VERSATILITY - Sport Nova Scotia

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A “Balanced Diet” Approach to Sport Development Experts: young athletes need a mix of activities to reach full potential Mark Smith has seen it all: youngsters who think firing ,000 slapshots a day will turn them nto the next Sidney Crosby. Parents ho cart their budding Mia Hamm to occer programs eleven months a year. oaches who set demanding schedules nd issue ultimatums that if a player an’t commit to everything, he’s out. In the sports world, some have eveloped a philosophy that arly specialization and increased ompetition is the path to producing uperstars. “I couldn’t disagree more,” says mith, director of sport development for port Nova Scotia. “I look at the better thletes out there, and they’re more well-rounded.” While the options—and the pressures— increase for young athletes to participate in a sport year-round, the research backs up Smith’s opinion: it’s OK for your LeBron-in-training to put down his basketball in the summer and pick up a baseball glove or a kayak paddle. It won’t hurt his chances of success. In fact, it might increase them. “I’ll sit with parents and pull documents that show them kids need Proud sponsors of Sport Nova Scotia Prepared fresh. © 2010 Doctor’s Associates Inc. SUBWAY ® is a registered trademark of Doctor’s Associates Inc. Printed in Canada. Canadian version TM Presents Dartmouth’s Ben Russell (front) excels in a canoe, but he played basketball throughout his youth as well. (Credit: Canoe Kayak Canada) different types of activities in order to develop,” says Darren Steeves, strength and conditioning coach with the Canadian Sport Centre- Atlantic. “I’ve had 13-year-olds in my office who were doing 21 hours of soccer a week. At a certain point it’s about quality, not quantity. You actually need to do less to see improvement.” Canadian Sport Centres across the country have developed a strategy called Long-Term Athlete Development (see page 7), which emphasizes that young athletes need to develop fundamental skills from a healthy variety of activities before they focus on an exclusive sport. With the exception of a few early-specialization sports such as gymnastics, athletes who narrow their activities too early actually hurt their chances of long-term success. “The mentality in our society is that more is better,” Steeves says. “I see parents and coaches who want very specific programs, but at these early stages we need to be developing the whole athlete. We’ll hear parents say, ‘This is what we need to be doing.’ And I say, ‘No, actually your son needs to go for a run.’” Branching out can also help an athlete pick up some intangibles that help in unexpected ways. National-team paddler Ben Russell says he learned valuable lessons about leadership on the basketball court, where he was a captain of his high-school Dartmouth Spartans. 6 “With canoeing being such an individual-based sport, it was good to expose myself to the teamwork and leadership skills that I gained in basketball,” says Russell, 23. “The team atmosphere in basketball has helped me quite a bit in the paddling world, especially now that I’m paddling more crew boats.” Dartmouth’s Russell comes from a family of paddlers—his older brother Andrew is an Olympian—but he says he always had the freedom to try different things. “Paddling was my main focus, but I loved playing basketball and I had a lot of friends (in the sport).” Smith says that’s another oftenoverlooked benefit of mixing it up: youth who play different sports build a wider variety of friendships—and they’re more likely to enjoy themselves while avoiding another common symptom of early specialization. “(With specialization) we really increase the risk of burnout,” Smith says. “I think we do kids a real disservice... is it really in their best interest to be so focused on one sport that they can’t enjoy anything else That’s probably what frustrates me most.” Steeves adds that the competitive atmosphere behind early specialization tends to label kids far too early, focusing resources (and pressure) on kids with “potential” while forcing others to the sidelines. “I’ve seen it shown that in most cases and most sports, identifying a kid before he’s 14 is basically futile,” Steeves says. “Those ‘Next Ones,’ they’re few and far between. And in the meantime, we’re losing kids who would be good at the sport but just haven’t developed yet.” Sport development specialists say See “Balanced Diet”… on page 16
7 Sponsored by Ages and Stages of Athlete Growth Raising athletes for life Human beings develop at a gradual rate, and their sporting path should e no different. No one would expect n eight-year-old to memorize Hamlet r drive a car; neither should he be laying a hockey schedule worthy of n NHL prospect. The Canadian Sport Centres’ Longerm Athlete Development strategy dentifies seven stages of an athlete’s rowth, each with its own appropriate evel of focus and competition. Active Start (ages 0-6) – Young hildren need a healthy dose of nstructured physical play for at least n hour a day, with 30-60 minutes f more organized activities. Unless hey’re asleep, toddlers and prechoolers shouldn’t be sitting still for ore than 60 minutes at a time. ☛ FUNdamentals (ages 5-9) – Children at this age are learning the ABCs of athleticism: agility, balance, coordination, and speed. It’s a time to focus on basic skills like running, jumping and throwing. Kids can participate in a favourite sport once or twice a week, but they should be trying many other sports three to four times a week to give them a healthy balance. ☛ Learning to Train (ages 8-12) – This is one of the most important stages of a child’s motor development, and one where they’re too often pushed into specialization at the expense of developing fundamentals. These youth can narrow their focus to three sports, but they should be spending more time training than competing (a 70:30 ratio). It’s also vital to have plenty of unstructured play… free of strict rules and competitive pressure. ☛ Training to Train (ages 11-16) – At this age, young athletes build an aerobic base and develop speed and strength, so it’s still important to focus on the basics. These youth may pare down to two sports and learn to cope with the physical and mental challenges of competition, but they should still train more than they compete (a 60:40 ratio). The Canadian Sport Centres note that these two middle stages are the most crucial period that can “make or break” an athlete. Pushing youth into highly competitive, specialized arenas too early can actually hamper their development—or drive them to burnout. ☛ Training to Compete (ages 15-23) and Training to Win (ages 18 +/-) – This is the period where the serious, elite athletes begin focusing on their prime sport, with tailor-made training programs and a higher degree of competition. ☛ Active for Life (any age) – Whether an athlete has reached the peak of her field, or decided he just wants to play recreational sports, people who’ve developed a well-rounded skill set are poised to stay active for the rest of their lives. They can join pick-up leagues, volunteer as coaches or officials, or compete in Masters programs. But if they’ve moved through the other stages successfully, they’ll still see sport as something valuable—and fun. (Adapted from Canadian Sport for Life, published by the Canadian Sport Centres. Learn more at LTAD.ca)
Page 1 and 2: Issue 40 March 2011 A publication o
Page 3 and 4: 3 Sponsored by Athlete’s Column D
Page 5: 5 Sponsored by Golden Goad Leads Gy
Page 9 and 10: 9 Sponsored by Para-Alpine Team Deb
Page 11 and 12: 11 Sponsored by Helping kids experi
Page 13 and 14: 13 Sponsored by Sport Inspires Heal
Page 15 and 16: 15 Sponsored by Canada Games in Pho
Page 17 and 18: 17 Sponsored by Calendar of Events
Page 19 and 20: 19 Sponsored by PROUD SPONSOR OF SP

VERSATILITY - Sport Nova Scotia

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?