Over-used, Over-specialized, Over-coached

An article in today's New York Times ("For Children in Sports, a Breaking Point," by Jane E. Brody, May 24, 2010) goes into the dark side of youth sports -- the over-use and over-specialization and over-coaching -- that tempts children and parents. Brody cites statistics used by Mark Hyman in his book Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids: “Every year more than 3.5 million children under 15 require medical treatment for sports injuries, nearly half of which are the result of simple overuse.” Brody continues:

The problem was put into focus three years ago by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness [see 2007 report]. In a report in the academy’s journal, Pediatrics, Dr. Joel S. Brenner wrote, “Overuse injuries, overtraining and burnout among child and adolescent athletes are a growing problem in the United States.”

The goal of youth participation in sports, the council said, “should be to promote lifelong physical activity, recreation and skills of healthy competition.”

“Unfortunately,” it went on, “too often the goal is skewed toward adult (parent/coach) goals either implicitly or explicitly. 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.”

(If you doubt the role of adults, I suggest you take in a Little League game between teams striving for a championship. But instead of watching the players, watch — and listen to — the parents and coaches screaming at them, and not just words of encouragement.)

But most young athletes and their parents fail to realize that depending on the sport, only a tiny few — 2 to 5 out of 1,000 high school athletes — ever achieve professional status.

Clearly we’ve gone too far when the emphasis on athletic participation and performance becomes all-consuming and causes injuries that can sometimes compromise a child’s future.

The sports surgeon Dr. James R. Andrews said that he now sees four times as many overuse injuries in youth sports as he did just five years ago and that more children today are having to undergo surgery for chronic sports injuries.

Excerpt featured in Emory Magazine

In the spring 2010 issue of Emory Magazine, which focuses on sports and competition, an excerpt from Ball Crazy is featured on the last page ("Coda"). The excerpt draws from the opening scene in Chapter 1 of the book, with the following added:

Five years ago, when my wife and I first signed up our two sons in a neighborhood youth baseball league, I never thought I would wind up as a dad with a baseball problem. I didn’t see the value of over-organized youth sports. I grew up playing sandlot baseball in a park where the longleaf pine trees outnumbered the players. I never played catch with my father. He died when I was eight, and a year later I discovered baseball on my own terms.

My version of baseball bears no resemblance to the game my sons play. Our games lurched along, disrupted by frequent breakdowns of talks and negotiations, arbitrary pummeling of younger brothers by older brothers, cars driving through the outfield, and equipment issues, such as when the only ball would be lost forever to a rogue palm tree. There were also moments so perfect that they took our breath away.

Over the years, as a baseball dad-coach, I have learned to appreciate the youth baseball experience. Now I understand that baseball is a game best passed down from one generation to the next. I have seen my sons work with adults—and trust them—in a way I never learned while playing sandlot. I’ve seen them grow confident in their skills, and I’ve shared moments with them that have allowed me to see them in a new light, as if seeing the men they would one day become.

Talking about overuse injuries...

According to a PRNewswire-USNewswire story (May 10, 2010), nearly 200,000 children aged 14 and younger were treated in hospitals, doctor's offices and emergency rooms for baseball-related injuries in 2008 (source: US Consumer Product Safety Commission).

The article also has a handy link to the STOP organization mentioned below (http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/baseball-injury-prevention.aspx)

Kids on overdrive, overuse & overspecialization

A recent Wall Street Journal article (Red Flag on Kids, Sports and Injuries, April 1, 2010) describes efforts by surgeons and professional athletes to combat injuries in youth sports caused by overuse and over-specialization. The article talks about pushing against the prevailing winds to specialize.

"From baseball to volleyball, kids are increasingly trying to attain mastery of a sport by specializing. That has made certain sports increasingly competitive, further encouraging kids—backed by parents—to train harder and longer, parents and sports trainers say.

"'There's more emphasis on playing one sport. Because it's so competitive you almost have to focus on one sport,' says Mr. Hall. Dr. Andrews says orthopedic surgeons are partially to blame for overuse injuries, having focused largely on developing new surgical techniques but not on promoting prevention. 'We've worked on better ways to fix people—that was our job—but our job is more extensive than that,' he says. 'Finally we realized that.'"

Baseball is "right sport for a democracy"

In an interview with George F. Will by Robert Costa (Wall Street Journal, April 10-11, 2010), Will talks about why baseball has always been one of his life's passions ("more than any other sport, a fan's enjoyment of baseball is a function of how much he understands the nuances"). He also talks about the roles of fathers:

Mr. Will also worries that baseball is fast becoming an extinct tradition in this country. The game, he says, is losing talent not because other sports are better but because so few are still teaching the craft to Little Leaguers and high-school stars. With baseball, "you don't just need a hoop and some black top," he says. "You need a field that takes some grooming. But the teaching and the grooming require fathers, and they're gone. That's one of the problems in baseball right now. No one wants to talk about it, and it is related to the problem of the vanishing African-American baseball player."