How to raise an elite young athlete?
David Epstein's new book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" went on sale today. One idea from his book is "elites" in a sport "typically devote less time early on to deliberate practice in which they will eventually become experts.”
On this podcast (link), David Epstein talks with Bill Simmons "about the benefits of delaying specialization in young athletes, looking at training and practicing differently, testing for talent, PEDs, HGH, and more (1:09:45)."
The podcast was interesting and it reminded me of the fact that Jim Harbaugh likes athletes who played multiple sports. Harbaugh also comes up with creative ways to challenge his players to develop new skills. This article from the Bleacher Report (link) talks about Jim Harbaugh's "Revolutionary Quarterback Camp" where he had them play dodgeball, had soccer drills, and even jump-rope competitions.
Other than point the Board to an interesting new book and podcast (that also affirms Harbaugh's ideas as a coach), my questions are this:
1. If you wanted have your child be an overall great athlete, what sports would you have them play? (Assume the kid likes anything and also assume that they have to balance school and other priorities in life.)
2. Do you know of any good articles, books or podcasts on how to be a good "sports parent." (I will say that one of the best books I've read on being a good parent in general is Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child by John Gottman (link). It is interesting that the good parent gets the label of a "coach" and he promotes "emotional coaching" (link).
(Gottman's work on relationships in general is fantastic. If you want to check some of it out, there are lots of videos of his talks on youtube.)
The most effective way is to have a child with superior athletic genes. Usually, you can only control 50% of that aspect of their athletic future.
Unless you go on the dark web and buy sperm from an elite athlete.
I wouldn’t recommend. Usually the flavor is way off and not anything like you would expect.
....or an egg from an elite athlete.
I see what you did there ?
So, this was meant as a joke, but you also have a point. You can control more than 50%. If you are really hell-bent on producing a superior athlete baby and you are an elite athlete, you can be sure that your partner is also an elite athlete (or seek out an elite athlete donor). If you're not an elite athlete, at least theoretically, you could still have an elite athlete partner and choose an elite athlete donor.
I'm sure it's been tried.
Father: "Our baby is beautiful!"
Mother: "Why does he look so much like Wilt Chamberlain?"
If Wilt Chamberlin has sex with 20,000 women at least 100 of them had to have had kids and 50 of them had to be boys. Where were all the WC bastards in the NBA?
How does this gem of a comment only have 9 upvotes? Get it together people!
....or you can control 100% if you marry an athletic spouse. Can't wait for these 2 to have lots of Maize 'n Blue babies....
Your spouse is the 50% that you can control. You usually can’t choose your own genes!
But I share your enthusiasm about Austin and Abby’s progeny!
. . . but see dark web / turkey baster scheme mentioned above.
Exactly why I chose the term usually in both posts ?
Serious question: who are the couple in the pic?
Seriously!
Austin Hatch - you may have heard of him and Abby Cole - one of the best volleyball players ever at Michigan and she was listed at 6'-5".
6'5"? Holy shit. I bet she's standing on the ground in that pic.
no I think she's on Austin's back.
That joke flew directly over your skull.
East German Judge is such a creep.
Indy, fewer than 1 in 5 football, hockey, and baseball players have a family member who played D1, professionally, or at an Olympic level. Basketball however is 50%. It's less about genetics in sports where being 6'10 isn't a huge factor.
I am serious that genetics are far-and-away the primary factor for achieving elite athlete status. Not that other factors are not important, but no other factor comes close to having the impact of genetics. I am not doubting your statistic, but I am doubting the insinuation that the parents of the >4/5 in your statistic were not generally excellent in their athletic traits.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/ftw.usatoday.com/2016/05/nba-family-matters/amp
Possibly, but that's subjective. Playing at an elite level is not.
Defining elite level as D1, pro, or Olympic is an arbitrary definition. But I will humor that definition as it is not unreasonable. So if nearly 20% of elite non-basketball athletes have a parent who was an elite athlete, and approximately 0.4% of the general population has a parent that is an elite athlete, that would mean elite athletes are about 50 times more likely to have elite athlete parents than than a non-elite athlete.
That math is compelling, and objective.
Also, in 99% of instances (considering all sports..swimming, track, soccer, football, etc.), if your child isn't dominating their sport by the time they are a Junior in High School they aren't going to be a premier D1 athlete.
It's true. My daughter is in the USA Gymnastics development program. She started walking at 8 months, could do push ups at 2 years old and pull ups at 4, and she's been the best gymnast in every class that she's ever taken. All while practicing less than all the other kids.
She's also extremely good at riding her BMX bike, soccer, running, and anything that involves hand eye coordination.
