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NUDGE: ARE JUNIOR GOLFERS BEING PUSHED TOWARDS EARLY SPECIALIZATION?

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www.ijsernet.org Page 33

NUDGE: ARE JUNIOR GOLFERS BEING PUSHED TOWARDS EARLY

SPECIALIZATION?

Brendan Ryan

Golf Placement Services / University of Central Lancashire

ABSTRACT

Over the past 60 years, the emerging science of behavioral economics has provided insight into how choices and incentives impact decisions. Most recently, Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, won the Nobel prize for his work in behavioral economics; the growing world of research which examines how people make decisions. Among Thaler’s notable contributions is the book “Nudge”, a collaboration with Cass Sunstein to use behavioral economics to achieve beneficial outcomes for society with minimal intrusion. The actions, also called “nudges”, use subtle cues to help people make better choices in a plethora of areas including retirement savings, eating more fruit and getting past due accounts to settle outstanding debts. In the world of junior and college golf, similar nudges are happening; however,the growing evidence suggest that the nudges are negative; applying pressure on juniors to early specialize.

Keywords: Behavioral Economics, Richard Thaler, Early Specialization, College Sports

Early Specialization

Early specialization has gained significant attention over the last few years. In a 2013 American Medical Society for Sports Medicine survey, 88% of college athletes that were surveyed played more than one sport as a child. Despite this data, specialization is continuing to increase, despite its reported consequences. In a 2017 TIME article, the growth of the youth sports industry, estimated to reach beyond $15 billion per year and the pressure to secure college scholarships is only intensifying the specialization urgency. Early experiences in the game of golf were fantastic and in efforts to grow the game, exposing players to positive benefits of the game such as sportsmanship, motor learning, and resiliency, can prepare them for life ahead. It is important that we continue to educate and refine resources to maximize the recruiting process and allow those players ready to compete the opportunity to compete at the school that is right for them. Athletes in the study who specialized in a single sport were 70% to 93% more likely to be injured than children who played multiple sports.Unlike other sports, golf is minimal impact with no physical contact. This does not mean that golfers are immune from injury.As with any early specialization, golfers can suffer from overuse injuries, particularly when they have acquired poor patterns from coaching.

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www.ijsernet.org Page 34 hour. This does not include the cost of golf balls which can total approximately ten cents per shot. With the pattern requiring thousands of shots, the initial investment can be significant.

The complex nature of skill acquisition in golf provides a strong incentive for junior golfers to early specialize. Data collection of the best junior golfers (Ryan, 2018), demonstrates that most elite junior golfers ranked within the top 20 players started to specialize in golf at an average age of X. Early specialization allows players the opportunity to invest in a continuum where they can build ball control skills, then spend hours refining the skills on the course learning to shoot low scores, build tournament resumes and ultimately earn scholarships at the most prestigious schools.

Nudge

In 2017, Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago won the Nobel prize for his contribution to behavioral economics. Like Kahneman (2002 winner), Thaler has provided valuable insight into human behavior. Unlike theoretical work, Thaler’s contributions can be seen in our daily lives and are highlighted in his best-selling book called Nudge: Improving decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. In Nudge, Thaler and his co-author Cass Sunstein demonstrate how different strategies impact people’s behavior. For example, the authors offer an analysis of the Bush administration program Medicare Part D. Thaler and Sunstein state that "on some dimensions Bush was on the right track" with the plan, but that, "as a piece of choice architecture...it suffered from a cumbersome design that impeded good decision making" (Thaler and Sunstein, 2009). Specifically, they demonstrate that when given a complex choice, people should be given specific options to choose from including default options. Since uncertainty often leads to inaction, individuals should be automatically enrolled in programs which will serve their needs rather than face missing the opportunities.

Sunstein and Thaler also propose a way to increase collection of unpaid taxes. Using direct mail, which provides remarkably accurate feedback, Thaler and Sunstein created several letters for collection of funds. After collecting data, they found that when individuals receive information which suggests that their neighbors and friends are paying their taxes, people are nudged towards settling their outstanding debts.

