Early Sport Specialization – Page 6

What (winning at all costs) rep sports are really doing to kids

Posted August 20, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Early Sport Specialization, Parents

Last week I shared out the article that I contributed to in Today’s Parents Summer Edition, “What rep sports are really doing to kids” that was written by Courtey Shea and digital edition was released on Aug. 10th.

I thought it would be good to share some insight on how the article came to fruition and some of the key takeaways that I thought Courteney did a great job highlighting.

The title itself resonated with me, but as you will note I added: “winning at all costs” to the title of this weeks post as it is that tipping point that is taking the rep or recreational youth sports experience away from kids where it belongs.

Courteney references the terms “professionalism, adultification, specialization” going hand in hand with competitive (rep) sports which is something that I started to see with both my kids that played in the rep streams in Hockey and Softball which completely differed from my rep or club experience in several sports I played. Then it was all about the spirit of the competition, playing with players of like skill level and truly loving what you played, now it is adults competing with other adults thru kids.

This is why the likes of the example she cited to start the article, the U8 AAA baseball team that had 70 kids try out and 58 were released after three days of tryouts.

Really?

Shouldn’t 7-year-old still be playing T-Ball per Baseball Canada’s LTAD model? Then learn to play in Tadpole 8-9 years old with a pitching machine for 1/2 the games, then allowing the kids to pitch with rotating pitchers adhering to max pitch counts with age-appropriate throwing distances thereafter?

Last summer the co-op student that worked with me was one of those AAA caliber baseball players going back to his early childhood, he said the hardest thing that he had to deal with early on was when he was the last release of the Little League World Series team when he was 12 years old. This year, the Whalley Little League program has qualified to represent Canada, a program that I know several kids have moved to for optimal skills and overall development. What many don’t know, is Whalley is the equivalent of New York’s Harlem, it is had the long-term reputation as not being the greatest place to live or work, but year after year their baseball program field very competitive teams.

Even the parent coach of the Leaside Leafs, Jesse Harrison, is quoted:

In terms of my contributions, a couple of clarification points I would like to share;

The reference to Jordan Spieth was a disconnect with myself and Courteney as the interview and subsequent verification coordinator was months back, Jordan did not focus on golf until he graduated from high school, 18 years old, vs. when he entered (at 13). When he was 12 (grade 6) he told his parents he wanted to focus on golf and they refused as both were multi-sport athletes and knew the benefits, so he continued to play golf in addition to football (fall), basketball (winter), baseball (summer) each year. Football he was a quarterback, Baseball he was a pitcher and basketball he was the point guard, the most skilled positions in the respective sports.

The reason Jordan Speith became the 23 Million Man at 22 years old is that is is an amazing ATHLETE, not just a great golfer who won the Fedex Cup and at one point ranked #1 golfer in the world.

2. In terms of the introduction to my background, yes, I played football, in fact I played on a team that won provincials (equivalent to state) while playing receiver/running back, cornerback and on all special teams so I rarely was off the field, but I also won provincials in Hockey, a Gold Medal in Rugby, tournaments in baseball, basketball on the various organized teams I played for. I also self-taught myself to golf, ski, was a member of first aid ski patrol for a few years and numerous other free play activities like biking, running, fishing, beach volleyball, tackle frisbee, British bulldog and so on.

Like Jordan, I was a good overall athlete, and even though I focused on sports in my late teens, I chose two, Football in the fall, Rugby in the Spring and played both into my 20’s until knee injuries and concussions took their toll (albeit the concussions were not from sports, is another story in itself)

This is why I am such an advocate for multi-sport participation, kids should sample as many sports and activities as you can in their youth from 5 to late teens (16-17 yrs old) before they choose the sport THEY LOVE.

Specializing in one sport before that make it work, leads to overuse injuries, and more often than not will lead to hanging up those skates, cleats, shoes or what have you for good vs. being active well beyond high school.

” I would really like to stress the fact that multi-sport athleticism is critical for the development of the child”

It is really difficult when writers, journalists, news anchors reach out to tell the whole story, especially when they are reaching out to numerous others but I thought Courteney nailed it out of the park to give insight to parents of young children to promote being active in as many sports as possible and buck the current trends of specializing too early.

