WEEKLY WHINE

Interaction: How young is too young?

Myers: Good evening, and welcome once again to Interaction, the programme that makes fools out of guests, callers, and hosts alike. This week it's time to talk about young athletes. Freddy Adu of DC United is fifteen and is reportedly the highest paid player in Major League Soccer. Zhang Nan is eighteen and won bronze in women's all around gymnastics at Athens 2004. LeBron James is twenty and is one of the best players in the National Basketball Association. And millions of youngsters around the world are aspiring to be professional athletes like them. Are they starting too early? Are parents and coaches pushing them too hard? Are their childhoods being ruined? Are they setting themselves up for a spectacular rise or a spectacular fall? I'm Debbie Myers, and we'll be talking about these issues and more on our programme tonight. First, though, here's tonight's Interaction IQ, the Initial Question. It's from Chris Miverson in Sendu, Ireland, and he asks what would be the best age for athletes to turn professional. We go first to a thirteen year old footballer with FFC Coelacanth in Vienna, Austria, Ms Lisa Effenberg.

Effenberg: Whenever they want to and whenever they're good enough.

Myers: The athletic director at Shaun Higgins University in Wheeling, WV, USA, Mr Eric Lachante.

Lachante: Young athletes should only turn professional after they receive an education.

Myers: From Alajuela, Costa Rica, the coach of girls basketball team Estrellas Tiberias CS, Ms Ama Herrera.

Herrera: Between sixteen and eighteen, I'd say.

Myers: And with me here in Warwickshire is Mr Mark Tom, author of the book Don't Push Your Kid So Hard.

Tom: Twenty one or later.

Myers: And I'd have to say not too late, but not too early either. Let's also discuss sports such as gymnastics or figure skating, which are notorious for having young participants, especially young female participants. Lisa, you're a young female athlete. If you were good enough to play in the Olympics, would you?

Effenberg: Absolutely. Being an Olympic athlete is the ultimate honour for any athlete. It's the showcase for the best sportsmen and sportswomen in the world. Why should it matter what age they are?

Myers: But do you think that young athletes are being pressured into training too hard in order to meet unreasonably lofty expectations?

Effenberg: I think that might happen for people who do set their expectations too high. But it's really hard to be an elite athlete. As long as kids and their parents and their coaches recognise that, it will be easy to be an athlete.

Myers: Ama, what age range is your team comprised of?

Herrera: We have girls from fifteen to nineteen on the squad.

Myers: Do you feel that any of them are likely to become professionals?

Herrera: Sure. I think Selma and Raquel will definitely be going to the WNBA. Milia, Celestina, and Vicki have a good chance. But Kiley, Alicia, Veronica, Marla, and Pultrek aren't going anywhere until they shape up and get in line.

Myers: And how are they to do that?

Herrera: Well, Veronica's got to lose about ten kilograms. If she expects to be Costa Rica's Olympic captain in 2008, she's really got to spend some more time on the treadmill. Pultrek simply cannot grasp the playbook. I try to line her up for a screen and roll, and then I look up and she's all the way on the weak side. I mean, what do I have to do?

Tom: Have you tried positive reinforcement?

Herrera: What?

Tom: Some players, particularly younger players, respond better to positive reinforcement. If you're riding them hard in practise and in games, that can turn them off the sport.

Herrera: Positive reinforcement?

Tom: Yes.

Herrera: I'll give some positive reinforcement to your ass.

Myers: Yes, well, now it's time to turn to some viewer questions. Remember, you at home can send us your questions in many different ways, including telephone, telegraph, snail mail, E-mail, facsimile, or bowling ball. We'll go now to our first telephone question, and it's from Charles in Atlanta, GA, USA. Charles, are you there?

Charles in Atlanta: Yeah, I got a question.

Myers: Good. What is it?

Charles in Atlanta: How the hell are you gonna sit here and say that young players shouldn't turn pro? LeBron James is a fine basketball player, and with him, they got people interested in the league again. He's done a hell of a job making Cleveland into a decent team. Not good, because the East is terrible, and if they can't make the playoffs there, they deserve to be sitting on their asses watching the playoffs at home. But LeBron's good, and pretty soon he'll have a winning team. They just need to have some decent players around him. What the hell is Zydrunas Ilgauskas doing on the floor at the end of the game? You expect that to be a winning team?

Myers: I can't remember what your question was.

Lachante: Wasn't it "You expect that to be a winning team?"?

Myers: Okay. Let's go with that. Do you expect that to be a winning team, Eric?

Lachante: No.

Tom: I thought it would be a winning team.

Effenberg: You did?

Tom: Yeah. Drew Gooden's pretty good. And they got that other guy.

Effenberg: Who?

Tom: You know, the one with the headband.

Lachante: That's, like, the entire team.

Myers: Well, it does raise an interesting question. Is LeBron James setting an unrealistic standard? Every year, increasing numbers of high school students are turning pro early and declaring for the NBA draft. Not all of them turn out like James, do they, Mark?

Tom: No. Some turn out like Lenny Cooke.

Herrera: Who the hell's Lenny Cooke?

Tom: Exactly. Having completed high school eligibility, he declared for the NBA draft in 2002. He was not drafted.

Myers: Where is he now?

Tom: [ominously] Nobody knows.

Myers: I see. Well, we have time for one more question. We have a fax here from Dinah in Andorra, and she asks how many youth coaches around the world are putting undue pressure on their players to reach beyond their grasp. Eric, your school has fifteen intercollegiate teams. How do the coaches of those teams treat the most promising individuals?

Lachante: We treat all players equally. That makes our teams stronger, and it prepares the players better for entering society.

Myers: And how many players have gone through SHU to a professional sport?

Lachante: Well, zero so far.

Myers: No SHU players have become professional athletes?

Lachante: No, but we've had plenty of players become successful laundromat owners.

Myers: Hardly the same thing, is it?

Lachante: Well, football players tend to spin around a lot when they get tackled.

Tom: It is true that participating in sports, especially team sports, is helpful in other areas of life as well.

Myers: Lisa, does your footballing experience come in handy elsewhere?

Effenberg: It sure has. With the skills I've learned as a footballer, I've also been able to become one of my school's best divers.

Myers: Footballing skills translate to diving?

Effenberg: Yeah. I can do it in the pool, or in the penalty area.

Myers: Well, I think that's about all we need to know now. Thanks to Mr Mark Tom, Ms Ama Herrera, Mr Eric Lachante, and Ms Lisa Effenberg for being with us on Interaction tonight. Next week we'll be discussing the control of digital media and whether electronic copies of music and films can be controlled as well as traditional copies. We'll be joined by a software engineer, a personal electronics designer, an Internet blogger, and a filesharing expert. Until then, good night.

Lachante: Hey Ama, do your players apply what you teach them off the court?

Herrera: They sure do. They apply what I teach them everywhere but on the court.