Imagine having volleyball practice at 5:30 in the morning, going to school in the daytime, receiving a lot of homework for when you get home, and then leaving to go straight to a game when you get home. This allows no time for yourself to rest and get school work done. Imagine having to do this multiple times a week, year-round. Wouldn’t that be stressful? Many athletes, ages 7-18, go through situations like this every single day, just because they want to play their sport. Specializing in sports can restrict athletes from truly enjoying what they are doing. Children should not specialize in sports because it can cause lack of enjoyment, motivation, and cause stress; raise the risk of overuse injuries; and can cause inactivity as an adult. When kids specialize in a certain sport, it can keep them from enjoying it, bring down the motivation they have to do it, and cause high levels of stress. In a series of studies by UCLA, they found that 20% of kids reported high levels of stress and anxiety before and after games, especially if their team lost. Other research shows that participation in more than one sport leads to overall athletic improvement, longer playing careers, and increases motivation and confidence; unlike specialized sports. Social isolation from peers that are not in the same sport can also cause stress and other things like depression.
As you can see, specialized sports can be mentally challenging and severely stressful on athletes. Specialized sports are also proven to raise athletes’ risk of overuse injuries. Dr. Kenneth M. Singer, an orthopedic surgeon, stated that participating in only one sport uses the same muscles and bones in the same way over and over again, so it can cause tendonitis, stress fractures, etc. In addition, children that participate in more hours of specialized sports per week than their age also increases the risk of overuse injuries. Another statistic is children who participate in one sport have a 50% higher chance of getting overuse injuries. In a study of 1200 athletes, Dr. Neeru Jayanthi from Loyola University, discovered that athletes of early specialization in one sport were 70% – 93% more likely to be injured than athletes in multiple sports. Because so many children are in a specialized sport, their bodies are being used in the same way, which results in overuse injuries. Specialized sports can also affect athletes long-term. For example, a study led by Ohio State University showed that athletes that specialized in a sport at an early age had higher rates of inactivity as an adult.
They also found that the ones who specialize are often the first to quit, and can suffer a lifetime of consequences. Inactivity can happen as a result of children being pushed beyond the limits of their abilities and interests. Specialized sports can lead to loss of development of lifetime sports skills. These lost opportunities for being in multiple sports during youth can contribute to issues in current and long-term physical activity and health. To summarize, specialized sports can not only affect children right now, but can also lead to consequences in the future as an adult. On the other hand, some people may say that kids want to pursue one sport so they can have a higher chance playing for a college team in the future; however, children that decide to specialize in a certain sport actually have significantly lower chances for playing on a college team.
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For example, a 2013 American Medical Society for Sports Medicine survey found that 88% of college athletes played more than one sport as a child. Also, 30 out of 32 of the NFL 2017 first round draft picks were multi-sport athletes. Some may also think that children need to specialize in a sport so they can perfect their skills and get to the best they can be. In contrast, according to USA Today HSS, multi-sport athletes gain different skills from each sport they play that they can apply from one sport to the next. In conclusion, playing multiple sports can make children gain different types of useful athletic skills, give them a better chance at playing in college, and overall makes them better athletes. As I have previously stated, children should not specialize in sports because it can cause lack of enjoyment, motivation, and cause stress; raise the risk of overuse injuries; and can cause inactivity as an adult. If children did multiple sports instead of specializing, it would be easier to get to practices and it would take away some of the workload from school and constantly having to travel to games, practices, etc. Doing specialized sports also helps your child become an overall better athlete and raises the chances of playing at a higher level in the future. Wouldn’t you want your child to become the best athlete they can be?
