Go Quickly or Go Far?
Being in a hurry risks failing to equip young athletes for when their chance comes
When guiding aspiring young athletes we must carefully consider whether we are optimising for success in the short-term or the long-term. Put more simply, the question for a young performer is ‘do you want to win now or win once you reach senior elite-level?’. At first glance it is not obvious that these two things might be at odds with each other. Something we need help kids to recognise is that chasing quick wins and prioritising early success may lead to decisions that prove detrimental to their chances of being successful over the long-term.
Given the growing external pressures it is no wonder that so many kids and parents are in such a hurry. It is also understandable that parents and young performers would direct their time and efforts towards being successful as a junior on the assumption that this will translate to long-term success. A big reason that kids and parents put so much weight on achieving success early on is that they take it as a sign that they are on the path towards success at senior level. However, the relationship between rankings in junior competition and competitive success at senior level is not as strong as most people think. When we look at the data from different sports it is only in the later age-groups that competitive results start to correlate with later success in senior competition to any meaningful extent.
The reality is that the factors associated with success in junior competition are distinct from what is conducive to long-term success at senior level. What confers an advantage at junior level does not necessarily bring success once athletes reach the senior ranks. The most striking example is that early maturing athletes are heavily favoured in terms of selection to age-grade squads and ranking in junior competition but this does not translate to success later on as growth curves converge and their physical advantages in relation to their peers are eliminated. This is illustrated by data from elite level ice hockey, where early-maturing athletes enjoy prominent success at junior-level as indicated by selection to age-grade national teams, but this is not reflected in representation at senior professional level. What is equally striking in these data is that the group most disadvantaged at junior level - i.e. late-maturing athletes - are relatively over-represented in senior professional squads in the sport.
Given the choice, it is far better to break through later in the youth sports journey. Those who go on to enjoy success at senior level tend to emerge as top performers relatively later in their junior career. Conversely, those who achieve breakthrough success early on most often find that this is the pinnacle of their achievements and they are not able to replicate this success once they make the transition to the senior ranks. This indicates that early success in junior competition may come at a cost.
Nevertheless there is an understandable desire for success in junior competition to attract the attention of scouts and selectors (notwithstanding the fact that their judgements are also skewed by relative age effects and early maturation). All the same, it remains crucial that this is not to the detriment of developing the capacities, capabilities and skills that will be required to be successful once they reach senior level. Once again, something kids and those advising them should be aware of is that being identified as a talent early on is not necessarily conducive to long-term success. Those who enter talent development pathways at an earlier age are more likely to fall by the wayside. Young performers who are selected later typically fare better, presumably because they are more mature and better prepared to take advantage of the opportunity.
Aside from burnout, something that helps to explain this paradox is that the practices that bring short-term success as a junior are often at odds with what creates the conditions to ultimately be successful in senior-level competition. As parents and coaches clearly we need to overcome these misapprehensions so that we can guide aspiring young performers to invest their time and efforts more wisely.
Whilst early exposure is important for long-term success in certain sports, patience is a virtue when it comes to settling on the ultimate destination for the sporting journey. In other words, kids should not be in too much of a hurry to put all their eggs in one basket. Opting to go all-in on one sport prematurely is often detrimental to the quest in the long run. In many cases kids are pushed into this decision before they have had the opportunity to adequately explore the full range of options available to them. One reason that kids (and parents) are pushed into this is the fear that they might be left behind by their peers who have jumped early and committed to that particular sport. Whilst these kids might experience a rapid ascent in the short-term, the limited range in what they’re exposed to leads to gaps in their toolkit which often curtails their improvement over the longer-term.
A study titled ‘what makes a champion’ examined data from those who go on to become world class in senior-level competition and found that these individuals typically progressed less quickly than their counterparts as juniors. The most important factor that differentiates those who emerge and have success once they reach senior level is sustained progression throughout the junior years. In other words, the rate of improvement matters less than avoiding a plateau in their performance and stalled development.
What brings rapid progress as a junior can prove detrimental over the long-term. Early on, improvements can be achieved simply by doing more of the same. However, the effectiveness of this brute force ‘more is better’ approach inevitably dimishes over time as the easy wins and low-hanging fruit become exhausted. Aside from diminishing returns, there is also risk. Months and years of high volumes of the same activity without much variety or variation is a recipe for overuse injury.
