Three Reasons to Play More Sports

As a graduate student studying sport psychology at Boston University, I have begun to focus my attention on youth sports. More narrowly, I am curious about specialization of sport at a young age and the effects it could have on a young athlete. Many athletes choose to pursue only one sport and focus all their time and energy into committing to that sport, but is that they best thing for them? I have been fortunate enough to learn about the importance of diversifying yourself as a young athlete and I am thankful for my experience as a three-sport athlete.

Here are Rachel’s Three Reasons to Play More Sports:

#1 Don’t Hurt Yourself!

Children tend to choose a sport to specialize in at a time when their bodies are continuing to grow. Research has shown that this period is when children tend to be going through growth spurts and as a result, excessive training in the same sport could strain these growing muscles (1). If a child plays multiple sports, this activates many different muscle groups and the child will avoid constant muscle strain to only a few muscle groups.

#2 You Gotta Love it!

Sports are supposed to be fun, right!? Specialization in youth sports may lead to perfectionism as it does in young musicians (2). This increase in perfectionism could make an athlete more likely to burnout from constantly feeling the need to perform well. While athletes may feel this way as a multi-sport athlete, specialized athletes could feel it more heavily as this is their only sport to perform at.

#3 Your Life is Not Just Sports

While sports may feel like a child’s entire world, these sports are teaching them things to apply to their everyday lives. For example, an athlete who specializes in basketball may have incredible decision making characteristics because that is vital in basketball, but he or she may lack patience due to being used to a fast-paced environment. If this athlete diversifies and takes up golf, a game that involves a lot of patience, he or she can develop new cognitive skills that can him or her grow as a person as well as in their sport (1).

So, there you have it! Now get out there and encourage your child to try a sport they have never played before! Children are allowed to have a favorite sport, so explain to them the benefits their favorite sport will get from them trying out new sports. Who knows, they could find a new favorite sport!

References:

(1)Baker, J., Cobley, S., & Fraser‐Thomas, J. (2009). What do we know about early sport specialization? Not much! High Ability Studies,20(1), 77-89. doi:10.1080/13598130902860507

(2)Stoeber, J., & Eismann, U. (2007). Perfectionism in young musicians: Relations with motivation, effort, achievement, and distress. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(8), 2182-2192.