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SPORTS SPECIALIZATION

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What are your thoughts on sports specialization?

As a General rule Sports specialization is not a good idea.

The risks far outweigh the benefits. Parents often want to keep up with their peers. However, research shows that children who specialize in a sport early on, suffer more overuse injuries, acute injuries, and overall burnout.

FIRST – THE GOOD NEWS:

There are many benefits to playing multiple sports

The benefits of sports generally outweigh the risks. Regular sports participation promotes physical, emotional, and intellectual well being. The physical benefits include improved muscle strength, bone density, and decreased cardiovascular risk. Active children are more likely to be self-confident and are more likely to stay in school. In addition, physically active children are less likely to have attention deficit disorder and do better in school than their non-active counterparts.

The majority of young athletes, who are lucky enough to play in college, often played multiple sports in middle and high school. Playing multiple sports enables young athletes to have varied experiences and to use multiple muscle groups and motor skills which will help them excel in sports and lessen their injury risk.

ON THE OTHER HAND:

Sport specialization should not occur until the beginning of high school.

The risks of sports participation may include:

acute musculoskeletal injuries
concussion
overuse injuries
burnout

THERE ARE A FEW EXCEPTIONS:

Exceptions to sports specialization are gymnastics and figure skating

These sports require highly technical skills that take years to perfect.

I have some specific recommendations for training.

Take 2 days off per week.
Take 1 week off every 3 months
Make workouts interesting
Engage your child to see if they want to do more or less training

WATCH OUT FOR:

Watch out for warning signs that your child is overtraining
Watch out for decreased performance- which means that your child is overtraining, the muscles are fatigued- which leads to a decrease in performance
Watch out for anxiety while playing a sport
Watch out for a decrease in times, such as sprint or distance run time that is slower
Watch out for a decrease in velocity, such as a pitcher’s fastball
Watch out for Injuries that take longer to heal than expected (For example, an ankle sprain that takes several months to heal as opposed to one month)

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