The PCA Blog - Seattle

Resource Of The Week: Coaches Shouldn't Spread The Myth That Specializing Makes You Better

06.01.2017

Welcome to the PCA-Seattle PCADevZone.org Resource of the week. Every Thursday at 10 a.m. PT, you will receive a video tip for coaches, parents, athletes, or leaders. 

PCADevZone.org is free and includes nearly 1,500 free multimedia resources for coaches, parents, athletes, and leaders.

This week's resource features Christian Lavers, the Executive Vice President of C2SA (a part of CSM NA). He leads business development efforts for both US Club Soccer and it's management company, CS2A. Lavers continues to support and consult on efforts relating to US Club Soccer, particularly in the area of strategic and technical development. Lavers is also the President of the ECNL.

In this video, Lavers gives his take on specialization, noting that some kids specialize because all they want to do is play one sport all the time. To Lavers, that isn't a problem, but it IS a problem when coaches and parents tell players that they have to quit other sports to choose one at an early age. To Lavers, it's a myth that kids have to not play other sports to achieve the athletic goals they strive for at young ages. As kids get older, it may be in their benefit to focus on one sport, but when kids are younger they want to experiment, coaches and parents should let them. Any parent or coach that tells a ten, eleven or twelve-year-old player that they need to pick one sport is doing them a huge disservice.

PCA-Seattle focuses on bringing the power of positive to youth sports in Seattle through live workshops and online resources in partnership with local schools and youth sports organizations.

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