Big games for little athletes
In the center of a field of fake grass, about a dozen 3- and 4-year-olds are attempting to learn soccer -- or a reasonable facsimile. Kicking and chasing after scaled-down balls, some charge ahead with glee, expertly guiding the balls with their feet. Others scoot along hesitantly, their faces masks of intensity.
"Score it in the goal! Score it in the goal!" the coach yells excitedly nearby. One boy nails the goal with a single kick, while another takes three to four attempts. A little girl in pigtails scoops up one ball with her arms and simply drops it into the net.
Such is organized sports for preschoolers. Parents may be crazy for it, but childhood development experts
No longer content to wait until their children are 5 or, heaven forbid, 8 (the age most kids start in organized sports leagues), moms and dads are enrolling their offspring in structured programs at the age of 3 and 4. The Lil Kickers soccer program at the Upland Indoor Sports Arena, where the extremely young soccer players were roaming, even has a class for 18-month-olds.
Such preschool-focused programs -- including ones for basketball and T-ball -- teach specific skills, general motor development and sometimes concepts such as teamwork -- not always an easy lesson for a population whose conversations can consist largely of the word, "Mine!" Coed classes can be found in parks and recreation programs and private sports organizations across the nation and, coordinators say, enrollment numbers are growing every year. Many programs even have waiting lists.
The environment is mostly noncompetitive (no one wants to tell a 3-year-old she cost the game), but the fact that organized sports have infiltrated toddlerhood doesn't sit well with many exercise and child development experts.
Graduating to training pants, they say, doesn't necessarily signal a readiness for structured programs with equipment and rules and expectations of victory or failure. Of course physical activity trumps sitting around watching TV, says Michael Bergeron, exercise physiologist and assistant professor at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. But, he says, sports lessons might not be the best alternative.
"It might seem innocent to say, 'Come on, catch this, run harder,' but they may be trying to get kids to do things they're not capable of doing, and that leads to frustration and anxiety," says Bergeron, who's also chairman of the American College of Sports Medicine's Youth Sports and Health Initiative. "Kids who are further along developmentally look better than those who are not, and kids can start feeling resentment."
