Lifelong Sport

Why are we (society, clubs and coaches) so obsessed with early talent identification? “Oh, your little Beau is just terrific, they should play up a level, or they should do summer comp. They just have to go to the intensive camp next school break and you have to register them for the off season comp, get them playing all year, so by the time the next season rolls around they will be just amazing.”

Sound familiar?

It’s a totally natural compulsion, to help little Beau be the best they can be. We all feel it. We’re obsessed because when they win, we fell as though we are winning as parents. We’re not just keeping up with the Joneses, we are beating them.

The emotions we feel as parents to want ‘the best’ for our kids. But what is the best? Wanting them to dominate and be the best and play up levels/grades is a form of self-flagellation: we are good parents because our little superstar has made … league/level/team

But do we stop to think about what the child/player actually wants? Just because a child might have a particular aptitude, does that mean we need to push them towards a professional career, or a serious adult version of the sport, especially at the early stages of their development?

The kids who are often identified as ‘talented’ are often the ones who love to play and spend hours engaged in deliberate practice and play. They do it for no other reason than because they love it, they enjoy getting better at it and they derive immense satisfaction and joy from the activity.

Do we ever stop to think about those who must love it the most? The one who enjoy it fully and completely? They are the ones who are going to stick with it the longest, as long as we don’t stuff it up for them.  

That is why they are so ‘talented’: they love it and play it lots in the backyard, school yard etc. They are talented because of the time they have put in playing. There is nothing innate about their ‘talent’ apart from an innate passion and interest and this is what drives their engagement and participation.

Though what happens when you find a ‘talented’ 6yr old and start them on a pathway of talent development? Taking them to extra trainings to maximise their abilities, to take advantage of the opportunity of being so talented. What happens when there is no time for free play because they are either at training or going to an from training, having interrupted meal times doing homework in the car.

Where is their agency and autonomy?

In this situation it is gone. They have no choice or control over their sport. Their sport has shifted from being about playing and having fun to a serious pursuit of excellence and a reward and outcome achieved one day in the far-off future.

So, over the subsequent years as we progress further and further down this path we get further away from what brought the player joy in the first place.

Now they are not enjoying their sport and after being a specialist from the age of 8 they are now 11 and ready to quit their sport.

Rather than playing lots of sports and developing their complete movement capabilities and physical literacy they are limited in the movement patters, and on the path to overuse injuries.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

As a coach with over 20 years experience, I can tell you that it is easier to teach skills and knowledge than it is to teach passion and enthusiasm. We need to be focusing on building, nurturing and discovering their joy and passion for sport. If we can do this then they will pull us along on their journey of discovery and participation and skill mastery.

Connect with our younger players, talk to them, find out what are the most enjoyable elements for them and maximise these. Let them have a say in the way they engage in their sport. Let them discover and build their joy.

Focus on developing them as complete individuals, emotionally, intellectually and physically. Teach them all movement patterns. Don’t let them become a specialist with a specialists’ overuse injuries.

Let them lead, let them pull you along on their journey. Don’t be the one pushing because one day they will dig in and it will stop.

If we can all do this, we will be giving them one of the greatest gifts of all: having a sport that they love and participate in for life.

We all have the power to give this gift.