Some people have it, and outside of steroids, people who don't will never be able to compete.
Playing multiple sports is way underrated. Specializing in one sport in high school, most likely means you’re not that good of an athlete.
Or just that you don't want to step outside your comfort zone and try to avoid either struggling or not being the best in another sport. That might feel good in the moment, but it'll have negative effects later on.
Or that you have chosen to compete in the one sport that gives the best chance of success.
i went to HS with Dan Majerle. He was a very good QB, baseball and basketball player. He gave up baseball and football as a Junior, presumably to avoid injury and focus on basketball. Seems to have worked out OK for Thunder Dan.
Fellow TC native here too! Lived right down the alley from the Majerles (lived on 7th st, we lived on 6th st). I can vouch for Dan's athletic prowess in multiple sports. He probably could have gotten D1 offers in baseball or football had he chosen to continue with those sports. He could throw a football thru a wall, and was a great catcher.
That would cover about 95% of everyone...
Most people are average athletically. Specializing in one sport means you have a chance to become a better than average (by acquiring skills) athlete in that particular sport. Most of us should choose this route if being good at something is what you desire.
If you are one of those lucky ones with special abilities (extremely tall, fast, great hand eye coordination, etc), the equation changes. In those cases you need to try out diverse set of sports to see where your special abilities will be best suited. Your combination of abilities may allow you to accel in one sport over the other. Eventually you will have to choose to develop exceptional skill as well, but you need to try as many as you can to give you the best advantage.
But again, this really applies to very small percentage of people out there. Most of us will be fine choosing a single sport early.
That’s not true, here in Cali your basically told at most highly rated High schools to choose. These coaches these days punish kids when they play multiple sports
How about being humble, getting great grades, respecting authority and God. NO order and basic life Also freedom of speech works for some.
So, I'm guessing you are a fan of Chariots of Fire? Don't get me wrong: It's a great movie!
Not sure you understand how this blog thing works
cmon play along
Cyborg. Children.
1. If you wanted have your child be an overall great athlete, what sports would you have them play? (Assume the kid likes anything and also assume that they have to balance school and other priorities in life.)
It doesn't matter, it's mostly luck & circumstance. If you try to raise an elite athlete that's a sure fire way to have it not work out. You'll likely put too much pressure on them, they'll get burnt out, or they won't even wind up liking sports.
2. Do you know of any good articles, books or podcasts on how to be a good "sports parent." (I will say that one of the best books I've read on being a good parent in general is Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child by John Gottman (link). It is interesting that the good parent gets the label of a "coach" and he promotes "emotional coaching" (link).
One of Epstein's other books The Sports Gene is very good. Eric Cressey is a strength coach based out of the Boston area who works with a lot of HS, college, & pro baseball players if baseball is your interest area. He advises against early specialization, as do I. FWIW I have a master's degree in exercise science and was also a college baseball player. He also advises against multiple seasons of the same sport to avoid burnout and overuse injuries.
Long story short, unless your kid is already in HS and already getting looks from big time colleges, there's not much you can do. It's either going to happen organically or it's not. It's mostly genetic, luck, and circumstance IMO. You can't teach/parent your kid into an athletic playing career...maybe a small time college player, but you need certain athletic gifts to make it big. For example, there wasn't anything Rashan Gary's or Jabrill Peppers' parents had to do other than birth them. In fact, I don't think either of them even had their dad's around and they were both still top 5 overall recruits. That's how important talent is. They had zero guidance. Their skills were God given and no amount of training or education could make am average Joe better than them. If your kids are good enough they will be found. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely they will be. Learn to accept them for who they are and let them walk their own path and figure it out for themselves and be supportive. They will get much more out of it that way anyways.
thanks for the post -- it was a sincere question so I appreciate your sincere response. Epstein mentioned in the podcast how parents were upset with him over his book. Interesting podcast for sure.
I promise that I don't offer this as some sort of admonishment, but you are underrating the roles of Gary's and Peppers' mothers. I don't know if they coached their sons at all, but they pretty clearly also didn't just turn them loose in the street!
I remember being impressed with Rashan's mother, Jennifer Coney. I don't remember exactly how long the questionnaire form was that she had schools fill out but it was a (rightly) demanding one including asking about the degree of academic support the school would provide and their process for supporting former student-athletes after football. A tad more here: https://n.rivals.com/news/mother-knows-best-jennifer-coney-drives-rashan-gary-s-recruitment
I'm a big fan of Ms. Coney.