Prominent voices have sounded the alarm on the ‘premature professionalism’ that is encroaching into talent development pathways and even school sports. Academies attached to professional clubs and affiliated commercial organisations are scouting kids from earlier and earlier ages. In many cases, the coaches attached to these programmes are retired professional players. This is also creeping into the independent school sports sector, where it is becoming increasingly common to hire former professional players for coaching positions in the belief that their profile and prestige will help recruitment. Formal education in the coaching sciences is not generally a prerequisite, so it is unsurprising that recently retired atheltes would tend to recreate what they were exposed to in their professional career. When the content and delivery of practices and off-field training seeks to replicate what the professionals are doing, by definition it is no longer age- and stage-appropriate. Not only is this not optimal but may be detrimental for young athletes who are still growing and learning the sport.
With aspiring young performers we should be thinking in terms of long-term investment. As with investing, the most sound strategy is to have a diversified portfolio. For approximately the first two thirds of their youth sports journey, we should be aiming to expose kids to a diverse array of sports and a variety of activities, as this will best develop the various facets of athleticism. Over the youth sports journey we should aim to equip young performers with an extensive toolkit and transferable skills that they can bring to bear to whichever sport they ultimately opt to pursue.
The long-term perspective also applies to the manner in which practices and training is delivered. Whilst there is need for the grown-ups to be somewhat directive when kids are still learning and developing, it is also important that we afford ample opportunities to play, explore and discover the possibilities. The over-riding objectives are learning and lasting improvements.
Fundamentally, it is our duty to build young athletes to last. If you want to build a cathedral you spend the first number of years laying the foundations rather than concerning yourself with the decorative details that will adorn the exterior. Much the same applies to the developmental process for an aspiring young performer. Building excellent foundations should be the priority for the major part of the youth sports journey, especially during the early and middle stages when the athlete is still growing and developing physically.
‘to improve athletes’ long-term senior performance, youth training strategies should primarily focus on the expansion of youth athletes’ potential for future long-term performance improvement through adulthood, rather than primarily seeking to accelerate their short-term junior performance.’
Practically, this means investing the majority of time and attention to the fundamentals. Something that differentiates those who are successful at senior level is that they spent a relatively longer time engaged in the fundamentals stage during their developmental years in the sport compared to their competitors. The importance of building a sound foundation equally applies to athletic skills. Something that my colleagues operating in professional sports and national teams have been bemoaning over the past decade or so is the deterioration in athletic skills. They report that young athletes still have highly developed sports skills compared to previous eras but are less athletic and less resilient.
To bring this together, the youth sports journey calls for a blend of variety and consistency. On one hand, building solid foundations and mastering the fundamentals requires consistency - in other words, ultimate success is built by doing the right things in the right way over a sustained period of time (measured in years not months). On the other hand, it is important that there is variety. That said, it is equally important that there is coherence, especially in relation to physical and athletic development. In these areas in particular what we are looking for is variation on consistent themes.
Finally, compounding is another principle that investing and training have in common. The fruits of our daily efforts are not immediately apparent but as long as we stick with it these incremental gains accrue and their effects compound over time in a way that yields big gains and dramatic improvements over the medium- and long-term. Staying on the right track demands patience and keeping faith in the process. Performers may not register the gains and improvements they have made in real-time, so periodic assessment is helpful to provide a tangible sense of progress and offer some assurance that their efforts are being rewarded and the training is bringing the desired improvements.
Whilst this might sound straightforward, there are some challenges to implemention. In the competitive world of youth sports, kids and parents are often in a rush to get an edge and wiser heads must prevail. It seems inevitable that these pressures will only grow as youth sports become ever more commercialised. Social media is awash with gurus parading flashy-looking ‘advanced’ exercises and hacks to get rapid results, so it is vital that parents and the young performers themselves have the knowledge and perspective to resist the allure. ‘Train like the pros’ should be a red flag when selecting a training facility or a coach to work with a young athlete!
To end on a positive note, one of the gifts that sport provides is helping kids to learn that working hard on a consistent basis will bring all kinds of benefits over time. The physical nature of the work and effort involved makes this so much more tangible. The idea that their future self will reap the rewards of the efforts they diligently invest today nonetheless applies to all aspects of their life, not least when it comes to schoolwork!