Posts Tagged ‘Selecting a sport’

Genetic Testing

Monday, February 15th, 2010

This week I’m breaking from my normal routine and focusing on a news story I saw about Atlas Sports Genetics.  The Boulder based company does DNA testing on kids to determine their genetic predisposition as an endurance or sprint athlete.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having your child tested, I just think in 99.9% of the cases the money is best spent elsewhere. The company claims that the information derived from the test will help kids select their ideal sport, and may increase their chances of a college scholarship.  While this may be a true, it is also a fantastic marketing scheme that plays on the emotions of loving, well intentioned parents, who want to give their child every advantage.  The truth is, you don’t need a fancy test to tell you what your child is predisposed to, all you have to do is watch him. 

The Atlas First basic test, priced at $169, tests both copies of the ACTN3 gene for the presence of the R577X variant.  It’s been a long time since I’ve studied genetics, but according to their website, if both genes have the R577X variant, then your child is predisposed to endurance events.  If only one gene has the variant, your child may do well at both endurance and sprint events, and if neither gene contains the variant your child is predisposed to sprint and power events.  In addition to the basic test, they offer the Atlas Pro test for a measly $999, which in addition to the DNA test, includes a vertical and broad jump assessment chart, electronic timer and EPIC Talent Identification Ratings based on your results. 

The Atlas Sports Genetics tests don’t tell you exactly what sport your child should play, only the type of sport he may excel at.  While I don’t doubt that the results would be accurate and informative, I find them unnecessary.  There is a much simpler and free way to determine what your child is predisposed to.  All you have to do is enroll your child in a variety of activities, or just watch him play.  If he’s a swimmer and excels at the long events, but is not as good at the short events, then he’s probably predisposed to do well at endurance events.  If he plays basketball and has a great vertical and can sprint faster than most of his teammates, but lags behind on your family’s 10 mile bike ride, then he is probably predisposed to do well at sprint and power events.  If he seems pretty good at both, then he probably can go either way and should try to find a sport that requires both endurance and speed and power.

Encourage your child to try a wide variety of sports and activities that utilize whichever area he is predisposed to.  He will find the sport he loves and wants to pursue.  If it happens to be a sport that doesn’t fit into the category he’s predisposed to, I wouldn’t worry too much.  You can always introduce him to new sports you feel he’d be better at, while he is playing the one he chose.  The important thing is that he loves it.   Even the most talented kid on the field won’t have any success if he doesn’t want to be there.  The reality is that kids, like adults, like to do what they are good at and will naturally gravitate towards sports that suit them. There is certainly nothing wrong with encouraging your child to try something new, just make sure not to take away what he already loves.

I found my strength simply by trying a wide variety of events within cycling.  When I was fourteen I set a national record in a 200 meter time trial, a sprint power event.  For years I thought I was destined to be a track sprinter.  A few years later, I remember doing very well on a long, hilly road ride while at a training camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. At the end of the camp they encouraged me to road race and I insisted that I wanted to be a track sprinter.  Thankfully, I continued to compete in the endurance events as well, and in 1996 I was invited to move to the Olympic Training Center as part of the endurance track program.  I am a combination athlete, I can go either way.  What I found was that I excelled at events that combined both endurance and speed and power.  While I was a good sprinter, I was not as strong and fast as an elite sprinter.  Similarly, while I had good endurance and loved to climb, I did not have the endurance and stamina of an elite endurance rider.  I was perfectly suited for events, like the points race, that combined the two.  

There is great value in determining what your child’s strengths and weaknesses are, but there is so much more that goes into it. Drive, determination and work ethic often out weigh raw talent. 

Atlas Sports Genetics offers additional testing in its Atlas Pro package, the vertical jump, 10 meter dash and Pro agility run.  There is no doubt that these are good tests to gauge improvement.  However, you and your child can do them, or something similar, at home for much less than $999. While their testing equipment may be fancier and their rating system may give you some insight, I’m not convinced they’re necessary.  I don’t think having a rating would really help you or your child.  A high rating doesn’t guarantee success, and a low one doesn’t guarantee failure.  As your child moves through the levels of his sport: local, state, regional, national, and international, you’ll see each step of the way how he rates.  

One of my hesitations about the test is the potential for the information to be used carelessly, either inflating egos unnecessarily, or discouraging kids prematurely and damaging their self confidence.  As much as we all want our kids to be great athletes, every child has their own special and unique talents, and not all of them are going to be Elite athletes. I’d hate to see your child hang his worth and potential on a rating, when so much more is involved in being a successful athlete.  Throughout my career I was told by a handful of people that I was no good.   After finishing fourth at the Olympics I certainly felt vindicated, but some of their wounds left scars. 