The proof is in the pudding in terms of paybacks if you aspire for your son or daughter to play at the highest level possible, to do so, they must be the best ATHLETE possible, not the best hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball player.

Every high-level coach that I know from AAA youth sports to professional, collegiate will tell you the same thing, they recruit great athletes who are great people with GREAT PARENTS (not the vocal minority who are acting up in the stands). Kids that specialize early are also deprived from being normal kids sampling not only various sports but music, drama, art, dance, literature and learning various group dynamics by being on multiple sports teams with different coaches, players, parents etc.

So as I end every talk that I do when I am talking about specialization;

Do you know what you are going to do in life?

Most of us don’t figure it out until we are in our 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s IF we ever do.

How then can you be the adult either recommending or accepting the recommendation from another to tell a 7-year-old kid they are going to specialize in one sport over 9 months of the year, in most cases 12 months of the year?

Deprive them of a normal childhood of just being a kid, trying as many things as possible before they find what they LOVE later in life.

Please don’t cave into the marketing, recruitment policies and buck the trends.

Say NO to Early Sport Specialization.

Rep sports are not supposed to be year-round sports, the term rep means they are teams to represent their communities to compete with teams in other communities to permit players of like skill, whether it be A, AA, AAA level.

I also could not agree more with Jesse’s quote, we really need to eliminate the word elite when it comes to referencing KIDS.

Elite should only be referenced for Olympians or Accomplished Professional athletes.

Other than that, they are just early bloomers or just good overall athletes continuing to work on their craft.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.

Tommy John Surgeries on the Rise While Baseball Registration Continues to Decline

Posted April 30, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Early Sport Specialization, Organization Executive, Parents

With all the talk about overuse injuries due to early specialization of late, my wife picked up a book at the Library that is one I am reading now called “That’s Gotta Hurt”, written by Dr. David Geier regarding the various sports injuries and their remedies that have impacted sports.

One chapter is dedicated to Tommy John Surgery and I thought would be a great to share some of the nuggets.

I believe everyone knows the reason the repair of the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) in the pitcher’s arm is called Tommy John as the first ever one done was on MLB pitcher Tommy John after he suffered the tear to his UCL pitching for the LA Dodgers against my former favorite team, the Montreal Expos (who were on track to win the World Series in the lock-out year then only to be moved to Washington a decade later but that is another story in itself).

The date of that game was July 17, 1974 and it revolutionized how the UCL tear was repaired, when Dr. Jobe conducted the first ever “Tommy John” surgery by taking a tendon from the forearm of the non-throwing side to replace the torn UCL.

It is a major reconstruction, takes over a year of rehab to get back to the mound, but the upside is statistically the % is quite high that pitchers will be able to return back to competitive level they were prior but the big unknown is for how long and if they have one as early as Roberto Osuna did @ 18 years old (pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays), if they will require a subsequent Tommy John Surgery down the road.

Thus far, the only pitcher to enter the MLB Hall of Fame ever to have had Tommy John Surgery is John Smoltz, and this was his classic “rant” when he was being inducted in the hall of fame in 2015 as the number of Tommy John Surgeries being done on teenage boys was continue to escalate when it previously was only MLB pitchers to prolong their careers in their 30’s (Tommy John was 31 when he had the surgery, John Smoltz was 32).

Fast forward to current times, now over 60% of the Tommy John Surgeries being done are on 15-18 year old boys. Over 60%!!!

Compare that to the last 2 decades

In 2010 – 33%, In 2000 – 18% so the number has increased over 300% !!

Part of the reason is due to overuse, but the other reason is due to poor mechanics that should be corrected by minor baseball coaches. As the current winning at all costs environment makes them focus more on the outcome of winning games vs. prolonging the pitching careers of their young pitchers, providing technical expertise for the correct mechanics and discouraging specialty pitches until their teen years (curve ball, sliders, knuckle ball) it is leading to the ever escalating increase of Tommy John Surgeries with no signs of it reversing any time in the immediate future.

One of the experts that contributed to the chapter, Dr. Glenn Fleisig, research director at the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI) as well as others shared the insight that the UCL injury is PREVENTABLE if pitchers focused on the right mechanics as well as limited their number of pitches in youth baseball year over year.

Why then has the number of surgeries tripled on teenage boys the last 2 decades?

