Youth sports specialization is a sensitive subject for some and for others it’s totally foreign. What is sports specialization exactly? Is it where a parent only has their child play one sports and focus on that one sport to develop the next star? If so, I’m not a fan of that. At the same time, what if a 8 year old only wants to play one sport? Some kids in this age truly love just one sport with no desire to play another sport. I think this is ok, but is rare. Playing different sports is great and helps you become a better athlete, but this depends on the individual.
How I grew up being active in sports
Growing up in Texas, Colorado and Michigan as a kid I grew up playing soccer, basketball, American football.
Living in Colorado up in the mountains, where I would ice fish, ice skate, hike and all that good stuff.
Mini-Doc ⇓
Then when I moved to Texas around age 7-8, I spent my Summer at my grandparents swimming in their pool.
So I love sports!
Growing up playing these different sports helped me to meet and relate to people.
In addition, I’d watch other sports on TV like hocky, baseball, rugby.
What is youth sports specialization?
There’s a lot of talk about youth sports specialization in America lately, so I wanted to touch on it a bit.
Youth sports specialization is when younger kids [ages 6-11] are playing only one sport to get ahead.
In my 12+ years teaching 100 classes per month, I haven’t seen but a few parents or kids doing this to get ahead.
Some kids really only love one sport and this is rare! Why make a kid play a sport he or she doesn’t want to play?
For most 7 year old kids, they don’t know what their favorite sport is. Sometimes they are better at a sport they don’t like as much.
Should kids play multiple sports?
In the last dozen years, I have come across a lot of athletes/soccer players!
Most kids [ages 5-10] should try different sports, but some kids are unique.
Some are 6-7 years old and they LOVE SOCCER and know more pro players and teams than I do. It’s really a cool thing to see. These kids parents half the time never played soccer. Some people are born with the passion.
In middle school some districts MAKE the kids play 2 sports. The idea is good, to keep the video gamers active, BUT the select athletes shouldn’t have to. They are already doing enough.
The reason ages 11-13 who play sports outside of school shouldn’t have the same rules is injuries.
Overuse becomes an issue for some and from what I see it’s playing 2-3 sports at a time.
Old school mentality works best
At the end of the day we all have in us natural ability.
Then, with opportunity and working on the right things and staying focused on your goals, good things happen.
In the last decade there has not been any soccer, football or basketball players come on the scene and dominate.
From 2010 – 2022 the best athletes in the world were the same players… Example: Brady, Messi, Ronaldo, Novak Djokovic, James.
Then you have the “old school” athletes from a generation or two before… Jordan, Pele, Maradona, Kobe, Emmitt, Ken Griffey jr, Zidane, R9, Mia Hamm & Carli Lloyd.
The common thing is all of them put in hard work on the fundamentals.
Nowadays with technology kids are practicing the wrong things that they see on YouTube or Facebook.
Google ‘soccer skills’ and it’s freestyle jugglers and unnecessary tricks with the ball. Don’t waste your time on that stuff.
My two daughters’ sports paths
Being a father of 2 girls between the ages of 11-15 years old, I know what most parents want for their kids.
For my oldest, we have let her try swimming, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, volleyball.
From 6-10 years old she wasn’t one of those kids who only loved one sport. Once 11 years old came ballet became her passion.
She is very disciplined to stretch at home and is always talking about ballet.
My youngest likes soccer most…
I’ve coached her rec team from age 7-10 or 11 and they have really done well. When they were U11 we entered an indoor Winter league and got 2nd place out of 9 teams. 7 of the teams were club.
She puts in the work on her own at home either in the front yard or garage and I can see her improving technically.
Most important they love their team and group of peers they compete with.
What activities my wife and I invest in private lessons
The two things my wife and I have invested in private lessons are swimming and piano.
Both of my girls do year round piano lessons because they work on it at home, and they really love music.
With swimming our main reason to have them doing private or small group lessons is for safety.
Now that my oldest is almost 9 years old, we will probably start reminding her to go out and work on her own more in basketball and soccer.
She does these things, but not so much actual training [reps] more just playing. There is a difference and she understands, but so far is not that kid who will just knock out 10 reps of 5 different skills.
