Coaches say a student who wants to earn a college scholarship in a particular sport should begin concentrating on it their freshman year in high school. I would tend to agree with that, Brown said. That's enough time for an athlete to develop skills in a sport. The reason you see many tennis players burned out by the time they should be entering college, is they've been in competitive, win-lose situations since they were extremely young. It's just too much pressure.
Experts agree there is no set age for a child to begin competing.
That is an individual case. There are no hard and fast rules about how young and then how much a young athlete should train and compete. Stress fun and participation. Don't be obsessed with winning or losing. Parents and coaches should encourage, but don't pressure.