Specialization – overuse where pitchers are throwing in Spring, summer, fall and even winter ball.

and

2. Lack of proper instruction in terms of the proper mechanics for various pitches

There was even a head coach of a team that has a very successful record who had pitchers throw over 200 in games (when the MLB pulls pitchers when they get over 100) and used the analogy that kids from the Dominican Republic do so all the time so did not think it was big deal.

The other sad statistic that has evolved is a study done by Christopher Ahmed found that …..

30% of coaches
37% of parents
51% of high school athletes
26% of college athletes

…..believed that Tommy John Surgery should be performed on players with NO INJURY to improve pitching performance.

Say again? Performing a major reconstructive surgery on someone that is NOT INJURED?

Would be different if we used medical advances to repair serious injuries but another altogther aspiring for that robotic arm no?

Surely everyone knows that the TV series Six Million Dollar Man in the 70’s and the upcoming movie 6 Billion Dollar Man based on the same series is fictional?

Talking to some parents as I have travelled the country, they have heard that the surgery will increase their son’s pitching velocity by up to 5 MPH and with multi-million contracts for pitchers they “claim” their son is willing to undergo the surgery to chase the dream.

Reality Check – there is no anecdotal evidence that the surgery done on an uninjured UCL will increase pitching speed, nor is there any longitudinal studies showing how long their professional careers may be if they have the surgery in their teen years as is the majority now.

When the son of a mother reached out to me regarding her sad story that her 15 year old son was quitting competitive baseball and the reasons he was doing so was so he could also play other sports (basketball) so would play (recreational baseball in Spring only).

In a subsequent follow-up email she shared with me her 15 year old son made the decision to quite due to the intense pressure playing competitively, sports evolving to year-round work, more and more kids are quitting the game than ever.

He also told his Mom “he doesn’t want to injure his arm (pitching) too young so, he can play longer etc…I think sometimes our children are OUR biggest teachers and sometimes we need to sit back and be taught!”

If a 15 year old GETS it, why don’t the adults?

The youth baseball coaches when kids start to pitch at 9 years old should have best interests of the child in mind, not the outcomes of games to ensure that they teach them the proper mechanics, avoid competitive pitches until later (breaking balls, curve balls, sliders) as John Smoltz touched on in his Hall of Fame Induction Speech.0

It is even more critical now as baseball is the sport that has been affected most by attrition, in Canadian study done by Statistics Canada from 1998 to 2005 baseball saw overall participation rates drop by over 50% (youth and adult). Like many other sports baseball is in jeopardy also in terms of fans, the Toronto Blue Jays lost over 7,000 season ticket holders this year.

Many MLB stadiums are having the worst attendance they have had to start their spring seasons in decades including image below from recent Chicago White Sox game.

The seats are empty because less are playing to begin with or those that do, are quitting because they are burnt out or are suffering career ending injuries in their teens from overuse coaches not keeping track of pitch counts.

Simple Math – You play the game, then you watch the game because your LOVE IT.

If less play the game, less will watch the game later in life as fans.

Now, more than ever, we must work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.

The Dangers of Early Sport Specialization

Posted April 27, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Early Sport Specialization, Organization Executive, Parents

It has now been a few weeks since the article I contributed to was front page news regarding the downfalls of early sport specialization and the winning at all costs focus of youth sports.

Since that time, I have spoken at two different events, been interviewed on radio, TV, have had a college professor reach out to me to collaborate on a project and even one of the oldest youth sports org in the US reach out to me as well as daily reach outs via email, text and social media.

Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind few weeks, and it has made me realize more than ever how much work we have ahead of us to stop the madness to reverse the negative trends of early sport specialization.

Simply put, it is the WRONG pathway for any child that aspires to reach the highest level of their respective sport other than a few like figure skating, gymnastics, or artistic “sports” like ballet, highland dancing.

Hot off the presses is the recent NFL draft, 91% of those drafted in the first round (29/32) were multi-sport athletes.

Also to note, that players athletic index (PAI) has also increased year over year, now 3.9 (very close to being ranked outstanding 4-5.0) vs. 3.78 2014-2018 average

It is very apparent since the digital edition in the Vancouver Sun continues to go viral worldwide, the writer shared with me that it is still one of the top 3 articles in April viewed by readers.

