Researchers question effect of specialization on young athletes

The Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University listed it among the "critical issues in youth sports," and the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a policy statement advising against it.

If you have a child who plays sports, your interest ought to be piqued.

"The bottom line is we're really concerned about premature sport specialization," said Dan Gould, director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports.

Over the next three days, The Island Packet will take an in-depth look at the trend toward specialization in sports, analyzing the benefits and possible hazards of early sport specialization and reporting what experts on the local and national sports scenes think about the issue.

Although research on the subject is sorely lacking, researchers generally agree specialization is a growing trend -- and a growing concern -- in youth sports, according to Gould.

Whether specialization is a good trend or a bad one is subject to debate.

"Right now," Gould said, "I see more negatives than positives."

Although Gould is careful to point out the issue is far from black-and-white -- he says an athlete must specialize at some point if he or she wants to reach the highest level of competition -- he sees an alarming trend toward parents pushing athletes to specialize too early and risking overuse injuries and burnout through year-round training.

"We know kids are starting sports earlier, and we think people are specializing their kids earlier," Gould said. "The two concerns are if it's premature, and if it's tied with year-round training. You worry about motivation and burnout long-term, and you worry about overuse physical injuries, and those are both things you're not going to see right away. You'll see them a year or two later, or even many years later."

Specialization has its benefits, including more refined sport-specific skills and greater exposure to college coaches or recruiters. As a relatively new phenomenon, though -- experts generally agree the trend toward specialization spiked in the past 10 to 15 years -- the long-term picture remains blurry.

"On one hand, it's not rocket science that if I specialize and put in more hours than you, I'm probably going to be better," Gould said. "But as Americans, whether it's dealing with the environment, whether it's dealing with gas, we have about two inches of long-range vision. When you're looking at a child in sport, and if the child's lucky enough to be talented, it's a long-range planning process. And yet our system is set up so the Little League coach worries just about Little League and the high school coach worries just about high school. You really need to be looking at the long-term development of that child."

The uncertainty about the long-term effects -- and effectiveness -- of early specialization is one of the primary concerns among athletes, parents and coaches, according to Marty Ewing, a professor at Michigan State and researcher at the ISYS. Ewing recently interviewed 30 athletes, parents and coaches who are involved in specialization as part of a study she hopes to publish sometime next year.

"The parents seem to be very concerned that there's nowhere they can go and get good information about what the journey should be," Ewing said. "It's something they were looking for, and it just doesn't seem to be out there. ... There's a lot of things that are included in the development of an elite athlete that aren't written down anywhere for a parent to follow, and they're frustrated by that."

Most coaches and researchers agree athletes must specialize in order to reach the highest levels of a sport, but at what age they should begin to do so is the topic of debate.

"It's starting earlier and earlier and earlier, too," said Bluffton High School athletics director Dave Adams, who has been involved in high school sports as a coach and athletics director for two decades. "It used to be kids didn't start to do that until the 10th grade. Now I'm seeing kids do this when they're 6, 7, 8, 9 years old."

That's a major concern for doctors and researchers keeping an eye on the topic. In an article initially published in July 2000 and reaffirmed in May 2006, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended athletes not specialize in a single sport before adolescence. In another article published in June 2007, the AAP urged young athletes to spurn early specialization to avoid overuse injuries and burnout.

"Young athletes who participate in a variety of sports have fewer injuries and play sports longer than those who specialize before puberty," the article states.

Researchers also worry about psychological concerns raised by specialization, citing more pressure to excel, fewer meaningful social interactions and isolation from peers that interferes with normal identity development.

Some opponents of specialization argue the multi-sport philosophy provides a more well-rounded experience for athletes, because participating in multiple sports exposes athletes to different coaching styles and teaches them to accept different roles on their teams. For example, the star quarterback might learn how to better relate to the "role players" on the football team if he plays such a role on the basketball or baseball team.

"If a kid is a good enough athlete and can contribute, even if it's as a backup, I don't see the benefit of holding the kid out of that sport so they can focus on one," said Tommy Lewis, the football coach and athletics director at Hilton Head Christian Academy. "You can still play football and shoot 100 free throws a night. You can still play basketball and go to the batting cage on the weekends.

