Generalization or Specialization

This is another topic that draws heated debate amongst parents, psychologists, teachers and in general all involved in this topic. But before I proceed, I must always draw attention and implore all of you to refer back to common sense, even if at times this is not so common....
Who said what? It is a fact that athletes in most sports are not born to be that way and about 97% of all athletes are self made. The rest of the 3% are naturally born talents to whom the discipline of their sport comes naturally.
It is usually, the athletes belonging to this group and who are rewarded with huge book deals that write things such as, when they were children they have participated in all sports and they enjoyed all of them ad made them better in their sport as they were able to use the experiences gained in the other sports to compliment theirs.
In (US) soccer literature this is common in the Mia Hamm book. In basketball literature, Michael Jordan stated the same. Again, the trend is that these athletes are members of the 3% "star" family and are naturally born athletes. On the other hand, everyone would be hard pressed to name the other sport that Mia has excelled in and we all know how well Michael Jordan fared when he took up his quest to be a major league baseball player.
Dion Sanders and Bo Jackson are in the same boat as all of them were much better in their "specialized" sport than the one they proclaimed to chase.
The topic of how to train youngsters was a major concern during the past 3 decades and thankfully, the subject of much research, conversation and discussion among coaches. The debate centered around the issue as to whether to train youngsters as "generalists" or as "specialists". Most people at the time were in favor of the former, for reasons of training methodology and pedagogical order and development.

"Generalist" training supported the idea (it still supports it today) that youngsters should have the opportunity to play a wide range of different sports and therefore should develop greater coordination and a wide range of different movements. The link between the specialist and general content of the programs set a global precedent, allowing greater assistance to the development of youngsters. Moreover; the "generalist" workload avoided a premature burn-out.

Critics of the early "specialist" training argued (and parents, unfortunately are still stuck in this argument although it has been utterly refuted by science) that youngsters ran the risk of not having a good overall sports knowledge and a background and this would ultimately impede their future potential.

Over the years, it has been proven, that the "generalist" method has been successful only for certain sports. During the last fifteen years many champions have triumphed because they specialized at an early age. These champions have come from very diverse sports but these sports all have one thing in common. They all contain such high level of technical difficulty that 50 years ago physical education teachers were convinced that only adults were capable of carrying out these skills and so chose not to do them.

Today, Hirtz and Col have demonstrated that, during puberty, coordination capabilities can be learned more easily and greatly improved. The reasons are so obvious that Farfel said the same things years ago: "it is easier and more effective to influence and shape something which is maturing than it is when this maturation has been completed".

This is also very important in the context of sports. The lack of specific motor stimulation, especially during the early years, cannot be recuperated at a later date. For this reason I feel it is important to start playing early as these sports involve complicated movements and coordination. It is during the early years that the movements and signals in the brain can be best developed and perfected.

Here, I am referring to sports such as gymnastics, ice skating and roller skating, ski jumping, swimming, tennis and of course soccer. Coaches demand a level of excellence and training that some people accuse of being potentially harmful because of the technically demanding execution involved.

As far as soccer is concerned, the following points also need to be taken into consideration:

• The ability to master the numerous situations during a game
• The ability to come to terms with the unpredictability and speed of moves in a game.

The majority of sports require fundamental qualities without which it would be impossible to reach the the top: a basketball player needs to be tall, a boxer brave with long reach and a long distance runner needs to be slim with plenty of stamina. However; no such requirements are necessary for soccer. In order to play soccer there is no need to get out a stopwatch or tape measure. A short overweight boy, not good in the air and one footed could become a very good player, such as my favorite Puskas, Kopa, Sivori and Maradona came to the game with this makeup but managed to triumph thanks to their ingenuity, craft and skill.

At the same time, a very quick player could play very slowly and vice versa. This seems to be a contradiction but speed is a natural gift and unfortunately all players are not born fast runners. It is practically impossible to make a slow player quick, no matter what training exercises he undertakes. Even if a player is quick over one hundred yards, the stop-start, twisting turning nature of the game means that explosive speed over five or ten yards and quick thinking are more important.

Of course, physical speed is normally an advantage but players can compensate for lack of speed by acquiring the ability to 'read' the game well. This ability can be greatly improved during training. Ronald Koeman, who was the coach of the Dutch National team, Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven, Valencia etc. and played for amongst many teams for Barcelona when they won the Champions League was a very slow player but he was able to anticipate and use his 'soccer brain' and technique to play a 'fast' game. On the other and I have seen many exceptionally quick players who, due to their lack of technique and vision were and to this day are unable to play the game at speed. Physical speed will never compensate for lack of technique and tactical awareness.

These are but a few attributes why it is mandatory for all those who wish to be soccer players at a higher level to specialize at an early age. If anyone wants to succeed in this sport they must have real passion for the game. This desire and appetite to play will help during the long and arduous training sessions and the difficult games. The average professional soccer player starts playing before he is eight and retires between 30-35; an average of 25 years playing the sport. This is an awfully long time if your heart is not in the game. Basically, in order to succeed in this game I recommend that you dedicate every spare moment to training. There are no short cuts. There is no substitute for hard work. However; it is important to bear in mind that "training" can involve a variety of different activities; It might mean watching a video of soccer greats, practicing ball skills, playing in a 3 v 3 game or listening to advice from your friends or coach. This is all training and the reason for early specialization.