Sports (Over) Specialization In Early and Middle School Years

Have you realised that the sports activities we did during our school years had a different taste than today’s children’s activities? I remember, being relaxed and having fun whilst I was playing table tennis (even though I was a school team member attending tournaments regularly). In addition to my table tennis practices, I remember playing and enjoying lots of other sports each year. Today’s children’s experience looks and feels far from that of mine and possibly yours.

“Youth sports participation has evolved from child-driven, recreational, free play for enjoyment to adult-driven, highly structured, deliberate practice devoted to sports specific skill development” argues Jayanthi et al., in their research titled ‘Sports Specialization in Young Athletes’. Sports specialization can have a variety of definitions, but in general terms intense, year-round training in one sport can be considered as sports specialization. The definition must include the exclusion of other sports, a year-long (or at a minimum, academic year long) training but the intensity or the volume of the training may be not a criterion for the definition. One of the main differences between our generation’s sport training was mainly a ‘deliberate play’, with the purpose of enjoyment of the activity, whilst today’s sport training is mainly about ‘deliberate practice’ with the purpose of improving performance.

Deliberate practice and training is positively correlated with achievement in sports, but the early onset of deliberate and intense practice’s impact on achievement is debatable. Studies indicate that early diversification followed by specialization is correlated with better achievement, fewer injuries and longer participation. Kids who played a variety of sports during early and middle school years, tend to play a single sport in late adolescence for longer periods. Whereas, kids who specialise in single sports during early and middle school years tend to stop playing that sport in late adolescence. Early diversification promotes motivation and motivation and enjoyment of a sport predict achievement. Early specialization and intense training lead not only to less fun (which partly explains premature withdrawal) but also injuries.

One of the main problems with early over-specialization in sports is injuries. Orthopedic surgeons state that recreational sports injuries in kids are declining, whilst organised sports injuries are significantly on the rise and the injury rate is even higher in single sports athletes especially in younger ages. For example, 13 to 17 year old girls are now the most common patients who end up having ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) reconstruction. ‘Tommy John surgery’ (Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction) used to be a professional player specific surgery, and now the most common patients are high schoolers.When sports’ injuries become more common in children than elite level, professional athletes, I think it may be time for us to take a collective breath for a moment and think again before moving towards sports over specialization in younger ages. Maybe we should simply relax, let go of our college and university admission worries and let our children try different sports, learn a variety of skills and most importantly have lots of fun, blow steam whislt finding out what they really like during early and middle school years.

Besides, data is clear, being a multi-sport athlete during early childhood and early teenage years as opposed to being a single-sport athlete is the best path towards becoming an elite level athlete in the following years. There have been many examples of athletes who played mutiple sports during their childhood, developing well-rounded athletic skills and went onto became world known athletes. Examples? Michael Phelps, Nadia Comaneci, Michael Jordan, to name a few.

“Some degree of sports specialization is necessary to attain elite-level skills. However, for most sports, intense training in a single sport to the exclusion of others should be delayed until late adolescence to optimize success while minimizing risk for injury and psychological stress” (Jayanti et al).

If you wish to read further on this topic:

Sports Specialization in Young Athletes

Berman R., (2014), Hate Me Now, Thank Me Later, Harper Collins

Natterson C., Kroll-Bennett V., (2023), This Is So Awkward, Random House Books, London, NY

Lahey J., (2015), The Gift of Failure, Harper Collins, London, NY

Podcast: This Is So Awkward by Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll-Bennett, Youth Sports (Over) Specialization, Aired on 30/08/2024