Research: "Parents Do Not Understand Child Development in Sports"

For generations, parents, coaches and teachers have struggled to see sports through the eyes of a child (Bigelow, Moroney & Hall, 2001).  There are over 40 million children participating youth in sports annually, 12% are under age 6 years (Malina, 2010).  The way children develop sports skills has not changed over time (Cary et al., 2004).  However for generations, adults have been treating children like miniature adults (Koester, 2000; Twist & Anderson, 2006), and sadly, the outcomes often end in them dropping out of sports (Malina, 2010).  Children as young as elementary-school aged are quitting reporting their sports experience had little success, a lack of playing time and an absence of fun (Koester, 2000).

            Dr. Paul Stricker (as cited in Cary et al., 2004), a pediatric sports medicine specialist, says parents and coaches do not fully understand child development.  He says it is easy for parents to be fooled by a demonstration of advanced coordination or affinity for sports at an early age and mistake it as a sign their children possess a unique sports talent(s). “Early maturers” (Cary, Dotinga and Comarow, 2004, ¶26), as they are called, are often labeled as gifted at an early age.  However, children’s early talent has been negatively correlated to their reaching elite levels in sports (Malina, 2010). 

In the Early Years of sports, parents’ and coaches’ encouragement of children developing their sports skills has been positively correlated to children’s enjoyment of sports (Conroy, 2006; Hedstrom & Gould, 2004).  A slippery slope is said to be created when children are asked to mimic professional athletes (Hirschhorn & Loughead, 2000); or are coached using “tradition-bound-resistance” (Bigelow et al., 2001, p. 119); thinking that discourages the use of age-appropriate equipment (e.g. lower baskets, lighter baseballs); or when there is a dismissal of the rules designed to protect children and keep them safe.  Bigelow et al. (2001) write, the slippery slope, or parents’ and coaches’ unreal expectations, are what put pressure on children (i.e. to throw the ball harder and faster) and often put them at risk for physical injury.

Albeit exciting for parents to see significant developments in their children’s growth, Stricker says, “Kids develop sport skills in a very sequential manner, just like they do sitting up and walking and talking” (Cary, Dotinga & Comarow, 2004). Yet doctors like Stricker warn parents that sports development is nothing like potty training.  Children should never be made to repetitiously practice the same movements over and over until they get it.  Chronic movements are associated with overuse injuries from repeated microtrauma to a tendon, muscle or bone and caused by a specific sport activity—tennis serving, baseball pitching, gymnastic routines, running, and the shoulder action in swimming (Malina, 2010). 

~Coach Pickles