Specialization in ES School

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

My oldest son is 11 and going into 6th grade. since 3rd grade he has been doing AAU basketball at different levels and different teams. he also plays football and lacrosse but I am noticing kids as young as 4 and 5th grade are already specializing in basketball and not playing any other sports. just training and playing tournaments year round.

his current AAU coach has started an intense training program where he wants a year commitment for training and tournaments. we've also tried some local bball training programs and I also seen kids in elementary training like they are professional players.

it just seems the wrong approach given the kids are so young and puberty determines a lot when it comes to athletics. many of these kids I see training will be lucky to be 5'7'.

Are you all seeing this too with kids on basketball teams you play on? I didnt think kids specialized until high school unless you are a prodigy.

thanks

[Anonymous]

On the girls side, 8th or 9th grade. By 9th grade, the travel schedule precludes other travel sports unless the kid is really good and the parents are willing to bend over backwards to make it work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On the girls side, 8th or 9th grade. By 9th grade, the travel schedule precludes other travel sports unless the kid is really good and the parents are willing to bend over backwards to make it work

wow thats seems early too but I guess not anymore. We've met parents who are homeschooling their sons in 4th grade so they can shoot 1000 shots a day. its really crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the girls side, 8th or 9th grade. By 9th grade, the travel schedule precludes other travel sports unless the kid is really good and the parents are willing to bend over backwards to make it work

wow thats seems early too but I guess not anymore. We've met parents who are homeschooling their sons in 4th grade so they can shoot 1000 shots a day. its really crazy

What happens if the kid tops out at 5'8?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the girls side, 8th or 9th grade. By 9th grade, the travel schedule precludes other travel sports unless the kid is really good and the parents are willing to bend over backwards to make it work

wow thats seems early too but I guess not anymore. We've met parents who are homeschooling their sons in 4th grade so they can shoot 1000 shots a day. its really crazy

What happens if the kid tops out at 5'8?

exactly. I dont know what is going on in these parents minds. to make it to the NBA, you have to win the genetic lottery too...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the girls side, 8th or 9th grade. By 9th grade, the travel schedule precludes other travel sports unless the kid is really good and the parents are willing to bend over backwards to make it work

wow thats seems early too but I guess not anymore. We've met parents who are homeschooling their sons in 4th grade so they can shoot 1000 shots a day. its really crazy

What happens if the kid tops out at 5'8?

exactly. I dont know what is going on in these parents minds. to make it to the NBA, you have to win the genetic lottery too...

To make it to the NBA you need parents who at least played in college. Pro is more common. I think this year in the draft there were only a few selections where neither parent at least played in college and some of those had other family members who played in college or professionally.

[Anonymous]

They will be lucky to play in high school at 5'8.

[Anonymous]

Yeah we see this in all the sports/activities that our kids do, the earliest is soccer.

In basketball we started to see the split in levels at about fourth grade and it gets wider every year.

Almost every activity my kids do, their coaches keep pressuring us for a full year commitment and some act like it should be the primary focus in their activities. And at my kids age/level it's hard to find clubs/programs that will just let them join for just one season in the year.

I just talked to my kids about it the other day. ie I don't want them to be hyperfocused on something right now, want them to try out different things and be able to be decent at them, but at the same time let them think about what their goals are and we'd be okay if they didn't become some superstar in a particular sport. And that if it is something they want to do, they'll have to accept the fact that they'll be competing with people that focus on it yearround. Sp do they want to make that commitment to the activity? At middle school I'm more willing to let them specialize and that was always partially the plan. But so far haven't dropped any activities yet but probably need to start looking at some to drop. Part of the reason why we talked about it was because they had fun in an activity that I was expecting them to drop to make room to focus on the other activities more or at least free up their schedule some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah we see this in all the sports/activities that our kids do, the earliest is soccer.

In basketball we started to see the split in levels at about fourth grade and it gets wider every year.

Almost every activity my kids do, their coaches keep pressuring us for a full year commitment and some act like it should be the primary focus in their activities. And at my kids age/level it's hard to find clubs/programs that will just let them join for just one season in the year.

I just talked to my kids about it the other day. ie I don't want them to be hyperfocused on something right now, want them to try out different things and be able to be decent at them, but at the same time let them think about what their goals are and we'd be okay if they didn't become some superstar in a particular sport. And that if it is something they want to do, they'll have to accept the fact that they'll be competing with people that focus on it yearround. Sp do they want to make that commitment to the activity? At middle school I'm more willing to let them specialize and that was always partially the plan. But so far haven't dropped any activities yet but probably need to start looking at some to drop. Part of the reason why we talked about it was because they had fun in an activity that I was expecting them to drop to make room to focus on the other activities more or at least free up their schedule some.

OP here, great points. my kids dont do soccer but I agree with the 4th grade split for basketball. its such a young age in the scheme of things.

the other issue i've found is that my oldest(11), basically lost 2 early years of sports when everything in this area was locked down. That was some prime time to explore and see what interested him.

im worried about burnout. this was the 1sst year my son did basketball year round and by July he was burnt out and now the coach want a year commitment starting in September. We declined it so he can do football and LAX and hopefully find the joy in basketball again

[Anonymous]

Specialization should not happen until college. There is more and more data showing that the current trend of earlier and more intense specialization leads to two major outcomes: 1) injuries, and 2)burnout. Most kids have completely dropped their sport by the end of middle school.

