“Are our children specializing in a specific sport(s) too early?” Mary Ann Dove – Performance Coach and Co-founder of Positive Sport Parent
Reviewed by Anne Nicholson Junior Netball Development Officer
This article supports the philosophy of NNZ’s Junior Netball Programme which is a progressive player centred game approach to netball. Young players must learn the fundamental movement skills to enable them to develop as athletes before they become specialised in a sport or in one specific position of a sport. Parents need to realised that their child can be severely disadvantaged or compromised in their long-term sporting life if they have specialized too early i.e. prior to the onset of their adolescent growth spurt.
