Specialization is growing at an astronomical rate in adolescent sports throughout America today. Personally, I believe this is the single largest contributor to young children dropping sports prematurely (and more importantly exercise altogether) on top of a growing epidemic of overuse injuries. Specialization is also contributing to the obesity rate skyrocketing. Children are learning to hate the sport they play because of having to participate in it 365 days per year. Parents are to blame.
Yes, as supportive as many parents are, they are crippling their children with unnecessary pressure and outlandish expectations. Almost on a daily basis, I have a parent (commonly the Father) walk through our doors (At Velocity Sports Performance) with dreams of their child turning professional in their chosen sport. The majority of the time it is the sport choice of the parent, not the child, because one of the parents played the given sport in high school and/or college. Most are telling me that the child has the potential to play at the next level (@ age 8 or 9) yet when taking the athlete through a formal evaluation, the athlete cannot preform a simple loco motor skill (such as a jumping jack).
Notice when collegiate coaches speak about the skill level of a particular athlete. Rarely they find an athlete that is amazing at the sport and not an impressive overall athlete. Majority of elite level athletes have unbelievable overall athleticism. Athleticism is something that crosses over many sports. For example, true athletes are ones that complete a collegiate career playing basketball and then decide after graduating to pursue a career in beach volleyball, without ever picking up a volleyball. Many professional athletes have never played their chosen sport until late in their sporting career.
Probably the largest reason not to specialize: burnout!!!!!!!!!! We'll save that post for the future though...
In the meantime, check out this great article on specialization : CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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