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[Cody Hanning is an Exercise Physiology student at Ohio University and an Athletic Development Intern at Athletic Lab.]

Youth athletes specializing in a single sport is becoming more and more common, but is it actually beneficial to their athletic career. Unfortunately there is no one clear cut answer to this question.

The main argument for promoting early specialization is the 10,000 hour rule or the 10 year rule. While both of these sound nice where if we deliberately practice for x amount of time we’ll become the best in the world, it doesn’t really work like that. Most professional athletes have deliberately practiced their sport for much less than 10,000 hours. In his book The Sports Gene, David Epstein notes “the top competitors require far less than 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to reach elite status. According to the scientific literature, the average sport specific hours to reach the international levels in basketball, field hockey and wrestling are closer to 4,000, 4,000, and 6,000 respectively.” (34)

While some sports such as gymnastics and figure skating benefit from early specialization there are also many risks and dangers to specializing early. By focusing on one sport children don’t develop the proper motor skills compared to if they play a variety of sports and are at a much higher risk of overuse injuries. Some youth athletes train and focus on one sport to the extent that it’s practically their job. Sadly this usually leads to burnout and lack of enjoyment from the sport which in turn leads to youth athletes to stop participating in sports entirely. (Baker) By allowing children to partake in different sports and train at the recreational level by just having fun they are more likely to become well-rounded athletes and better ready for the intense training of a specialized sport at a later and more proper age.

I’m not suggesting you force your child to play multiple sports if he or she really enjoys participating in a single sport year round, but there should be some intervention to make sure it is done safely.

  • Make sure it really is their decision, and not someone else’s such as their coach or parents.
  • Use some form of cross training to help them become a more rounded physically. As an example, soccer players, particularly females, are known to be at risk for knee injuries. This risk can be reduced by participating in regular strength training.
  • Enforce an off-season. After every season take a few weeks off of training and give them the opportunity to be a kid.
  • Keep it fun. This is arguably the most important thing you can do. They’ll get so much more out of the experience of youth athletics if they truly enjoy it.

References:

  • Baker, Joseph. “Early specialization in youth sport: A requirement for adult expertise.” High Ability Studies 14.1 (2003): 85-94.
  • Epstein, David. The sports gene: Inside the science of extraordinary athletic performance. Penguin, 2013.