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Phase One (Exploration or Sampling)

  • Most important stage of the athletic family's development.

  • Child tries different sports, explores his or her skills

  • Ages are only guide

    • In some sports, like gymnastics and figure skating, children tend to be very young when they get involved competitively and begin to specialize;

    • In soccer,athletes are usually much older when they reach a competitive level

Benefits

  • an early sampling pathway may lead to a longer playing career

  • enhanced peer relationships 

  • increased physical capacity and motor skill base

  • increased ability to transfer motor and psychological skills to other sports (research suggests that skill transfer might be the most compelling argument that can be made for athletes to engage in sport sampling, especially at a young age).

  • increased motivation, confidence, and self-direction. 

Problem Areas

Bad experiences with sports at an early age can turn an individual away from sports involvement forever. The two main culprits leading to bad experiences for children are:

  • Overemphasis on competition. The best way for a good young athlete to progress is not to introduce him to competition as soon as possible. Competition can hinder talent development because at in higher-level competitive leagues, children often plays scares of making a mistake or cut from the team / sit on the bench. The child cannot learn and develop from playing scares and would be better served by participating in fun activities that keep him/her involved, try, create.

  • Bad coaching. Studies show that critical to the development of elite athletes is quality coaching, even at a young age.  The better coaches have the ability to motivate and encourage young athletes and keep them interested in a sport. Children are more likely to keep playing for good coaches. There is no chance for a gifted athlete to develop her talents if she drops out of a sport. Good coaches promote talent development by promoting continued participation.  

Guidelines For Parents

  • Introduce your child to a variety of sports: There are many sport and physical activities beyond traditional sports. Consider a variety of choices for children A diversity of sports experiences paves the way for young people to find activities they will enjoy throughout life.

  • Emphasize fun and skill development: it keeps children involved and active. Encourage intrinsic motivation at an early age. Will your child continue to be fit and active as an adult? Bad experiences with sports at an early age can turn a child away from sports involvement forever.

  • Nourish the dreams of the child, not your own; to do that, you need to communicate with your child.

  • Minimize competition. Children are not emotionally and cognitively ready to compete at this age. Work on building skill development; look for programs that support this philosophy.

  • Ensure good coaching for continued participation and skill development. Be proactive in finding good coaches communicate with your club DOC who share your values.

Phase Two (Commitment or Specializing)

  • Overview

  • Increasing commitment of young athlete to her chosen sport.

  • Extent of commitment is major issue faced by family, especially for the talented athlete.

  • Problem Areas

  • Excessive conflict 

  • Parents, and sometimes coaches, may have a different set of expectations or goals than the athlete, which often leads to conflict.

  • The athlete has to have, or rediscover, his own personal reasons for playing sports. In other words, she/he needs to see that participation has intrinsic, personal value. 

  • Only the strongest and most confident children have the skills to resist expectations of their parents and to fight for their own dreams.

  • Burnout 

  • Where the child gives up on her own dreams and adopts the goals of her parents or coach, she is doomed to failure and burnout often results. 

  • When the external reasons for playing (to win a game, to please a father or a coach) predominate over the intrinsic reasons (the externalization of sports) burnout becomes likely. 

  • If athlete feels in control so that he views participation as part of his self-development, then sports can be a healthy part of growing up. If the athlete feels controlled, and feels that he is not making the decisions or developing as an individual, burnout is more likely. A study of fifteen adolescent athletes, who had been age-group champions in their sport but had then quit, found that the way high-level sports were organized contributed to the their decision to quit: they felt little control over their own lives, and felt that they had little identity outside of being an athlete. This lack of control and restricted identity cause a great deal of stress, and the sport ceased to be fun.

  • Under-Involved Parents

  • When parents display no interest whatsoever in the sporting activities of their children, it is very difficult for the young athlete to become committed to a sport. This can place a great burden on the coach, who often feels for the athlete and tries to make up for the parents' lack of support.

  • When parents are not involved in their child's activities, the few coaches who are likely to abuse a young athlete have an increased opportunity to engage in such abuse. This is why I encourage parents to form a good relationship with their child's coaches, and why I encourage coaches to be open to parents who want to know what goes on at practices and on trips to tournaments.

  • Guidelines For Parents

  • Encourage participation. Promote your child's interest in physical activities. This can be a challenge during a time of a child's development when there are many competing demands on a child's time.

  • Don't push. Tap into your child's natural love of physical activity and play. Unfortunately, many youth sports programs turn children off by being boring, repetitive, overly demanding, or insensitive to their needs. Look for "player centered" programs that emphasize fun and skill development. 

  • Provide emotional support: As your child deals with competition, be there with emotional support. Focus on helping your child learn valuable life skills.

  • Involve your child in decision-making regarding sport choices. This is the age for the child to learn to be self-reliant.

  • Reinforce and support your child's decisions and commitment. This is the time to learn about perseverance, commitment and delayed gratification.

  • Recognize likely shift in influence. Your child will start looking more to peers, teachers and coaches for guidance.

  • Communicate with coaches. Keep building good communication with coaches, club DOC; teach your child to do likewise.

Phase Three (Proficiency or Commitment)

  • Athletics become the central feature of talented athlete's life. When an athlete is talented and strives to develop that talent to the fullest, this phase requires long hours of training, intense coaching or studying of the sport. The athletic role becomes a central feature of the young person's life.

  • Goal setting becomes important for the average athlete. For most athletes, however, this phase involves becoming good enough to reach one's goals, good enough to make the team.

Problem areas

  • Unsupportive parents. Parents who are critical of their child's efforts, who react negatively to continued participation, and who express doubts about the potential for success can be an obstacle.

  • Overly competitive youth sports programs. Instead of promoting mass participation, most focus on a talented few (often failing them as well) and ignore the needs of the rest. Such programs turn young people away from sports in huge numbers. Limited resources and facilities deny many youth athletes opportunities to participate. Children will stop dropping out youth sports programs if the programs meet their needs. If adults stop organizing these programs on the basis of their own needs. Programs were developed for all Players, not just for an elite few who provide entertainment for the rest. No one know who will be a great player when they reach 4th cycle of development stage.

Guidelines For Parents

  • The goal for a healthy young adult is personal competence. Support the emotional and financial independence of your child.

  • Provide continued emotional support and a refuge from the pressures of competition 

  • Accept the authority of the coach and become less prominent in the decision-making. Focus on parenting rather than coaching. An effective parent sets limits and expectations.

 

Some fundamental principles apply, regardless of the phase. The most basic is the notion that the young individual must be supported to gradually assume responsibility for making her own decisions and setting her own goals. If parents, coaches, or administrators impose their own goals and ignore what the young athlete wants, problems are sure to follow. Responsibility must be taught and modeled during the exploration phase, encouraged during the commitment phase, and supported during the proficiency phase.

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