I think, in this case, the best bet is to skip the fancy expensive testing, and instead, offer your child a lot of different experiences and opportunities.  I don’t think Atlas Sports Genetics’ tests are going to make or break your child’s chances of getting a college scholarship; if your child is talented and has work ethic and discipline, his accomplishments will speak for themselves.

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Posted in Peak Performance, Selecting a sport, Strengths and Weaknesses | 1 Comment »

Raise your child’s game through competition and modeling.

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Try This At Home……………………………

Here is a great way to help you child improve in a sport or activity that he or she is already interested in and good at.  Find out who is the most celebrated person in that sport or activity and do some serious research on them. (Research them on the Internet, watch videos of them, etc.) Analyze the specific things that make that person successful and encourage your child to emulate and model them.  Have your child work on improving those characteristics or skills you identified.

Next, find someone locally who is just a little better than you child and, if possible, have your child practice with him or her on a weekly basis.  Encourage your child to learn from them.  Monitor the situation to make sure you child is having fun and isn’t getting frustrated.

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Competition makes you better.  If your child is always the best player on the team or in his or her league, then they aren’t being challenged and pushed to improve. If at all possible, find someone for you child to train with who can push and challenge them.  This will prevent their progress from becoming stagnant. Without competition your child ends up a big fish in a small pond. Later, it’s hard to move from the pond, where he or she is the star and accustomed to winning, to the lake or ocean, where he or she is just a little fish and won’t necessarily find success immediately.  (It’s not a bad idea to get a realistic idea of what you child can expect when they bump up to the next level, but I’ll save the details of that for another post.)

My first year training at the Olympic Training Center was a gradual immersion into the world of elite international racing.   My second year however, felt more like getting thrown into the deep end of a pool to see if I’d sink or swim.  Thankfully I didn’t sink, but that was in large part because I was training with stronger, more experienced women.  They pushed me every day, physically and mentally, and their presence both encouraged and forced me to raise my game if I wanted to succeed.

I vividly remember a training day at a World Cup selection track camp in Plano, Texas. Nicole Reinhart*, Karen Dunn and I were all vying for a spot in the points race at the upcoming World Cup, and each work out was considered by the coaches in selection. This particular work out was on the velodrome (a cycling track.) Our coach was driving the motorcycle and we were taking turns coming around the motor and leading out sprints to the finish line.  The goal was to win the sprint.  Karen and Nicole were much more experienced than me.  For the first few sprints my timing was all off; I would either go hard too soon, or I would kick too late.  I’ve very competitive, but instead of getting frustrated I tried to figure out what the other girls were doing that I wasn’t.  We were rotating through and taking turns leading out the sprints, so every third sprint I had an opportunity to watch them from behind.  I noted how they made their moves, when they made their moves, and how successful they were at it. I started copying their successes and by the end of the workout I was winning sprints. 

That year I trained with, lived with, and vied for spots against those same women, over and over again.  As difficult and stressful as it was at the time, it was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me, because I never became complacent and improved immensely.

Later on in my career I didn’t have that same benefit.  I found that training with guys was another way to raise my game.  This is one advantage women have over men, women always have the opportunity to train or practice against someone stronger and faster than them, because they can train with the men. 

I am grateful that I learned this lesson early on in my career. If you child has aspirations to make it to the next level, then he or she needs to constantly be looking for ways to improve.  Training with and modeling after people who are better are great ways to do that. Just like in a free market, we all benefit from healthy competition.

* Nicole Reinhart was a fantastic road sprinter, fierce competitor, a good, kind person, and someone I looked up to and admired. Her life was tragically cut short in a cycling accident during a race on September 17, 2000.  I’d like to dedicate today’s blog to her memory and encourage you to visit www.nicolefund.org for more information about her.

For more information about me or my children’s books, please visit www.erinmirabella.com.

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Posted in Goal Setting, Modeling, Role Models, Strengths and Weaknesses, competition | 2 Comments »

Prioritization- “Having it all” is a myth

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Try This At Home……..

Gather together as many balls as you can find. Tell your child that the balls are like the activities and responsibilities in their life.  Hand them two or three balls.  Explain that, like the balls, when they only have two or three activities and responsibilities to focus on, they can keep them all under control and do very well at them.  Then keep handing them more and more balls until they start dropping them.  Explain that, just like the balls, the more activities and responsibilities they take on, the more things get left undone or done poorly.   Too many balls lead to mediocrity.

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I was freed from most of my unrealistic expectations the day that I realized that the expression, “You can have it all”, was a myth.  I realized that I can only keep so many balls in the air at one time and if I get over zealous my whole world comes crashing down. 

