With stars, like Zion Williamson and Odell Beckham Jr, who played multiple sports but seemed to focus on one sport the most, they already had the wear and tear on their body that someone who has been playing for 15 years would have. Some of brightest sports analyst in the world have said that playing multiple sports as a child can help develop your body and keep your body in tip-top shape as you look to become the next Michel Jordan.
Kids shouldn't be forced into playing only one sport growing up.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you have a child and are reading this, there is a 98 percent chance that they won't make it into the professional leagues. No, it is not because your child isn't talented. It's because it is really damn hard to become a professional athlete, and you have to be freaking lucky to make it big time. Many athletes won't play competitively after high school. If they do, then yes, they MAY become a professional athlete, but the odds are still stacked against them.
Many competitive youth sports leagues begin around the age of five or six. So, that means some kids will be playing competitive sports from the age of five to at the least 13 or 14.
That's at the least nine years of wear and tear on a young body, and many times it can't recover. Current MLB on FOX analyst and former Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz is one of the biggest promoters of kids playing multiple sports. He has always wanted kids to play different sports to help develop their body. Baxter Holmes gives a great report on ESPN's "Outside the Lines," where he talks about youth basketball causing NBA stars to be "damaged goods," and how many youth leagues start play at a young age and play throughout the year. This is causing some people to have the body of a 75-year-old, at the age of 25.
If kids play different sports, it can help to develop different parts of the body.
In that same "Outside the Lines" piece, Holmes talks about how youth basketball players use the same muscles and joints over and over again throughout their young lives. Obviously, someone who plays football is going to develop muscle growth faster than someone who is a long-distance runner. Playing different sports allows kids to experience teamwork, and what it means for people to work together for a common goal.
As someone who played one sport growing up, if I had a redo, I wish I had tried different sports. Kids don't have to play competitive, but they need to just be active and work different parts of the body.