Why?

Because even those that have been arguing against specialization have gotten caught up in the madness as we all aspire for our son or daughter to become the best THEY can be (not THE BEST.)

The sad reality is even though we believe as parents that our sons who are playing AAA hockey (like my son did), Rep Softball (like my daughter did) are amongst 100’s of thousands that do so every year. Some may be early bloomers who are “selected or recruited” by the sports entrepreneurs (private clubs, academies) and “sell” parents that they have the potential to play collegiately, professionally as early as 7 years old.

Less than 2% of those playing youth sports will play varsity (college), less than 1% will play professionally and the % of those that go the Olympics is almost unmeasurable.

We (as in the parents) also get pressured by fellow parents of our son or daughter’s friends who are playing at their competitive level and do whatever we can to help them reach there.

We sign them up for extra development, off-season camps, even one on one sessions at a great expense to help them develop their core skills. We do so because many organizations that “claim” they are focusing on development show their ugly face when it comes to game play and run short benches to win tournaments, games even though at the end of the day many are meaningless in the overall scheme of things.

We (as in parents and coaches) also put unrealistic pressure on the athletes who may not report they sustained injuries as they may lose their starting spot on competitive teams that lead to Rowan Stringer not sharing with her coach or parents but only texting her friend “nothing can stop me .. unless I am dead” and played in a subsequent game, that proved to be her last, less than a week later of suffering a concussion.

The latter was fatal and as a result, Ontario is now going thru the process of passing “Rowan’s Law” which coincidentally goes hand in hand with one of the overuse injuries that kids are suffering from early sport specialization in Hockey, Football and Rugby; Concussions.

It calls for:

Medical clearance of all concussed athletes before they return to play
Mandatory concussion education for all athletes, parents and coaches
The immediate removal of a young athlete from play if a concussion is suspected
Strict adherence to return-to-learn and return-to-play protocols for all youth athletes with concussions.

While we were going thru the new Rowan’s Law in the breakout session at the 2018 Ontario Coaches Conference, one of the coaches shared how she had a player come to the bench complaining of being woozy as they had hit their head against another player’s in a basketball game. She then had the players Dad come to the player’s bench when she was going thru concussion protocol with the player and he insisted at the top of his lungs with language not appropriate for many that his son get back into the game. The coach, also male, did the same, putting the female assistant coach/teacher in a very difficult situation as felt bullied by the two men.

WHAT? REALLY?

Not only are players, official’s victims of verbal abuse, but at times, so are coaches due to the unrealistic expectations that parents have regarding their child’s potential of playing collegiately or professionally. This should not even be an issue, parents should trust that the coaches have their children’s best interests at heart and will adhere to do not harm principle but thanks to our winning at all costs culture even those that do are being bullied.

Every time I hear one of these sad stories, just as I did when I was in the breakout session, I say to myself .. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO STOP THE MADNESS?

The behavior that we see almost daily in social and traditional media with emotional parents, coaches being verbally abusive and even threatening physical abuse towards players, officials, co-coaches or other parents MUST COME TO AN END.

I also have questioned why all the governing bodies continue to focus on new initiatives like increasing female participation and leadership, the inclusion of indigenous, LGBTQ communities as it does not appear that NO ONE is taking the firm stance to STOP THE MADNESS.

All we are doing by promoting participation for other potential user groups that have not have the same opportunities is for them to come into a broken system only to get a sour taste in their mouths as well that will lead to further attrition.

The female coach/teacher I referenced above is one who shared that she is thinking twice about being a coach next year as a result of the abuse she took from a parent and a fellow coach. SHE is just one of the small % of female coaches we have in all sports, approx. only 15% of coaches are female. This is not to say I am not advocating female participation, leadership, far from it. I believe we have a long ways to go to remove the gender inequality but to have those that aspire or willing to put their hands up to coach is just going to scare more away.

We are at the crossroad where we first must FIX the problems that exist in youth sports so that it will be a positive experience for ALL. We don’t need any more campaigns, initiatives, PDF documents to then move on to the next campaign a year later, we need to stop turning a blind eye, sweeping it under the rug and ACT NOW like the governing bodies in Ontario bringing in legislation to STOP THE MADNESS.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids…. Where it belongs