Youth sports, a system in which fully relies on volunteers. A system where your child learns or doesn’t learn from a parent of another teammate. A system, like everything else in life, that cannot please everyone but also gives everyone a different experience.
Did you know, there are more sports related injuries in kids between the ages of 6-18 than there have ever been? Our kids are often pushed too much at too young of an age. According to NFHS.org, the National Federal of State High School Associations, stress fractures of the spine, ACL injuries and “Tommy John” surgeries are all too common in our youth. While, these major injuries do not happen to all young athletes, they are happening too often.
Our elementary school aged athletes have young and developing bodies. These bodies are not meant to workout like a body of a teenager.
There are plenty of kids who want to play sports all year, such as my son and many of his friends. My son plays football in the Fall, basketball and wrestling in the Winter and baseball in the Spring. He is active all 12 months when you include him being a kid swimming at our local pool all Summer long.
However, while he is active all year long, his body gets a rest after each season. Each season brings on new movements to his body. Each season brings on different muscle work and a new mindset.
At age 7 we choose not to put him in a sport that lasts longer than the natural season of that sport. The chance of him getting injured while playing multiple sports is far less than that of him playing a single sport for multiple seasons in a year.
The NFHS continues by saying, “According to the latest research, the single biggest risk factor that predicts whether or not a young athlete gets injured is specialization or competing in one sport for more than eight months a year. ”
Many public athletic figures have spoken out against specialization of a single sport. Unfortunately, too many parents are pressured into thinking their child will miss out if they do not commit their life to a single sport at a young age. Or worse, many athletes are under the impression their travel team gives them the best chance at earning a college scholarship, which gives families false hope.
College scholarships are not handed out at age 7, 8 or 9 years old. The body and mind change so much in those early, developing years. It bothers me that coaches push long term training on young bodies, but all parents have their reasons for what their child does or doesn’t do.
“Single-sport specialization amongst youth today is troubling. Let kids be kids. They’ll become better all-around athletes & have more fun,” JJ Watt of the Houston Texans stated on Twitter.
Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey continued the thought saying, “I played three or four sports as a kid. When I was in elementary school and middle school, I never had an offseason to train. I was always in season. And I think playing multiple sports was the best thing I’ve ever done. They all complemented each other. I ran track, played basketball, played baseball and played football. And when I decided I wanted to play football, I didn’t stop playing those other sports because I knew that they complemented me. In high school, I played three sports. So college and now is the first time I’ve had an offseason where I could really hone in on football-specific training, but I think some of those different movements that other sports brought were really important in my development.”
Even coaches agree. Clemson University head football coach Dabo Swinney said back in 2016, “I just think that the cross-training, the different types of coaching, the different types of locker rooms, the different environments that you practice in, the different challenges — I think it develops a much more competitive, well-rounded type person.”
Please know, while college scholarships are not given out at young ages, they are also not given out to everyone, in fact they are given out to a very few number of high school athletes. The chances of getting a college scholarship at an NCAA school is 2 percent. Most sports do not offer full ride scholarships and smaller colleges may not offer athletic scholarships at all, therefore the classroom is even more important to those athletes.
So in conclusion, please let your kids play multiple sports! Please give your kids a rest after each season and please don’t force your child to specialize in a sport before they have hit puberty. Let your kid be a kid!
