The CSPs are still in hibernation, with tryouts just getting over and teams starting to practice, so I present instead a jarring article from the NYT Magazine about the high rate of injuries - particularly ALC injuries, but also concussions - in girls' sports.
Rich and Maria Pierson never had to push Janelle into soccer or to reach for higher-level teams, and they certainly never berated her after bad games. These types do exist, stereotypical “Little League parents,” but it is far more difficult than some imagine to push a reluctant child into sports, especially at a level that demands great commitment. Children may acquiesce for a while, but all but the most passive or abused will eventually rebel and shut down.
I found a different syndrome: parents of highly motivated, athletic children who are supportive of their kids’ sports but bewildered by the culture. The children, often as not, are the ones leading the way, and the whole family gets pulled along in ways it never anticipated. “We had no idea what we were getting into,” Rich Pierson said. “You just feel your way as you go. She started playing with a local team, just once or twice a week, then began with the travel team, and after that it just builds on up.”
At what age should a young athlete begin traveling to out-of-town tournaments? How many days a week should she be playing? When should she give up her other sports? The professional coach is usually not equipped to know what’s best, but he wields tremendous influence all the same, sometimes by threat. He makes the schedules and sets the rules, and a child who does not go along risks losing her place on the team.
“Parents’ hearts are usually in the right place,” says Colleen Hacker, a sports-psychology consultant who has worked with athletes from the preadolescent up through the college, Olympic and professional ranks. “I don’t think anybody’s saying, ‘Honey, how do we screw them up tomorrow?’ But the attention, judgment and objectivity that parents bring to their work lives and other spheres of importance, they don’t bring to their kids’ sports.”
The club structure is the driving force behind the trend toward early specialization in one sport — and, by extension, a primary cause of injuries. To play multiple sports is, in the best sense, childlike. It’s fun. You move on from one good thing to the next. But to specialize conveys a seriousness of purpose. It seems to be leading somewhere — even if, in fact, the real destination is burnout or injury.
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