Marcus Agnew: Winter code v summer code – decisions for young athletes

As winter sport winds down and summer sports wind up, we have entered a key juncture point between many of our major codes.

It can be a tricky time for kids and their parents, with sometimes difficult and competing choices to be made between ongoing training camps with the winter sport vs the start of the summer sports activities.

Sport NZ and the five major sporting codes did a great job with their recent roll out of key messages supporting youth development and this transition from winter into summer sport is a key first milestone for those messages to be actioned.

Many things are easier said than done and part of the challenge is getting the messages driven out of head office actioned in the real world by the administrators and parents in all corners of the country.

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What do those messages look like in real life, and what are the challenges for those people on the ground trying to get it right?

One of the key messages driven out has been to avoid early specialisation in a single sport.

So now as we shift out of winter season, we ideally see kids having a break from their winter sport, and take up a summer code they love, which will broaden their skills, make them more well-rounded, as well as giving that variety to keep them hungry for the long run.

And that's exactly where one of the first stumbling blocks can be. We still hear plenty of scenarios where a young sports person is presented with opportunities to carry on with their winter sport, right through summer – be it playing competitions, or academy training camps.

And so even if it is unintentional, those sports offering the summer options are essentially fostering early specialising.

The crossover between winter and summer codes is not completely new, but in this modern era of youth sport, it has definitely become one of the biggest challenges.

The seasons have gotten longer, the increased focus on developing performance year-round, and even the need for the winter codes to generate some off-season income during the summer. With all that going on, sadly the days of the great dual international is pretty much gone.

In terms of the major sports codes and Sport NZ's messages, this crossover of seasons is where the rubber meets the road.

An obvious solution for parents is to ask the kids – what they want to do? Give them the choice between the summer football academy, or the cricket and tennis, easy right, decision made by the kid.

Well that's where it can get tricky too. One code may do a better job of selling their sport than the other, they might play a winter sport that offers exciting 'high performance' or 'elite' training programmes during the summer – they might even be told that if they don't attend a certain amount of sessions, they are dropped from the team. So yes the kid can make a choice, but is it really the right one?

Another challenge for parents is when children play a sport that offers three or four games a week, plus practices. The challenge is that right here and now the kid loves it and can't get enough, but we know that sometimes too much of the thing we love isn't necessarily good for us. Chocolate, hmmm.

I know many kids that if you let them play their sport 10 times a week they would, but we know that isn't sustainable, and like chocolate, 10 times a week isn't good for them in the long run.

If you ask most kids if they want to play video games every day, yes they probably will.

So as it stands, it isn't just parents' faults that many kids have been early specialising, it's a result of the offerings that are being dished up from the sports.

Not all codes are going to have that clear line between winter and summer anyway, so there is always going to be some overlap – at the end of the day it requires some good positive conversation between coaches of the respective sports so the kids get the best outcome.

Many of the sports have been in an environment where it's dog–eat–dog, each trying to offer up the best product, not necessarily all working together to offer up the best annual calendar for the youth.

Therefore, the onus falls back onto the parents and their kids to make the right decisions for themselves, and there is no one right way for everyone.

Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and a lecturer in sports science at EIT.