Transcript – What is over-specialization in kids sports? Is it bad?
Sean Riley:
So we’ve got a cool opportunity here today. We brought a special guest in. I’m joined today by Callum Crawford. Callum is a professional box lacrosse player. He currently plays for the Panther City Lacrosse Club down in Fort Worth. Callum’s been playing professional lacrosse for 18 years and then something that hits home with me personally, we’ve been very fortunate… How long have you been in Tulsa?
Callum Crawford:
Just over four years now.
Sean Riley:
Yeah. So Callum has the director of Impulse Lacrosse. That’s a competitive lacrosse club that started here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And my son, selfishly, we’ve gotten involved in this, and so I’m really engaged in the sport of lacrosse. I think it’s a fantastic sport. Being in the middle of the country in Oklahoma, we were a bit behind. I had no idea what I was getting myself into initially with equipment and tactics and all those types of things, but it’s been a really cool experience to see our kids develop. The coaching is fantastic that he brings down. We’re very, very lucky to have him and his staff here in Tulsa, and it’s been fun to watch these kids get engaged in a new sport.
Something that I’ve talked a lot, quite a bit in the past, being a former athlete, playing competitive sports. We’ve discussed the term overspecialization or specializing too early as a young athlete, these kids getting involved in just one sport too early. And I remember when I first met Callum, hearing his story about did you always play lacrosse? Did you start playing lacrosse at a very young age? I was just very surprised. And so if you would, would you share your story, how you ended up where you are today?
Callum Crawford:
Yeah, for sure. So I was a late bloomer, we’ll put it that way, into the sport of lacrosse. Most people in Canada, they start playing at about four years old. That’s when you could start, it’s contact from day one. And that’s where most of the professional lacrosse players, I would probably say started because it’s such a skill-based sport. So it is one that you do have to concentrate 10,000 hour rule on the skill aspect of it. For me, it was different. I came to it later on. I didn’t really play any competitive sports until I was about 10 years old. And once I dove into lacrosse, I was in it for good. So that was my thing, picked it up and whatnot. But my unique thing was, unlike most Canadian lacrosse players, I didn’t play hockey. So most Canadian lacrosse players, they play hockey in the wintertime and lacrosse in the summer.
I didn’t play hockey, skates hurt my feet, hated it. I’m the absolute polar opposite of most Canadians. My other sport, as I got older and into high school, ended up becoming volleyball, which is really a weird, rare sport combination, lacrosse player and volleyball player. Now men’s volleyball is very predominant in Canada, but that was my other one. I played it through high school. I played other sports. I played basketball in high school, played some football in high school, track, rugby, but it was the only other sport that I played seriously and competitively. I actually, at first, coming out of high school, went to college for volleyball first before deciding I would dive fully into lacrosse and went to the NCAA for lacrosse. So that was my path athletically through the sport and everything. And to be honest, it’s the competitive athletic advantage that I probably credit to be unique.
My style of play has always been very unique for lacrosse. Most, again, lacrosse players kind of play it like hockey coming out of Canada or lacrosse players in the United States come out of a football background. My athletic ability over other people’s is a very quick lateral, fast twitch version of the sport, which has been unique compared to most people in the league that I’ve played against. And I actually credit that to volleyball as it’s a split second quick movement sport and a lot of explosive jumping. It’s not a ton of downhill running, or long stride skating or anything. So my volleyball background athletically, I probably credit to the unique success that I’ve had as a player.
Sean Riley:
Yeah, and I’m glad you touched on that because that was my next question was like, how would you say that volleyball translated to lacrosse? Because ultimately, that’s the fear that I have with overspecialization, and I’m going to let you speak to that here in a second. But we want to develop soccer players and football players and volleyball players, and not just a lacrosse player because just to your point, we’re developing different motor patterns. And he mentioned fast twitch lateral movement, that’s what volleyball was able to give him. He wasn’t working in just one frontal plane, if you will. He just wasn’t moving downhill. He learned and adapted the ability to move quickly from side to side. So I think that’s a perfect example of how that sport translates to another, and it’s so very important.
You and I have talked about this of developing athletes and so with Impulse Lacrosse, you’re obviously very passionate about youth sports. What is your take, and what’s your thought process on when you talk to parents and kids and you might see we’re going this way too quickly or whatever the case may be, how do you manage that?
Callum Crawford:
Yeah, it’s definitely one of the hardest parts of my job because we happen to live in a region where lacrosse is very new. We are behind the majority of the country. I have the belief that if we do more than the rest of the country, we’ll catch up quicker. The hard part is I believe very much in multi-sport athletes. So trying to find a way to make sure our kids are playing at the bare minimum, as much as everybody else, if not more, but still having time and the opportunity to play other sports. And at times it probably seems with how much programming we offer that we are trying not to provide other sports, but we really do. Trying to keep our ear to the ground and understand when certain… In the fall time, we purposely only do lacrosse on Sunday, so we don’t try to pull anybody or get in the way of football because we want our athletes to play football.
In the wintertime, trying to find a way that kids can play basketball and still be involved in our box lacrosse programming. In the summertime, that tends to be more of a lacrosse season, so that’s where we prioritize lacrosse and we’re not so worried about other sports as much, but it is such a tough job because I’m sure a lot of kids may hear message of, I have to play lacrosse all the time. I’m a believer is we all have a primary sport, the sport that we are most passionate about and we love, and that’s the one sport we should always be doing in some capacity. Off seasons in a very light capacity, and in season we do it very much so. Being a skill-based sport and not just an athletic sport, we don’t want to put our tool down for a long period of time. But we need to find to develop as the athlete, we are all competitive athletes and there’s an athlete component to our sport and every other sport. The best athletes are always going to have an opportunity to compete.
So to develop that athlete part, there’s obviously off field training. We call it dry line training, strength and conditioning, all that stuff is a great tool regardless of what sport you play. Having those things to develop, but also just the movement patterns and the ability to adjust and develop your body by playing other sports will benefit you long-term in whatever path you choose. Just because a kid is passionate about lacrosse now, doesn’t mean he’s going to be passionate when he graduates high school. Having an athletic background and tool belt of athletic abilities will allow that young man to go whatever direction hopefully he wants. So specializing is okay, but you can specialize and still be a multi-sport athlete.
Sean Riley:
Right, exactly. Yeah, and so we’ve touched on development of motor patterns, the importance of those types of things when we’re developing the athlete. But my world here at the clinic at Tulsa Spine and Rehab, my biggest fear is injury. And what we’re starting to see more and more of is when you overutilize, overspecialize, these kids that are still growing, many of these kids haven’t even been through puberty, they’re lifting too much weight, they’re training too hard, you’re going to start developing these overuse injuries. And I’m starting to see overuse injuries to soft tissues I would typically see in someone like you, a professional athlete, to a 12-year-old. And because it’s they’re doing the same things over and over again, it’s the same motor pattern. There’s no variation laterally, whatever the case may be. And so I think that’s the other point that we need to bring up is that the concern is developing athletes’ motor patterns, but also avoiding injury.
That’s a big part of developing that multi-sport kid.
So man, I’m glad that you came on. Like I said, it was a really unique opportunity because this is something that I’m very passionate about. We work with a lot of athletes here in the clinic, and I just thought from early on when I met you, I thought it was a very interesting story because everyone’s like, did Callum start playing golf? Or pardon me, playing lacrosse at four years of age, or whatever the case. And come to find out you played college volleyball and then ultimately you’re playing professional lacrosse today. So I appreciate you coming on and visiting with us today.
Callum Crawford:
Yeah, no, thanks for having me.