If coaches are pressuring your kid to specialize at this age IMO it’s a major red flag that the coach either doesn’t understand child and athletic development, or even more worrying, simply doesn’t care because coach wants to win NOW.

And if you’re just suffering from FOMO because you see other parents insisting their kids specialize, understand that those parents almost certainly have no clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Specialization should not happen until college. There is more and more data showing that the current trend of earlier and more intense specialization leads to two major outcomes: 1) injuries, and 2)burnout. Most kids have completely dropped their sport by the end of middle school.

If coaches are pressuring your kid to specialize at this age IMO it’s a major red flag that the coach either doesn’t understand child and athletic development, or even more worrying, simply doesn’t care because coach wants to win NOW.

And if you’re just suffering from FOMO because you see other parents insisting their kids specialize, understand that those parents almost certainly have no clue.

And as I see it, a way for them to increase their revenue. Which I think is the problem with all this specialization and programs trying to lock in families for the entire year. Where everything is big business now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi All,

My oldest son is 11 and going into 6th grade. since 3rd grade he has been doing AAU basketball at different levels and different teams. he also plays football and lacrosse but I am noticing kids as young as 4 and 5th grade are already specializing in basketball and not playing any other sports. just training and playing tournaments year round.

his current AAU coach has started an intense training program where he wants a year commitment for training and tournaments. we've also tried some local bball training programs and I also seen kids in elementary training like they are professional players.

it just seems the wrong approach given the kids are so young and puberty determines a lot when it comes to athletics. many of these kids I see training will be lucky to be 5'7'.

Are you all seeing this too with kids on basketball teams you play on? I didnt think kids specialized until high school unless you are a prodigy.

thanks

Yes, I have seen this a lot. My son is starting HS and will be trying out for his freshman bball team. He played soccer and baseball (in addition to basketball) while growing up, but he decided in 6th grade that he didn't want to play any other sports anymore...just basketball. So he's been specializing in basketball since 6th grade only because he didn't want to play anything else (even though we encouraged him to play other sports). And we prefer he get out and play basketball year round rather than playing video games when basketball season isn't happening.

What has shocked me though is the number of kids who "reclass." I had no idea about this until a year or so ago. It's surprising how many parents think their kids have a shot at the NBA or even D1 college...the odds are very highly against that (even DIII college is tough to make).

[Anonymous]

There’s increasingly more and more specialization younger in all sports. It’s universally lamentable but there’s tons of examples of people that specialized early and had it pay off (e.g., Tiger Woods).

I think you have to consider the age of your kid, the specific sport (gymnastics athletes peak early, long distance runners peak late), your kid’s goals and your willingness.

We let DD join a year round team (select not travel) in 4th grade after she expressed interest in more advanced play. My now 3rd grade son still loves doing 2-3 different rec activities a season so we just do that.

I assume both will do a high school sport and neither will do college. DD will be able to do her team sport. She is not on a college track team, but she’ll be fine for high school. DS loves running and is very good at it, so he’ll be fine for cross country in high school on his current path - heavy mileage isn’t recommended for little kids anyway.

If your kid really loves a single thing, is really talented and is willing to drop other things to do it, by all means specialize. If that’s not all true, just ignore the Joneses and focus on fitness and fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the girls side, 8th or 9th grade. By 9th grade, the travel schedule precludes other travel sports unless the kid is really good and the parents are willing to bend over backwards to make it work

wow thats seems early too but I guess not anymore. We've met parents who are homeschooling their sons in 4th grade so they can shoot 1000 shots a day. its really crazy

What happens if the kid tops out at 5'8?

exactly. I dont know what is going on in these parents minds. to make it to the NBA, you have to win the genetic lottery too...

To make it to the NBA you need parents who at least played in college. Pro is more common. I think this year in the draft there were only a few selections where neither parent at least played in college and some of those had other family members who played in college or professionally.

There are more ex professional athletes whose kids don’t play sports than the ones that play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s increasingly more and more specialization younger in all sports. It’s universally lamentable but there’s tons of examples of people that specialized early and had it pay off (e.g., Tiger Woods).

I think you have to consider the age of your kid, the specific sport (gymnastics athletes peak early, long distance runners peak late), your kid’s goals and your willingness.

We let DD join a year round team (select not travel) in 4th grade after she expressed interest in more advanced play. My now 3rd grade son still loves doing 2-3 different rec activities a season so we just do that.

I assume both will do a high school sport and neither will do college. DD will be able to do her team sport. She is not on a college track team, but she’ll be fine for high school. DS loves running and is very good at it, so he’ll be fine for cross country in high school on his current path - heavy mileage isn’t recommended for little kids anyway.

If your kid really loves a single thing, is really talented and is willing to drop other things to do it, by all means specialize. If that’s not all true, just ignore the Joneses and focus on fitness and fun.

This strategy ends up being counterproductive for the majority of kids.