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www.ijsernet.org Page 35 In junior golf and college golf, there is growing evidence that an intentioned action of decisions made by organizations like the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Junior Golf tours have nudged junior players into early specialization. This includes a change to NCAA rules in 2015 which allowed coaches to contact recruits as of September one of their junior year of high school, rather than July 1 between their Junior and Senior years of high school.

Until 2015, National College Athletic Association (NCAA) legislation read:

13.1.3.1 Time Period for Telephone Calls—General Rule. Telephone calls to an individual (or his or her relatives or legal guardians) may not be made before July 1 following the completion of his or her junior year in high school (subject to the exceptions below), or the opening day of classes of his or her senior year in high school (as designated by the high school), whichever is earlier; thereafter, staff members shall not make such telephone calls more than once per week. (Revised: 1/10/91 effective 7/1/91, 1/16/93, 1/9/96 effective 8/1/96, 4/22/98, 4/26/01, 4/29/04 effective 8/1/04, 4/28/05 effective 8/1/05, 1/9/06, 6/13/08, 1/15/11)

The legislation prevented Division One college golf coaches from having off campus meetings with college recruits before July 1 between their junior and senior year. This legislation created a nudge where most junior golfers, their families and coaches start the process around July 1 of meeting coaches and setting up visits to tour campus during the Fall of their senior year, ultimately making decisions in their senior year.

Starting In 2015, the NCAA changed the legislation to:

13.1.3.1 Time Period for Telephone Calls—General Rule. (subject to the exceptions below). If an individual attend an educational institution that uses a nontraditional academic calendar (e.g., Southern Hemisphere), telephone calls to the individual (or his or her relatives or legal guardians) may not be made before the opening day of classes of his or her junior year in high school. Thereafter, an institution may make telephone calls to the prospective student-athlete at its discretion. [D] (Revised: 1/10/91 effective 7/1/91, 1/16/93, 1/9/96 effective 8/1/96, 4/22/98, 4/26/01, 4/29/04 effective 8/1/04, 4/28/05 effective 8/1/05, 1/9/06, 6/13/08, 1/15/11, 1/18/14 effective 8/1/14, 10/30/14)

In February 2016, Golfweek, a national daily golf publication, started reporting the status of recruits and their commitments. Since starting to report on junior golf commitments, 28% of the posts have highlighted players which have commitment more than two and a half years before graduation or even before the NCAA rules allow coaches to start directly communicating with the players. The posts on early commitments create a considerable amount of traffic; several of the posts on early commitments had been shared several hundred times with Rachel Heck’s commitment in 2020 to Stanford getting shared 1,400+ times.

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www.ijsernet.org Page 36 from NCAA D1 schools and 7 from NCAA D2 schools, 75% of coaches polled believe that athletes are committing too early. However, within the same survey only 60% of coaches polled suggested that early commitments are a problem and negatively impact the long-term development of players. Further 92% suggest that they support the legislation which makes sense since recruiting is an arduous process for coaches and having the opportunity to recruit classes simultaneously saves valuable financial and personal resources.

The rule is beneficial to coaches; it allows them to be more efficient with their time and resources, while balancing the other responsibilities of coaching including team travel, compliance and player development. With this rule, coaches can communicate with juniors and seniors, creating a clearer picture for current and future recruiting classes. While this makes coaches lives easier, it theoretically makes recruits lives harder; now coaches have the option of making offers to younger players earlier. Students in their Senior year feel that without satisfactory results, they will be passed for younger similar players, providing another nudge towards early commitments.

NCAA Coaches have also seen a substantial growth in salaries over the last decade, with coaches at major conference schools starting to earn salaries of between one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In one example, the University of Illinois signed coach Mike Small to new six-year contract worth more than 2 million dollars. Another example is Josh Gregory, leaving Augusta State after back-to-back national championships to return to his Alma Mater Southern Methodist University for a reported one million dollars over four years.

