Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 4, 1990 TAG: 9006020103
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jane E. Brody
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A talent for sports like gymnastics, tennis, skating and dancing is sometimes detected in preschoolers, who may then be pressured by parents and trainers to spend their childhood preparing for possible greatness.
Even more youngsters play competitively on teams, many of which place more emphasis on winning than on the benefits of movement, sportsmanship and fun.
Too often these early athletic experiences have negative consequences.
Children who fail to live up to adult expectations may feel like failures. Some are damaged physically or emotionally by inappropriate training programs.
Others are "miscast," pushed into the wrong activity, assigned to the wrong position, or teamed up with or paired against others of the same age who differ greatly in size, weight or maturity.
As a result, countless youngsters simply lose interest or burn out long before reaching their true athletic potential.
Those who continue in their chosen sport may also suffer. Many suffer preventable injuries.
For others, performance may be compromised by a failure to appreciate the special effects of sports training in children or by inadequate attention to environmental factors like fluid intake, air pollution and exposure to heat and cold.
Physiologically, children are not miniature adults. In "The Pediatric Athlete," recently published by the American Acadmey of Orthopaedic Surgeons, experts outlined these distinctions:
To achieve a certain level of performance in aerobic activities like swimming or running, children must sustain higher heart and breathing rates than adults. Thus, children burn more calories and tire faster.
In anaerobic activities like sprinting, children are less efficient at using the muscle fuel glycogen and therefore cannot produce as much power, relative to their size, as adults.
Children take longer to adjust to abrupt increases in heat and humidity. Their bodies produce more heat and dissipate heat more slowly than adults, increasing their risk of heat-induced illness during vigorous exercise.
Since children must breathe faster during exercise, they may also be more susceptible to the effects of polluted air.
On the other hand, children in general are more flexible than adults and they recover faster from strenuous activity.
Experts caution against subjecting children to athletic training programs designed for adults. Dr. Brian J. Sharkey, dean of the College of Human Performance at the University of Northern Colorado, said that attempts to increase aerobic power in children often produce insignificant results.
Children who have not yet reached puberty are able to increase muscle strength through resistance training, but this does not necessarily lead to improvements in athletic performance.
However, after puberty weight lifting or strength training with resistance machines aids performance and helps prevent injury among adolescents who play contact and collision sports like basketball and football.
Anaerobic interval training (sprint work, for example) seems to have limited value to young athletes.
Sharkey observed, "It may be useful in developing neuromuscular skill, mechanical efficiency and `psychological toughness,' but excessive interval training at this stage could lead to injury and early burnout."
Most parents and coaches appreciate the importance of physical talent in encouraging children to pursue particular sports, but few consider psychological, social and other factors that can greatly influence a child's chances for success.
For example, a child with an attention-deficit disorder may fare poorly as a baseball player if assigned to the outfield, where the action is infrequent. But the same child may perform brilliantly as a catcher or pitcher.
Children with poor hand-eye coordination may become quickly frustrated trying to play sports that involve hitting or catching. But they may excell in individual sports like swimming and running.
The child's developmental age is another important consideration.
In choosing age-appropriate sports, Dr. Gregory Landry, a pediatric sports medical specialist at the University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital, suggests these general guidelines to encourage athletic success and minimize the risk of injury:
Ages 6 to 8: noncontact sports like baseball, swimming, skating and tennis.
Ages 8 to 10: contact sports like basketball, soccer and wrestling.
Ages 10 to 12 and beyond: collision sports like tackle football and hockey.
Before puberty, boys and girls of equal size do not differ in strength or sports potential and, experts say, they should be allowed to play on the same teams and compete against one another.
In fact, boys and girls can play together until the boys reach puberty, which occurs on average two years later than girls.
With puberty, however, boys gain more muscle and strength than girls do and competition between them becomes increasingly mismatched.
by CNB