Sam Woods - sports psychology consultant discusses Early Specialisation in Sport
So, what is early Specialisation?
Early specialisation may be described as;
Choosing to participate in one sport.
Participating in this sport for greater than 8 months per year and;
Quitting other sports to focus on just the one.
Why would you do it?
It could increase your chances for success in your chosen sport.
Early specialisation can foster positive behaviour such as punctuality, team cohesiveness and improved knowledge around the sport.
Can improve chances of selection because of your increased knowledge of the sport.
Greater relationships with coaches through increased exposure and time to interact with them.
What are the risks?
Early specialisation can expose an individual to physical and psychological stresses that are deemed excessive.
Short-term there would be benefits over peers but long term can lead to many implications such as.
Overuse injury (46-50% all injuries at secondary school age)
To counter this, other sports and youth strength training.
So, what can you do instead of specialising early?
Well specialising early hasn’t been shown to improve your chances of success, so by not specialising too early you’re not harming your goal of being an athlete in the world stage.
Exploring a diverse range of varied sport can really help you physically and mentally develop. All sports require the body and mind to athletically work in different ways so the more diverse the better!
The more skills you learn when you’re younger, when it is time to specialise you have more mental and physical skills to use in that chosen sport.
Increase your time deliberately playing… this can be as simple as playing football down the park with friends, passing a rugby ball with your family on a dog walk, keep ups with a hockey stick and ball and so many more examples you can do!
This is really important for when times are tough and helps you just enjoy the sport again without worrying about winning and losing.
I hope all of you play as many different sports as you can for as long as you can, from badminton to golf. There is fun to be had and a lot of skills to take back to that one sport you want to go further in.
How to get in touch
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