We have all heard the old saying - kids should not specialize in one sport when they are young. Even in high school they should be multi-sport athletes. I understand the logic behind this. It's because the constant repetitive motions of one sport does not harbor on the body well. The body, when young, needs to change what it does periodically. When I was in grade school, I played soccer, basketball, I did cheerleading, and I danced. That stopped when I got to high school though. I specialized in volleyball. I played volleyball just about all year round for 4 years. It was the only sport I really LOVED to do. Volleyball is a fall sport. So if I were to have picked a winter sport, I would have had to pick swimming, indoor track, or basketball. Well, I'm TERRIBLE at basketball, I wasn't interested in swimming, and track? Forget it. In the spring, I had the choice of lacrosse, outdoor track, or softball. Well, being the tom-boy I am, I didn't want to play lacrosse if I couldn't hit anyone, I was ever more terrible at softball, and track? Still forget it. I danced all year long too, had multiple dance classes in school and at a studio. Should I have tried at least one more sport, if not 2? Probably. But I didn't think it would be an issue. And after 4 years of year-round volleyball, I still don't. I might be the only AT in the world that thinks playing one sport in high school is ok, but I truly believe that. When the child is younger than high school age, yes, absolutely, expose them to all the sports. But I feel like high school, the kid should not feel like they need to do more than one sport. Especially if there's nothing else that interests them.
All that being said, I came across an article saying that it's bad if kids aren't multi-sport athletes. David Bell, assistant professor at UW, and his colleagues did a research study about specializing in a sport more than 8 months out of the year. They found that athletes are more likely to experience knee and hip overuse injuries. Also, playing for multiple teams in the same sport is a no-no. School size seems to have a lot to do with it. Smaller schools, about 600 students, tend to have more multi-sport athletes, whereas larger schools, over 2000 students, tend to have specialized athletes. The results are just from that area, and Bell does not want to make the assumption for all schools nationwide. But it looks like that will be the trend.
"For now, the key takeaway from the UW research is that training and competing in the same sport for more than eight months of the year — to the exclusion of other sports — is not healthy for young athletes and could lead to long-term-injuries."
Let me know what you think!!
Read the article below!!
http://isthmus.com/news/news/specialization-in-one-sport-can-be-bad-for-kids/
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