High Performance Sport New Zealand has backed the campaign to encourage children to play many sports and has backed it up with facts.
Sport New Zealand and five major sports — cricket, rugby, netball, hockey and football — are taking part in a campaign to get young people to play sport for the love of it and not to specialise in one sport too early.
The campaign raised awareness of the negative adult behaviours that result in young people dropping out of sport.
Those influences include a strong emphasis on winning at youth level, instead of fun and development, early specialisation and a belief that youth success leads to adult success.
HPSNZ high performance athlete development manager Ken Lynch said it was extremely hard to judge potential from performances at ages 11 to 13.
“HPSNZ encourages diversity in development, whether that’s playing multiple sports, multiple disciplines or activities within a single sport. When managed well this can also reduce the likelihood of overuse injuries,’’ he said.
“There are a few sports that require specialisation earlier, like some snow sports disciplines or swimming, but ensuring there is diversity within those programmes can meet development needs and reduce the possibility of overuse injuries or burnout.’’
For the past seven years, HPSNZ has been surveying pre-HP athletes — those on the cusp of becoming a high-performance athlete.
So far this study has involved 645 athletes in 22 sports.
The survey measures athlete demographics, family background, characteristics, experiences and a mix of sport science and medicine measures.
It has identified findings that support the ‘‘Keep Up With The Play’’ campaign.
On average, high-performance athletes reported their point of specialisation at 15-years 5-months old. They are playing 5.5 sports in primary school and 3.1 sports at secondary school. Even after secondary school they are averaging 1.9 sports.
The HPSNZ research also reinforces the importance of parents and coaches, who are the primary targets of the public awareness campaign.
Pre-HP athletes reported the top three sources of their learning to perform better are through their coaches, technical support staff and parents.
Encouragement and influence from parents is third on the list of motivation factors, behind the love of their sport and liking being active.
“These findings support the changes being driven at youth level by the five sports and Sport New Zealand. Specialising later is not going to reduce New Zealand’s chances of winning on the world stage, and the right support from parents and coaches is definitely a key ingredient, whether you’re in grassroots sport or on a pathway to being an elite athlete.
“Quality coaching and administration at youth level should enable athletes to stay in sport and realise their potential, whether that’s about playing for enjoyment or aspiring to be a future high performance athlete.”
