Fading are the days of seasonal sports, and “off-season” seems to be a word that will soon be collecting dust. Playing multiple sports at different times throughout the year is becoming a thing of the past, traded for year-round, single-sport athletes. This path of early specialization comes at the will of parents and is advocated by many in the sports world. Some authorities even go as far as to recommend a minimum amount of practice hours (10,000) in one particular sport in order to have the best chance to achieve elite status.
We’ve all been told that practice makes perfect, but is this true?
Studies and research on younger athletes show that specializing in a sport early is generally worse than participating in multiple sports until adolescence, and here are a few reasons why:
- Early specialization requires a choice to be made at a young age.
Say a child is taller than the rest of their peers, they may make a great center for the basketball team. But if that individual only plays basketball, you might end up with a basketball center that has the build of a baseball catcher without the skill and experience to transfer.
- Overuse leads to injury.
Research shows that individuals who specialized in a particular sport early in life are at a much greater risk for overuse injuries. 10,000 hours of the same stressors on one body can have serious negative effects, especially on an individual who hasn’t fully developed.
- The mental stresses can be unbearable.
Pressure to compete at such a level may be harmful to social development. This can lead to low self-esteem and an unhealthy concept of the importance of winning, even causing the athlete to resent their sport and often times “burn out”.
- It won’t make them any better.
In fact, professional athletes generally reported that less than half of their total practice time was devoted to the sport that they made their career in. Playing multiple sports actually benefits the athlete by providing them with transferable skills unattainable within their primary sport. Cal Ripken, for example, was an outstanding soccer player in high school. The footwork he picked up playing soccer was easily implemented on the baseball diamond and helped make him one of the greatest infielders of all time.
Specialization is important, timing is more important. Specializing too early can be detrimental mentally and physically, while placing all efforts into one sport later in life has proved to be the path of most success. Strength and Conditioning training helps to offset damage done by year round competition, reach out to us at edgevaldosta@gmail.com or @edgevaldosta on social media, to see how we can help educate and train you and/or your young athlete.
Written by Luke Ferguson
Photos by Marque Milla Reese