Our resources are scarce.  There are only so many hours in a day and we only have so much time, energy and money.   You can focus on doing a few things very well and allow some other things to lag behind. Or you can try to do everything, and the odds are that none of it will be done extremely well. You’ve heard the expression, Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of None.  For example, you may be able to have a career and be the kind of mother or father you want to be, but that probably means that you aren’t making it to the gym three days a week anymore and you need to hire someone to help clean the house.  Something’s gotta give!

Teaching your children to prioritize their activities and responsibilities at a young age is important.   It will help them to be successful in the things that matter most.  If they have too many activities and responsibilities they get spread too thin and aren’t able to excel at any of them.  When kids are young they should try all sorts of activities: different sports, instruments, arts, etc.  Exposing them to as many things as possible gives them a higher probability of finding their “perfect fit”, their passion.  That doesn’t mean they have to have an activity every night of the week, but they also shouldn’t have to just pick one sport or activity and be stuck in it.  Having said that, even young kids need to understand that something’s are more important than others and that they will be good at what they practice.   The best way to teach them responsibility and specialization is to make it a habit when they are young.  They need to finish their homework, study for their test, practice their instrument, go to soccer practice and/or set the table, before they play video games or watch TV.   Sit down with them and have them help you make a list of priorities. (This leads into the topic of making sacrifices, but we’ll save that for another post.)

Once your child finds their passion, specializing in it will bring them more success and with success comes confidence, which is always a good thing.  Specialization will also help them hone other skills, like time management, discipline, work ethic and goal setting. 

If your child wants to be really good at something, then they need to make it a priority. It doesn’t mean that they have to give up everything else, but some of the less important things are going to get less attention.  Something’s gotta give.

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Posted in Goal Setting, Prioritization, Selecting a sport | 3 Comments »

Are you pushing your kids to play?

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Try this at home………

Look through your local newspaper or Parks and Recreation Guide.  Pick out a sporting event that you know little or nothing about.   Go and watch a game/match/race with your kids.  Before you go, Google (or Bing if that’s what you do) the sport and find out some basic information about it.  Knowing a little bit about the sport makes it a lot more fun to watch.  It is also more interesting if you root for a specific person or team.   Who knows, maybe you’ll become a big fan.  Can’t find anything new in your town?  Try renting a movie about a sport you know nothing about.

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Think back to when you were young.  What sports did you play?  How were you introduced to them?  Did your parents participate in the same sport?  Was it your idea to play the sport or were you guided into that sport?  What sport do you wish you had played?

Here is my observation.  Many of us choose the same sport that our parents played. I know it’s not rocket science, but it’s true.  Kids naturally want to be like their parents (until they’re teenagers) and parents want to share their interests with their children.  Kids sometimes feel pressured to do the same sport their parents did, even though they really aren’t interested in it. Parents need to be very careful not to live out their unfulfilled dreams through their children. Let kids have their own dreams.  By forcing kids into something, they may end up hating the very thing you want them to love.  My husband Chris and I joke that we hope our kids won’t end up wrestlers or cyclists like us.   If we are going to push them into anything it’s going to be golf, tennis, or any other sport that they can get a good scholarship in and make money at.

My parents toured on bikes. That is how my sister, Becca, and I started riding and then racing while we were fairly young.  I really liked it, my little sister liked it too, but she didn’t love it and she got sick of being in my shadow.  Since I was three years older everyone was always comparing her to me (not my parents, but people in general.)  She has told me that she thought for a long time that she just didn’t have discipline and dedication because she wasn’t all that interested in practicing.  Ultimately, she just didn’t like cycling enough to want to work that hard.  She won a track national championship title at the age of twelve and quit the sport.  I know she felt guilty about quitting because it was what our family “did”.  Of course, there was nothing wrong with her wanting to do something else, but she still felt badly.  She went on and found two sports she really loved, soccer and running.  She realized she did have a good work ethic once she was doing something she truly wanted to do.  She went on to get a full scholarship for running.  So, if you feel like you’re always dragging your kids to their practice or games, ask yourself if it is something they want or you want.  Maybe they are ready to try something new.

The sport we chose was probably also limited by the region we lived in.  People who live in Florida are much more likely to be surfers than skiers.  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say that they wish they had found a certain sport, their passion, earlier in life.  One of the reasons I decided to write the Barnsville Sports Squad Series was to introduce kids to sports they may have never heard of before.  I think it’s important for each person, kids and grownups, to find something they love to do, preferably as soon as possible.

Remember, just because your child wants to play a different sport doesn’t mean you can’t play the sport you love with them (or whatever other activity it may be.) They will probably be much more willing to play with you if they are able to choose a sport or activity they want to do.

For more information on the first two books in the Barnsville Sports Squad Series, which introduce cycling and soccer, please visit www.erinmirabella.com.

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Posted in Selecting a sport | 4 Comments »