What do we know about early sport specialization? Not much!

Abstract

In November 2005, the International Olympic Committee's Medical Commission issued a statement on Training the elite child athlete recommending that “more scientific research be done to better identify the parameters of training the elite child athlete”. This paper focuses on a specific issue related to training the child athlete: early specialization. While associations between early specialization and expertise development are highlighted, much research also suggests early specialization is associated with a range of negative consequences affecting physical, psychological, and social development. Alternately, some researchers have proposed that an early diversification approach does not disadvantage athletes in acquiring expertise, and is important for the development of intrinsic motivation and skill transferability. However, this review suggests that inadequate evidence exists to resolve the issue in favor of either approach.

Keywords:

• athlete development
• expertise
• skill
• deliberate practice

Notes

1. A systematic search for articles dealing with costs associated with early specialization was performed using the search engines PSYCHINFO and SPORTDISCUS and the search terms “early”, “specialization/specialisation” “youth/child” and “sport”. Search results were limited to English, peer‐reviewed academic journals. Once a core list of articles was generated, reference lists of these articles were explored to generate a more exhaustive list of studies examining this phenomenon.

2. In contrast, a study by Hodges, Kerr, Starkes, Weir, and Nananidou (2004) found that involvement in other forms of training had a negative effect on performance; however, their study considered current involvement rather than involvement over the athletes' career.