2022 AOSSM Annual Meeting Recordings with CME-Early Sport Specialization: What’s the Problem?

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The speaker starts by expressing gratitude and admiration for his fellow panelists. He goes on to explain that the focus of his talk is early sports specialization and its potential negative effects. He defines early sports specialization as participating in year-round training, playing on multiple teams of the same sport, choosing a single main sport, and quitting all other sports to focus on one sport. He highlights the importance of allowing young athletes to try different sports and find their best fit rather than pushing them into specialization too early. The speaker discusses the underdeveloped neuromuscular coordination and impaired athletic development that can result from early specialization. He presents empirical data that suggests athletes who participate in multiple sports have improved performance and fewer injuries. He emphasizes the need to train athletes to be able to handle unpredictable loads and perturbations, rather than solely focusing on injury prevention. The speaker explains a training study that aimed to create anti-fragile athletes who are able to get stronger when exposed to difficult or unexpected situations. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of proper training age rather than age itself and the need for long-term athletic development models.

Asset Caption

Greg Myer, PhD, CSCS

Keywords

early sports specialization

neuromuscular coordination

athletic development

multiple sports

injury prevention

training study

long-term development