OK -- this is a new thread that's borne of this one on What's Too Young for Martial Arts

Short version -- about 6 months ago, my son (now age 7) started training in Kyokohshinkan's Budo karate and he loves it.

We allow him to attend twice a week in afternoon or Saturday training sessions. This is the same policy we used when he was enrolled in other rec sports leagues -- figuring one practice night and one game night per week.

Well in 6 months, he's progressed two full belts, and he loves the experience of it all. That's no problem for me. I love that he's found an activity that he's passionate about. I also like the fact that my wife is an assistant instructor at the dojo, so this is an activity that they share.

Here's my challenge though and where I'd love to discuss things with other dads/parents. The boy is so committed to karate now that he wants to do it exclusively and skip the upcoming baseball season.

I've got mixed feelings. On one hand, I want to support his passion and reward his dedication. On the other, I want him to be well rounded and have other athletic experiences. (Full disclosure -- he's played 2 seasons of baseball previously and I was his coach. As objectively as I can, I would say he enjoyed the game and the overall experience. But I guess my point is he knows what he's giving up.)

So what sayeth the community? At what age/experience level do you start to allow your kids to specialize and focus their talents/experiences?

Oh, hot topic. Specialization in sports. A huge issue at the school community where I live. We have a couple of "sports academies" at the school. These kids train year round, and, by rule of our sports league, are banned from participating in that sport on behalf of the school. So they play tennis on their own, or soccer as part of a club. But never for the school's varsity teams. Kinda messed up. So I offer that as disclosure of a bias. But overall these seem like happy, healthy, one sport kids.

I think specialization isn't something that we can completely avoid any more, but there are concerns that playing only one sport leads to overuse injuries and burnout in young athletes. I'm guessing that overuse is probably not as much of an issue with Martial Arts.

I think team sports and individual sports develop some different internal resources, so I might be inclined to encourage at least some team sports participation. Also, team sports can be really important to older kids to build community with peers later on down the road. We have found that as our son moved to a new school, his team involvements really smoothed the transition.

Does martial arts have a season? If not, that makes it harder to work something else in. Tough one. I would never suggest that you force the kid to play on a team, but I sure would present him with some options.

Here's a link to a CNN article I saw today about specialization in sports for kids.

"Going to extreme measures for child athletes"
www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/01/20/making.of....ar/index.html?hpt=C2

Hey all,

Thanks for the thoughts.

@DaddyClay -- in our specific case, I'm not concerned with overuse of muscles and injury. He's only participating in formal training twice a week, and he's not SO committed that he's practicing hours a day 7 days a week on his own time. In fact, he's really not practicing outside the dojo at all.

But I can definitely see the potential for issues/concern. If baseball were his chosen passion, I wouldn't allow him to practice pitching his curveball 100 pitches a day 7 days a week either. I would be too concerned with injury as well.

@Erica -- interesting article. I can honestly say, I highly doubt that I'd allow a child of mine to participate in any sort of permanent camp away from home to pursue a sport. Call me pessimistic, but I just don't believe that I'm raising the next superstar in any given discipline. The other issue I'd have is if my child were at some sort of resident program, then who's raising/parenting my child? I'd have a lot of issue with that. Plus, on a totally selfish note, I'd just flat out miss having my kid in my house.

I guess my concern is mostly the social aspect. If he commits to one sport, then he's only engaged with that set of peers. Don't get me wrong the group at the dojo spans all manner of socio-economic-ethnic diversity, but it's still a matter of spending that time with a fixed group of people. I think I'd prefer for the kids to have more exposure to a more diverse set of activities and people so they have more opportunities to explore the community and the world around them.

As a follow up specific to our situation - I think the family is agreed to a compromise.The boy is going to play baseball this season. So that will be one school night per week and one either Friday night or Saturday morning for ball games, and he's going to scale back karate to Saturday afternoon's only during baseball season. It works out ok because with his mother as in instructor at the dojo, she's required to be there 3 out of 4 Saturday's a month anyway.

I've been struggling with a concise answer for this one.

In short, I'm baffled at the idea of specialization in sport for kid, period. It's too limiting on too many different levels. I could go on all day aobut this, so I will try not to.

I see so many kids playng hockey and nothing else. So for years they play the same game, polishing up that same old skill set, with those same old kids, in those same old rinks, with those same old parents watching. It's like the PhD that can't change the oil in his car.

Why all the eggs in one basket? He's only going to be a kid once, why limit him to just one sport?

In high school, I earned 8 varsity letters, (3 football, 2 basketball, 3 baseball)so I got to know the athletes in the different sports; I was a drummer in a rock band (knew all the musicians- and burnouts) and built a 4x4 (got to know all the gear heads). My point is, I got exposed to people and built relationships with many different types of people at a relatively early age due to all the different activities I was involved in, while many of my frineds were stuck in one clique or another, and dared not to cross into another clique. Not to sound too touchy feely, but I do think these are skills that have helped me later in life, both in the market and personally.

In my opinion, it's more "pigeon holing" than specializing.

@T. Low -- we're off a similar mind. My parents required my brother and I to participate in some school run after school activity each season. It didn't have to be a sport, but it did have to be an organized program.

Consequently, I played soccer, swam competitively, was on the ski club, a national honor student, part of the drama club,etc.

I completely agree that participating in all of those different activities earned me acceptance with a broader group of classmates, peers etc. I was able to navigate socially between the academics, many of the athletes, as well as the creative castes in my school. That's what I'm hoping to instill in my kids, by keeping their activities diverse.

The trick will be not overextending the family so that we're all running in different directions 6 nights a week!