Sports Training For Babies

"Sports training for babies???? You must be joking", you would probably say. But no, it is pretty much in practice now. When saying goes, "The younger you start the better". Sports training for babies now begins as early in 6 months of age. Children are being groomed as athletes before they actually start walking. But a lot of Doctors say that do not see any great advantages in exposing babies to sports. They even aren't aware of any evidence that training at the infancy stage accelerates coordination. If only, it increases the possibility of overuse injury at even younger ages.

Sports training for babies may not have caught the fancy of mothers in India. But in countries like the United States, an increasing number of mothers are enrolling their babies as early as 4 months of age, for sports training. The funny thing is that none of these organizations who enroll such young children for training claim that they can turn today's babies into tomorrow's sports superstars. This is because previously companies making such claims have gotten into trouble.

Most mothers enroll their children for such sports training programs mainly as an outlet for their hyperactive, high energy children. Mothers also feel that in this ultra-competitive world, such training would give their children an edge in academics, arts and yes in sports. And not even children, babies and toddlers are being enrolled for sports-related training. Companies are jumping at the insecurity of the mothers and using it to their advance in creating such programs. Even fitness facilities have jumped on the bandwagon. The urgency has been created and parents are lining up to enroll their children for such programs fearing that their children might be left behind. But we may be going a bit too far in trying to give our children the edge. Child development experts say that their main emphasis should be on the child, not on turning them into the next Michael Johnson. 

We need to instill creativity in children. Encouragement and direction which we think are positive factors could stifle creativity in children. If a child is always being taught how to move, it stifles the development of skill.

Such training at such a young age might turn out to be counterproductive since it does not teach a baby how to take the SAT Test effectively or how to drive a football into a goal. Each child has its own developmental schedule. Attempts to alter the schedule would lead to undesired consequences. The success in sports involves many factors including genetics, mental attitude, etc. Attempts to teach sporting skills at a younger age may end up backfiring by causing burnout. The key is to establish healthy movement patterns and give the child an opportunity to play and reinforce the creative and social aspects of exercise. This would be beneficial for life long fitness, rather than later on for an obese child to talk about how he used to play football.

Toddlers have to play. Opportunities have to be given to them to explore their worlds with very little inhibition, and they will be just fine.