Emphasis play over practice

Editor's note: Nancy Justis is a former competitive swimmer and collegiate sports information director. She is a partner with Justis Creative Communications.

By Nancy Justis, correspondent

The adage of 'practice makes perfect” isn't always the route to success, especially when it comes to training children in sports.

Kids aren't adults. Excessive training time and the kind of training can lead to overuse injuries, emotional stress and burnout, resulting in kids dropping out of programs.

Have you ever watched your young son or daughter at practice and wondered if the activity is too strenuous, too intense? Does he or she look like they are enjoying the experience? If you are questioning the time and method used by the coaching staff, whether volunteer or paid, don't ignore your instincts.

Dr. Paul Stricker, a Scripps Clinic sports medicine pediatrician, Olympic physician and author of 'Sports Success Rx!”, said in a 2010 Scripps Health Report he had seen a 25 percent jump in the number of overuse injuries he treats. The injuries were becoming more severe.

'Stress fractures were unheard of in children just a few years ago, but now have become relatively common,” he said. 'That's what we get when we train kids at adult levels.”

To help counteract this trend, Stricker offered information on physical sports skill milestones.

Ages 2-5: Most kids can't yet effectively throw and catch. Basic skills like running and hopping are acquired primarily through free play.

Ages 6-9: The body's nerve connections start doing a better job of communicating the brain's messages to the muscles. Thus, a basic toss may progress to a more accurate throw.

Age 10-Puberty: Control of body motions becomes more automatic; kids can refine skills like pivoting, turning and spinning; eye-to-brain pathways mature, allowing for better visual judgment of speed and location.

Puberty (11-13 for girls, 13-15 for boys): Because of rapid growth, there may be a temporary decline in balancing skills and body control.

Mid to late teens: Aerobic and strength gains are achievable with training, but heavy weights should be avoided until the skeleton fully matures.

In a nutshell, kids need time to develop both physically and mentally (mental maturity will be addressed in a future article) so resist the urge to train too hard, too soon.

Aplington-Parkersburg head football coach Alex Pollock recently posted on Facebook: 'It has recently been brought to my attention that local communities are asking kids out of our community to get involved with their 5th and 6th grade tackle football leagues. For what it's worth, I am 100 (percent) against tackle football at those ages. It is my belief that one of the major reasons A-P has had great participation at the Junior High and High School levels is because we do not drive kids away at young ages. Our 4th, 5th and 6th grade flag football league focuses on work ethic, fundamentals, and most importantly, having fun ...”

No one disputes the fact practice is important because that's how people get better. But even experts disagree on the number of hours required to master a skill, or even if practice is all there is to it.

The 2008 book 'Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell discussed the '10,000-hour rule.” But a study published last May in the journal Intelligence by David Zachary Hambrick of Michigan State University suggested practice explains only about a third of success among other disciplines.

He and his team concluded that practice accounted for only 30 percent of success in music and 34 percent in chess. Plenty of studies suggest besides practice, individual differences help explain success, such as socioeconomics, coaching and I.Q. The big difference between study participants was the amount of good coaching they received at a young age.

My conclusion is youth sports programs can enhance motor, physical and social growth but when practice sessions become so intense the result is mental and physical stress or even permanent injuries, one should take a step back and re-evaluate the reason the child is enrolled in the program.

Too strenuous of activity resulting in pain or that which is used as punishment, such as running laps, I don't believe has any place in youth sports.

l Let us know what you think. Send comments to njustis@cfu.net