By 10 years old if we feel that private or small group training is going to help her we will entertain the thought.
For now both of our girls are involved in many different things that they really enjoy so time is the challenge and just wanting to have family time also.
There comes a time when having freedom as a family will be hard to come by.
Some kids only like one sport
Being a full time private soccer trainer I see every age, level and personality.
Some of these kids have very high desire and others don’t yet know what they want. Some only play soccer and others are multi sport athletes.
It’s rare for young players ages 7-9 to already know what they want to play going forward, but there are kids like this in every city.
Yes, in school they have to choose 1 or 2 extra sports, and that’s fine because it’s only a 8 week commitment and it is good to learn different sports.
But when it comes to club sports, most kids already know by ages 9-12 what their favorite and best sport is.
Preventing burnout in youth athletes
At the end of it all we want our kids to have fun and learn all there is to learn.
Every parent is aware of burnout, but the hard thing is every kid is different which makes it hard to know what is too much.
From what I see it’s more of what’s in the player, but also how they are educated by parents and coaches.
Kids with parents who teach them that it’s important to work hard and listen usually end up doing that at some point. Some don’t have the sports maturity at ages 7-10, but by 11 years old it should have hit.
Then there are other kids who just work hard from the get go and never have to be told anything by their parents.
I have trained many kids whose parents never played sports, nor do they really care for sports, but their kids absolutely love them.
So, if you have those kids who have that natural desire and they are given that opportunity there is no stopping them.
The main thing they need is a parents support to give them the opportunity.
I ended up playing college soccer and pro soccer, but didn’t only play soccer growing up.
From 2nd – 9th grade I always played 2-3 sports throughout the year.
I do wish I would have spend more time training with the ball on my own and with friends.
We played all the time, but we didn’t train. Meaning, we just played 2v2 or scrimmaged instead of technical training.
Playing is most fun, but you will not improve your mechanics/form or technique that way.
You need to do both [play and train], because they bring different unique traits to your game.
Ages where kids can finally narrow down to 1 sport
By middle school [ages 12-14] you can start to see that kids definitely know which sport is for them, but most continue to play at least 2 different sports in school.
Once 9th grade [freshman year] is when I think most kids should just play one sport.
The reason is because the ones who play multiple sports in high school are mentally and physically more tired.
I know there are some kids who are awesome and love 2-3 sports and if they are feeling good, then go for it!
Everyone is different and that’s what makes it impossible to have a firm belief that playing multiple sports is for everyone.
By 9th grade focusing on one sports is not considered youth sports specialization, so don’t feel it is wrong. Do what’s best for you.
Combination of select soccer with school sports
Out of all the kids I train, the ones who play multiple sports are the ones with the sore muscles throughout the week.
I ask them, why are they sore. They say, because of basketball or volleyball or football + soccer.
So people can bring up sports specialization, but multiple sports at once can be worse for injuries.
I am not saying these sports are the reason, but the combination of school sports with year round club soccer is a lot.
Middle schools make the kids play at least two sports.
Club athletes shouldn’t have to because they are already active. For the kids who don’t play club sports it’s a good idea to have them play 2+ sports in school.
I don’t think at this age it’s too much, but by 9th grade I think that most athletes should think about playing only 1 sport.
At the end of the day these kids all need to learn what sore is. They need to know what hard work is and the difference out body feels when it goes through different stages and times.
School sports training knowledge
I am not a big fan of the way many of these school operate their sports programs.
In the area I am here in North Texas [Dallas] the school district decides what is taught in the weight training room.
The stories I have heard are unbelievable…
Middle school and high school coaches are having volleyball girls and soccer girls lifting heavy weights, injuring their backs.
Just about every story I hear of is, is them not wearing lifting belts during the exercises that require belts.
For those who don’t know, the lifting belts are to protect the athletes back.
Speak up for your kids if they are not being taught right or if they are feeling pain. Getting a doctors note is something that you might have to do.
With all the youth sports specialization culture going on it makes it hard for some kids to compete.
If they are meant for it, given the opportunity, educated to work hard on the right things then they will achieve.
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