stage of their development with everything relevant being equal, including identical genetics. The more successful athlete will be the one with the most successful 'program' - by which I mean, the athlete that has the best coaching, the best therapeutic input, the best strength and conditioning set-up, the best nutrition and supplementation, the best mechanics, etc.  It is for this reason that coaches can have the greatest influences on an athletes' careers during this period. The gifted athlete could effectively float through their adolescence with a poor coach and program, and still enjoy great success, as the coaching will not - for the most part - affect the genetic potential. However, without a good 'program' during stage 2 of their careers, the athlete is doomed to plateau, get injured, become demotivated, and even become worse. It is in this stage where we lose a lot of gifted athletes - athletes that were promising juniors, that for some reason just couldn't make the jump into the senior ranks. This is often put down to bad luck, but truly there is always a quantifiable reason why the athlete does not continue to develop and improve. 

A common mistake that athletes and coaches make during this stage is they continue to do the work that got them there; assuming that the same program that got the athlete to run 10.30 will get the athlete to run 10.20 and 10.10 etc.  but the road that takes you from A to B, will never be the same as the one that takes you from B to C. 

The body does not work that way either.  It is a complex, dynamical system, with complicated causal links and non-linearity in dose-response. It is ever-changing. In fact, the athlete you coach on a Monday is not even the same one you coach on a Tuesday. The inexperienced or naive coach, though, will continue going to the well - continually expecting consistency in results. And instead of the athlete improving year on year, we often produce demotivated and injured athletes, who spend the remainder of their careers rueing their 'lack of luck'. 

It is essential that the most talented athletes (i.e. the ones who leave the junior ranks as the best performers) are working with the most talented coaches in the best-supported programs as early on in this stage as possible. Otherwise, we get stuck with a bunch of broken, disheartened athletes playing catch-up with their careers. 

For those that do find themselves in good programs, though, there is no reason why they cannot go from strength to strength - it is these athletes that become the Olympic Champions and world record holders. 

Stage 3: Lifestyle

A talented athlete in a good program can continue improving throughout the first part of their senior careers - most will hit a plateau in performance in their late 20s; but what is it that stops continued progress, and is there anything we can do to halt, delay, or aid in this process?

If an athlete is still competitive late into their careers, invariably they begin to pick up more and more external stresses: the successful ones will have more media and sponsor demands and more travel expectations; while both the successful and less successful will need to learn how to adapt to an ever-increasingly complex world. It is during this time when athletes begin to think about getting married and having children, and begin to experience pressures related to money and post-career situations (i.e. what to do with the rest of my life) - life truly begins to get in the way!

Besides assistance from an effective support team - including lifestyle advisors and sport psychologists - we, as coaches can help our athletes extend their careers in a number of ways. 

The body does not necessarily differentiate between stress related to training and stress related to other factors, so in times where we know the athlete has additional external stresses, for instance, we can help to control the overall systemic load by reducing training load. By being clever with how we structure training, coaches can truly add years to the athletes' careers. A strictly regimented and structured training program is no longer necessary, nor optimal. Instead, a more fluid and dynamic program - designed with the specific needs and stresses of the athlete in mind (and usually involving the athlete in the programming process) is most effective. A fluidity in both structure and detail can be very empowering to the veteran athlete, can help to sustain motivation, and will lead to a longer and more healthful career. 

Adam Gemilli is about to enter Stage 2. He is undoubtedly talented, by all accounts has an excellent head on his shoulders, is in a good program, with a good coach, and will assumedly enjoy excellent support services. I very much look forward to watching him moving through the stages, and hopefully developing into a fine world-class sprinter.