True-Sport-Report

We need to teach .
our kids that it’s not .
just the winner of .
the Super Bowl who .
deserves to be .
celebrated, but the .
winner of the .
science fair; that .
success is not a .
function of fame .
or PR, but of hard .
work and discipline.
President Barack Obama.
State of the Union Address.
January 25, 2011
4. Provide a landscape of opportunities.
This issue of early specialization is a
significant problem plaguing youth sport
at the school, community, and elite levels.
Children are discouraged from playing
multiple sports or from engaging in nonsport
activities. Research demonstrates
that children, and then athletes, thrive
in a landscape of many possibilities. The
pressure to specialize, at the exclusion of
other well-rounding activities, increases
as children enter high school and college.
Some children can tolerate such specialization
and even flourish in such an
environment. However, many do not;
thus, we need to give children and youth
the permission to play the saxophone and
soccer, to be a member of 4-H club and the
tennis team, or play basketball and run
cross country. Why should a 10-year-old
have to decide between swimming and
ballet?
Parents need a chance—and permission—to
get off the hamster wheel that
youth sport has become. The National
Association for Sport and Physical
Education (2010) has warned that:
Allowing young people to specialize
intensely and year-round in a single
sport usually immerses their families
in team cultures within which parental
moral worth depends on investing
so many family resources to the sport
that the diversity of a young person’s
physical activities, experiences and
relationships is compromised.
Creating venues where children can
compete at their own level and on their
own time and leaving room for other
activities will be good for them and good
for their parents. Parents need permission
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