Early Sports Specialization

During the early infancy physical activity is mainly related to play activities, with the pass of time the children are encouraged to engage in sports and this encouragement increase until the adolescence. The early sport specialization in youth and adolescence have been discussed for many researchers, there are positive and negative aspects of the effect of the early specialization on the development and vice versa, since that the transition from the childhood to the adolescence is defined by structural, physiological and psychological changes.

The definition of sport specialization is presented by Myer et al (2015) as an intensive year-round training in a single sport at the exclusion of other sports, where a young athlete should be able

The claims that support the early sport specialization is mainly related to the faster skill development at a young age, and the talent recognition proceeding that, also to the possibilities that can be opened from the recognition, such as scholarships or professional contracts. On the other hand, they present the claims against this early specialization related to the high risks of physical (injuries and burnout) and psychosocial problems from the intense training and the difficulty in developing variety of motor skills and maintain the sport interesting.

Though the sport specialization cannot be considered as an independent factor of risk for injury, it can affect the development of appropriate neuromuscular skills that are effective in injury prevention, since that the young athlete is not engage in diversified activities which would allow the necessary rest from the use of repetitive segments of the body (Myer et al,

Also, choosing a single sport and quitting all the others can result in a premature withdrawal, because the athletes can face a decrease in motivation, since that the sport can become less interesting or enjoyable. The intrinsic motivation related to the enjoyment the activities is seen like an important factor to maintaining participation and goal achievement in adolescents. So, as many adolescent athletes need to specialize in a single sport because of collegiate scholarships, they become highly skilled but also the pressure and stress increase, once that they are facing the sport as something different, not just as an enjoyable and funny activity but something that they need put responsibility into it, as a job, for example. (Myer et al,