Sport Specialization in Children and Adolescents
Everyone wants to raise a superstar, but is sport specialization at age 10 really necessary? In short, NO. Your kid will be a superstar regardless of their success in sports. They may even have more sport success without early specialization!
Below are my recommendations based on professional opinion and evidenced based research.
Based on the research, those who competed in multiple sports through mid high school had more success in college and professional settings. Bell, Post, and Biese et al 2018 states that when comparing "...elite and nonelite athletes and studies of professional or collegiate athletes across a variety of sports indicate that elite athletes typically specialize later in adolescence and participate in more sports during high school than nonelite athletes". Additionally, Moesch, Hauge, and Wikman 2011, suggests that, "elite athletes specialized at a later age and trained less in childhood. However, elite athletes were shown to intensify their training regime during late adolescence more than their near-elite peers. The involvement in other sports neither differs between the groups nor predicts success."
Although practice can make perfect, practicing a variety of sports has been shown to have significant benefits. Bridge and Toms 2013 states that “Individuals who competed in three sports aged 11, 13, and 15 were significantly more likely to compete at a national compared with club standard between the ages of 16 and 18 than those who practiced only one sport."
Resources for Parents or Providers:
1) Bridge, B., Toms, M. (2013) The specialising or sampling debate: a retrospective analysis of adolescent sports participation in the UK, Journal of Sports Sciences, 31:1, 87-96, DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2012.721560
2) David R. Bell, Eric G. Post, Kevin Biese, Curtis Bay, Tamara Valovich McLeod; Sport Specialization and Risk of Overuse Injuries: A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis. Pediatrics September 2018; 142 (3): e20180657. 10.1542/peds.2018-0657
3) DiFiori JP, Benjamin HJ, Brenner JS, et al. Overuse injuries and burnout in youth sports: a position statement from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. Br J Sports Med. 2014;48(4):287-288. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2013-093299
4) Jayanthi NA, Holt DB, LaBella CR, Dugas LR. Socioeconomic Factors for Sports Specialization and Injury in Youth Athletes. Sports Health. 2018;10(4):303-310. doi:10.1177/1941738118778510
5) Joel S. Brenner, COUNCIL ON SPORTS MEDICINE AND FITNESS; Sports Specialization and Intensive Training in Young Athletes. Pediatrics September 2016; 138 (3): e20162148. 10.1542/peds.2016-2148
6) Moesch, K., Elbe, A.-.-M., Hauge, M.-.-L.T. and Wikman, J.M. (2011), Late specialization: the key to success in centimeters, grams, or seconds (cgs) sports. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 21: e282-e290. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01280.x