Agreed on both points above. I'm sure the mothers played a big role in being a support structure for them. I'm not sure they played any role in their athletic development, which is my point. Be supportive and challenge them in what their interests are, but I don't think there's a ton you can do to steer them that way if they either aren't interested or don't have the ability.
Right - I assumed we were in agreement about the underlying facts.
Everyone in your family safe?
Mgoeffoff--Given your background, does the research show that youth soccer or sports training in Europe backfires? The "academies" for soccer seem incredibly intense and they start earlier than high school (unless I am wrong about them)
I don't know enough about soccer overseas. Soccer clubs have grown a lot in the 20 plus years since I played in HS. I do think culture plays a role. From the few soccer players I've been exposed to in HS and college from overseas, they seem more advanced in both their skills and their knowledge and understanding of the game. For example a 25 year old from Scotland played on a semi pro team there, got injured and cut, then came to play D2 soccer in Connecticut. He was a D2 All American. But, he was also older, very motivated, very independent living in a different country on his own, and a hard worker. It's hard if his success was more due to his mental or physical skills. But, even so his career ended as a D2 All American with no money coming from it.
Is your son a soccer player? How old is he? What state do you live in? Are you considering sending him overseas to try and try and make a career of it? Maybe I can give more specifics if I know a little more, but I have a lot less experience with soccer as baseball, football, basketball, or even hockey.
Here's a link to a quick Google Scholar search on "early sport specialization in soccer"
I was asking for academic reasons (that is out of curiousity after hearing the podcast). I also generally just wish the U.S. was better at soccer....
One could write a dissertation on this alone. Generally I think talent identification & access to good coaches at an early age will provide more opportunities which compound upon themselves over time and lead to more development. And, as Epstein puts it
acknowledging the existence of talent and of genes that influence athletic potential in no way detracts from the work it takes for that talent to be transformed into achievement . Genes mediate the very improvements that come from hard training. We all likely overascribe our skills and traits to either innate talent or training depending on what fits our personal narratives.
However, diversification is also important. There is a balance between access to quality coaching and exposure to deliberate practice, not just practice for the sake of practice, and diversification to avoid burn out, overuse injuries, etc. The big missing key for most athletes is access to deliberate practice, which is hard. Practice on your weaknesses versus practicing what you're already good at, which is fun. Most coaches and athletes don't focus on this enough.
Ultimately almost all questions asked in exercise can be answered accurately as "it depends". It depends on a multitude of factors such as what age is optimal?, is training year round?, who is coaching the programs?, what sort of S&C programs are accompanying the training programs?, are they playing soccer exclusively and no other sports?, etc. etc. etc.
To summarize, everyone has a different genotype and as such optimal development will require a different environment for everyone.
I used to live in Texas and Florida and a big thing in the south is to redshirt your kid in kindergarten and elementary school. My wife used to teach at a high school and A LOT of the star athletes were closer to 20 than 18 when they graduated. That wasn’t always the case because good athletes are just good athletes, but quite a few kids benefit from being two/three years older than some of their opponents.
I think you find this as a common theme among middle school aged and early HS athletes. As athletes get into their mid to late teenage years this becomes less so. I want to say Epstein observed in The Sports Gene that like 70% of players in the NHL were born in August, September, or November (or whichever are the last 3 months prior to the cutoff for the next age group) making them all 9-12 months older than most of their peers.
I think this over simplifies the issue. It depends on the sport. There are certain sports that are oriented to better athletes/genetics (track, swimming, football (non-QB), basketball (non-PG), there are sports that more skill related (golf, baseball), and sports that a blend of athleticism and skill (soccer, lacrosse).
If a kid is "that kid" who is going to be 250 lbs, 6'5" and quick twitch, he can show up to the first football practice his junior year, play defensive end, and have a scholarship offer by the end of the season. But that same kid would be hopeless in baseball, soccer, golf or lacrosse if he hasn't spent years training. Ultimately, it depends on the sport of choice and how based on skill or athleticism it is, and the more skill based, the earlier the kid will need to focus.
My advice from having three boys who are very involved in athletics (some sports at a national level, some just for fun), is have them play every sport that they have any interest in up to grade 4 or 5. See which sports that they like the best at that point and start focusing more. you can't force a kid to play a sport he or she doesn't like. Everyone will end up miserable. And unless your kid is "that kid" he or she will probably start gravitating towards their best sport.
I think that playing multiple sports across the three main seasons (fall, winter, spring) is smart, but most kids will need to prioritize one over the other. The kid does some training for the primary sport outside of that primary sport's main season, does some strength/conditioning/speed/agility work year round that is applicable to all their sports, and spends time during the summer on the primary sport.