As youth sports continue to gain popularity, most young athletes are being forced to specialize at younger and younger ages. This specialization is forcing them to decide (sometimes in elementary school) the one thing they want to dedicate nearly all of their adolescence to before they even know what they're good at, or, more often than not, before they even know what they like.
Many youth coaches and parents see this specialization as a positive. The belief is that if a child focuses on one sport in particular, they can devote all their time and attention to it and become the best. Because when you're the best, you receive college scholarships. When you do well in college, you go to the pros.
However, that isn't usually how everything unfolds. Early specialization has many more negative impacts than it does positive ones. These negative impacts range from injuries, to lack of enthusiasm, to hindering the child's scholarship prospects.
The most serious negative aspect to early specialization is the increase in injuries we are seeing in these young children. When I started playing sports, ACL tears in youth players were nearly unheard of. Today, however, that isn't the case. While there hasn't been much research done on this topic, one study saw that there was a 2.3% increase in in the annual incidence of ACL tears in children. There has also been a significant increase in overuse injuries in young children.
Both of these types of injuries could be easily avoided by allowing kids to play multiple sports throughout the year. By playing multiple sports, the body will strengthen all muscles evenly not only those being used constantly. It will also allow the body to rest certain muscles. Each sport offers something different both mentally and physically.
By allowing children to play multiple sports, they will also be exposed to many coaches and different coaching philosophies as well as many different teammates. By being able to be around all of these different influences, these kids will become more well rounded people in general, as well as becoming more coachable players because they are already used to learning from different people.
During the recruiting process, coaches are looking for these types of players: the ones they know will be coachable, the well rounded players, the players who are ready to play. And the easiest way for coaches to know these things is if they already know that the kids have played for multiple coaches, and have succeeded under them.
Growing up playing multiple sports is the best thing for young athletes. It allows them to keep their love of athletics without forcing them into a box before they are ready. It can help prevent serious injuries, and it helps give them an edge in the recruiting process. Thus, in my humble opinion, you should let your child have the freedom to play as many sports as they want now; you'll only be helping them.
