Few things thrill Sue and Geoff Roether like watching their son's sweet left-handed swing swat balls over the fences in their yard. Those that don't clear the fence come back at the pitcher with impressive velocity.

Max, at 5 years old and just under 4 feet tall, has been showing a strong interest in baseball for more than three years.

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"Before he turned 2, when his uncle Andy was in town visiting, he was running around the dining room table like it was a baseball diamond and sliding head first into home plate," Sue said of Max's baseball beginnings. "And a lot of it also has to with Geoff loving sports."

The Roethers, who live in suburban Minneapolis, haven't yet looked into specializing Max in baseball, despite it being his main sport.

"I would encourage him to play whatever he wants," Sue said. "This summer, he's finally old enough for T-ball, so he'll start that in June. The classes we've done have been more general skill building."

"It seems, developmentally, they aren't ready for more advanced things until they are 5 or 6 because they are learning concepts like team building and taking turns. And learning which ball goes with which sport," she said.

Opportunity Knocks

The parents of children today can find more opportunities to have their children taught than when they were kids.

Loren Seagrave, the founder of the Georgia-based Velocity Sports Performance, said taking advantage of those possibilities is the most important thing parents can do for their children.

"It's more important that you look at the motivation of the individual child than the talent of the child," Seagrave said. "When children are [2 or 4 years old], see what they gravitate toward and provide them the opportunity."

Seagrave, a former collegiate hockey player at the University of Wisconsin, said that the reason that so few high-level hockey players came out of southern California was because of the lack of opportunity.

"Opportunity often precedes motivation," he said. "If a young athlete is not exposed to something, (he or she) may not realize it's a fun thing to do."

Seagrave said his 4-year-old son would do a few sessions of gymnastics before moving on to swimming. When his son said he wanted to try karate, the Seagraves looked for a quality instructor with a background of teaching children.

"Children love discovery -- discovering they can do things and they can find improvement," he said. "Parents look for these opportunities to get the motivation to move in the right direction."

Branch Out

Turning your child into an athlete also doesn't mean pushing them into one sport too soon.

"Parents should provide opportunities so the child can self-select," Seagrave said. "Then they can select from a broad range of sport."

Despite Max's current preference for baseball, he also enjoys playing soccer, tossing a football around the back yard and watching almost any sport with his father, uncles and grandfathers.

Allowing Max to play what he likes is key, Seagrave said.

"One of the traps is the early hyper-specialization in a sport," Seagrave said. "I will try to be very vigilant to allow my kids to play as much they as feel like, but I'll resist the travel and select teams. "

Seagrave cited a research article that studied professional and collegiate hockey players and found that those who didn't specialize in their sport went further in hockey than the players that stuck only to hockey from a young age.

Let Them Play

"Little League parent syndrome" -- named for those adults that get a little too wrapped up in their children's games -- can also hinder a child's development.

"It can be difficult to dissuade the parent who believes their child is the next Olympic champ," Seagrave said. "We want to manage the expectations. It's about long-term development and (aiming) their child in a direction that can realize the child's dream, as well as working with the parent to satisfy their wish for their kids to be to be good."

Seagrave cautioned parents against crushing their child's dreams because they weren't great athletes themselves as a kid.

"Just because someone doesn't appear talented, it doesn't mean that it's cast in stone," he said. "We can offer opportunity and capitalize on the motivation the child has, and can capitalize in a family where there doesn't appear to be a lot going on."

"It's an educational process. We've been working for the last 10 years on what sports performance training is and is not, and how to start them out on the right path."

Not All About Playing

Seagrave talked about a figure skater he worked with many years back who went from average to a regional champion in a year -- then dropped out of the sport three years later. But she continued her training.

"Kids may stop playing football, but they'll keep training because it's fun and it's something where they can see development and achievement," Seagrave said.

Seagrave said even if someone can't compete at the highest levels, training and playing sports scores many points.

"The whole concept of living an athletic lifestyle -- eating well, getting good sleep, drinking a lot of water, exercising -- will only be a positive thing," he said. "What we do is teach athletes to increase their athleticism to get them into the game, so that they'll enjoy and play longer. Children now can reap the benefits of a lifelong participation in sports, and that's one of the key elements that's missing from our sedentary lifestyle."

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