I recently read this article and as an student-athlete, related to it. I think that children and parents alike can find some
truth here.
What age do we need to
start specializing? At what age does a child need to stop playing multiple
sports so that he can earn a scholarship for college? Can we skip the tournaments over the summer
for a family vacation, wedding, or traditional sleep-away summer
camp?
These questions are haunting parents right now. As the pressure to stay ahead keeps rising and the age at which
children specialize in one sport keeps dropping, it is not getting any easier for parents or their children. The problem is that recruiting is not slowing
down, therefore parents are not allowing their children to slow down and they
are stripping the child’s childhood away. It is rare to hear of an athlete in college
who has only been playing the sport for two or three years; these are rare and
special cases, most have played the sport since they could walk.
I specifically remember crying all night in 6th grade when my dad told me that I
had to choose one sport or the other. At
the time, I was playing both travel soccer and travel lacrosse, in addition to
the town leagues. My parents would race me from one practice to the other, and I would frequently have to choose
which one to attend because they overlapped, especially for tournaments away from home. While my
parents were perfectly fine with me playing both sports, they felt it was unfair
to the teams I was on, because I was not fully committed like some of the other
girls, and they definitely got grief from the coaches about missing
practices and tournaments.
In addition to club soccer, my summer camp that I attended
every summer since 2nd grade began to conflict with summer lacrosse tournaments. For a while it seemed acceptable to blow them
off because we were still young and there was no pressure from the college
recruiters. As I entered high school, I
signed a contract before signing up for my club lacrosse team stating that I
would attend all practices and tournaments. This led me to miss both of my brothers' graduations from high
school.
I really cannot complain, however, as deciding to focus on playing lacrosse took me all over the world, and got me to my dream school
for college. I was lucky that I was able to pick soccer back up when I entered high
school. Though I’m not sure that I could
have gotten away with this if I started all over today. I'm now watching my younger
sister go through the same process, but with much more difficulty. She
wants to play in college and attend summer camp and be able to attend our
family vacations and special events. She
is having a really hard time making it all happen because of the tournaments, practices and camps that have been added to the schedule
over the years.
How much are you
supposed to sacrifice for a sport?
I think it really depends on the child. No child should have to miss out on
family vacations or traditional summer camps during the summer because they are
feeling pressured to be at tournaments for their sport. And no child should have to give up playing
multiple sports too early if they truly are enjoying all of them. If the child is meant to and wants to play a specific
sport in college or beyond, it will happen for them, but that does not mean they should not have a childhood like any other kid.