"To me, the ideal experience for an athletic-minded kid through middle school and high school is to play as many sports as they're able and that they can contribute to a team, and focus on their passion whenever they have their free time."

The problem with that philosophy, advocates of specialization say, is it doesn't allow enough time for a young athlete to attain the skills necessary to reach an elite level in any sport. According to Gould, studies have shown it takes about 10 years and 10,000 hours of practice to become an "expert" in any sport, so it's understandable if an athlete with aspirations of a professional career -- and to a lesser extent, a collegiate career -- views specialization as a necessity.

But simply putting in the time doesn't guarantee success, and experts fear many athletes who specialize are motivated by unrealistic goals, such as lucrative professional contracts.

"There's so much riding on it," said Dr. James Andrews, one of the leading orthopedic surgeons in the nation, who is renowned for his work with athletes. "It all boils down to the thing that we have a problem with in the United States, and that's the mighty old dollar. They're all specializing with the dream that they're going to be some superstar and make a lot of money."

Experts say that's probably not a good idea.

"As more young athletes are becoming professionals at a younger age, there is more pressure to grab a piece of the 'professional pie,' to obtain a college scholarship, or to make the Olympic team," the AAP's June 2007 article reads. "Most young athletes and their parents fail to realize that, depending on the sport, only 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent of high school athletes ever make it to the professional level."

That number does not rise appreciably for those who specialize. According to the ISYS, "98 percent of athletes who specialize will never reach the highest levels of the sport."

In other words, for every athlete who specializes and reaches the pinnacle of his or her sport, 49 more fail to do so in spite of their year-round training.

That explains in part why David Anderson, who had two sons play year-round baseball while growing up, has come to the conclusion that early specialization is no panacea.

"I don't think it's a good idea," Anderson said. "Unless your kid's a real special kid -- and every parent thinks their kid is a real special kid -- but the numbers don't lie."

That's coming from a father whose sons had success following the specialization blueprint.

Tosh Anderson, who spent a year training at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., between stints playing baseball for Hilton Head Island High School and Hilton Head Preparatory School, is on a baseball scholarship at the University of Rhode Island. Ian Anderson, a rising senior at Hilton Head Prep, is on the fast track to an NCAA Division I football scholarship, despite not playing high school football until his sophomore year at Prep.

After keeping a close eye on his sons and their baseball teammates, David Anderson sees more concerns than benefits associated with early specialization. In addition to burnout and psychological concerns -- "The kids become myopic. They really judge their self-worth in how they do in that sport," he said -- Anderson believes young athletes who focus solely on one sport "become like veal, bred for one particular purpose," rather than developing well-rounded athletic talent.

But even some of the biggest detractors agree specializing is the correct route for some athletes. Adams believes tennis and golf are among the sports that require a year-round commitment to be successful, which would help explain the rise of specialty schools such as the Smith-Stearns and Van Der Meer tennis academies and the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy, all found on Hilton Head Island.

The success of this area's high school soccer and volleyball teams -- many of which are loaded with athletes who play on club teams year-round -- also indicates the value of specialization.

"You can see the difference," Hilton Head Christian Academy soccer coach Ernie Suozzi said. "When we play teams that are club-loaded with kids that are playing year-round, we get out there and we're overmatched."

Team success usually isn't the impetus behind specialization, though. Most athletes choose to focus on one sport in hopes of increasing their playing time or improving their chances of a college scholarship, Gould said.

Gould can empathize with parents who feel compelled to nudge their children toward specialization because he found himself in a similar situation when his children were growing up. One of his sons was playing on the middle school basketball team when many of his teammates began playing year-round for Amateur Athletic Union teams. He didn't want his son playing year-round, but he did play part of the offseason with an AAU squad.

"I was afraid if all the other kids were playing year-round and he was just playing one season, he may not make the team," Gould said. "I didn't really want to do that, but I really felt more strongly that him having a high school sport experience was a good thing. But if you can't make the team ..."

It's that sort of thinking that leads to an "arms race" type of mentality, Gould said, which can become a slippery slope toward burnout and overuse injuries. Once the athlete makes the team, he or she might begin training even more in hopes of earning a spot in the starting lineup, and so on.

"That's what makes it so tough if you're -- for lack of a better term -- a level-headed parent," Gould said. "But the same arguments are used by Olympians taking steroids -- everybody else did it, so I did it."