Youth Sports Can Hurt The Very Young

I WANT to respond to Jim Farrell's Aug. 20 article, "Younger Kids Tackle Football."

Youth sports have become serious business to the adults running these programs. It is accepted practice for most youth sports teams to start their recruitment of children as young as ages 5, 6 or 7. This is the critical time for kids to learn socialization skills by playing freely with their friends. Being organized by youth sports limits this opportunity for young children. In fact, most young children I have taught as an elementary school teacher over the last 15 years come in with very poor socialization skills. This is due to many of them being organized in youth sports.

One statement leaped off the page and pointed toward one of the major issues in youth sports. Steve Alessi, president of the Berlin football league, stated: "You have to get kids early."



Competition for children in youth sports began when soccer went to multiple seasons years ago. Now, almost all youth sports participate in multiple seasons. The effect is that parents and kids feel pressure to specialize in that one particular sport. This has led to overuse injuries in youth sports as well as burnout by the time kids get to junior high school. Who is really being served by forcing kids and their parents to feel the need to specialize, or even play, organized sports at these ridiculously young ages?

The Connecticut Youth Sports Initiative calls for delaying the creation of organized sport teams until the developmentally appropriate age of 9 or 10. We also call for delaying establishment of elite travel teams until puberty, the only true time when athletic potential can be judged in children.

Rick Collins, Simsbury

The writer is a teacher in the Simsbury public schools and founder of The Connecticut Youth Sports Initiative