Over the past 6 seasons, coaches at major conference schools like Arizona State (Randy Loins, 2011), Mississippi (Ernest Ross, 2014), Florida(Buddy Alexander, 2014) Notre Dame (Jim Kubinski, 2017) and Mississippi State (Clay Homan, 2017) on the men’s side and Georgia (Kelly Hester, 2012) on the women’s side have been dismissed for mediocre performance. In dismissing these coaches and starting to increase salaries, Athletic Directors (AD) are sending the nudge to coaches that success and particularly performance at regionals and nationals are very important.

AD’s are also making more significant investments in college golf facilities. During the 2017-2018-year million dollar plus golf facilities will be completed at Ball State University, University of South Alabama and Scared Heart University. These school will join the list of other schools which have already completed such projects and now offer student athletes the opportunity to train in state of the art facilities.

Like coaches, AD’s want to move up into better jobs with resources more often associated with major conference jobs. Like coaches, a pre-requisite for a better job is winning. This creates incentives for coaches and AD’s to ignore long term development and possibly take the early commit who has the greatest possibility to help the program win. These incentives filter down to student athletes who see no downside of a commitment to a major conference school.

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www.ijsernet.org Page 37 1. If coach gets highly ranked early commitment, Athletic Community is happy

2. If coach waits and loses highly ranked early commitment because he waits to learn more about the student athlete, their family and long-term development plan to see if they are a correct fit, Athletic Community will blame the coach

3. If coach gets outstanding early commitment and the student athlete does not develop, Athletic Community may blame coach

Not-surprisingly, the results are that coaches are happy to get early commitments, especially from highly ranked younger players like Brad Dalke. Dalke in 2010 at the age of 12 committed to play golf at the University of Oklahoma. In 2017, Dalke lead his team to the NCAA Division One National Championship and is currently ranked within the top 20 in College and top 50 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

Such early commitments mean students are choosing to early specialize, with players either never choosing to play another sport or focusing on golf as early as six or seven years old. Without current data it is hard to quantify the physical or psychological effects on junior golfers; however, it is likely that players suffer with significant stress to meet the expectations of being near elite over such a long duration of time.

For the average junior golfer, early specialization seems to be a path often rewarded with social media fame and commitment to a major conference school. While these outcomes do happen, they make up only a small percentage of all players. They also do not guarantee the player will have either a successful college or professional playing career.

Conclusion

NCAA rules, Athletic Directors, College Coaches and Social media are all playing a rolein the nudging of youth golfers towards early commitments and the need to early specialization. As they do, it is important that young golfers receive sound information about development pathways including information about the pros and cons of early specialization. It is also important that the NCAA with the support of Golf Coaches, continue to monitor the impact of the rules on young people’s decisions, ensuring that their best long-term interests are supported and protected.

References

American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (2013, April 23). Effectiveness of early sport specialization limited in most sports, sport diversification may be better approach at young

ages. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com

/releases/2013/04/130423172601.htm

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www.ijsernet.org Page 38 Kellenberger, H. (2014, May 08). Ole Miss fires mens golf coach Ernest Ross. Retrieved March 12, 2018, from https://www.clarionledger.com/story/olemisssports/2014/05/08/ole-miss-golf-earnest-ross/8850735/

Jayanthi NA, Pinkham C, Dugas L, Patrick B, LaBella C, “Evidence-Based Recommendations: Counseling the Young Athlete on Sports Specialization,” Journal of Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach, May 2013 5:251-25

Lewis, B. (2011, August 04). Randy Lein departing from ASU golf program. Retrieved March 12, 2018, from https://asunow.asu.edu/content/randy-lein-departing-asu-golf-program

Romine, B. (2016, September 08). Illinois coach Mike Small signs new 6-year contract worth

more than $2 million. Retrieved March 12, 2018, from

http://golfweek.com/2016/09/08/mike-smalls-success-illinois-land-illini-coach-big-raise-year

Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

References

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