Competition in every aspect of life has become more fierce with recent population growth saturating many fields. Youth sports are no different, despite being an industry that should be innocent. As a result, the landscape of youth sports is still chaotic. Parents must navigate year round travel teams and private coaching, creating a greater drive for early specialization.
Generally, characteristics of specialization include training year-round (or more than 8 months per year) and quitting other sports to focus on one primary sport. Obviously, at a certain point, specialization becomes necessary in elite sports. However, premature specialization, particularly before puberty or high school, can be the catalyst for a multitude of problems well into the future.
Early specialization can happen for many reasons. According to Hopkins Medicine, the main factors contributing to early specialization include pressure from coaches and parents, as well as the desire from athletes and parents to earn college scholarships. According to Rutgers University, another factor is a shift in traditional youth sports leagues and seasons. The youth sports industry is worth ~$40 billion and is rapidly growing. As a result, youth sports teams and leagues have become much more demanding, most requiring year-round commitments.
Conflicts between different sports practices and games are common due to these year-round commitments. When athletes attempt to “sample” sports, they are faced with endless dilemmas where one team is let down, regardless of their decision. In these situations, the coaches from both teams will pressure the athlete to prioritize their sport, making the athlete’s decision even harder. It becomes easier for athletes to only participate in one sport, even if they enjoy both.
Pressure to specialize early frequently comes from parents as well. Many parents believe the fallacy that sports are an easy way to earn college scholarships. This can cause them to push their athlete to pursue one sport in hopes of alleviating the cost of college tuition. However, only 2% of high school athletes go on to earn full college scholarships, and the average athletic scholarship is $6,000 to $8,000. Most colleges and universities also have more stable financial aid available for academics.
Early specialization can seem beneficial due to disproportionate amounts of media coverage for elite athletes who specialized early compared to those who didn’t. When professional athletes talk about how hard they worked in their training, it is natural to think that if a young athlete were to start that same intense training but do it for more time, they would see better results. The media also makes commitment seem like an admirable trait in sports. However, successful commitment is only truly possible while focused on one skill or sport.
Perhaps the main reason that early specialization is attractive is that early specialization is correlated with early success, and the perception that specialization is a requirement for success. When an athlete wishes to earn an opportunity to play sports at higher levels, or when a parent believes that participation in a sport will lead to a college scholarship opportunity, specialization can seem attractive.
Pressure to specialize early can also come from young athletes themselves. Youth are frequently under the misconception that their peers who perform well in middle school and high school sports are guaranteed success at higher levels. Those who do not excel early can feel behind as a result of this, leading to a desire to potentially overtrain. Popular schemas, such as the 10,000-hour rule, have intensified this belief. Interestingly, this rule is not supported by evidence, which instead suggests that total practice time accounts for only ⅕ of variance (athletic success).
It has been proven on numerous occasions that early specialization does not necessarily correlate with success in elite sports. There are examples, such as Venus and Serena Williams, of elite athletes who have specialized early, as well as examples of elite athletes who did not, such as Lebron James. Data from interviews of UCLA students indicate that UCLA athletes (NCAA Division I) specialized at an average age of 15.4, whereas UCLA students who played high school sports but did not earn an opportunity to play in college specialized at an average age of 14.2. Similarly, in the same publication,,a study of “elite” and “sub-elite” tennis players found that those whose pinnacle was “sub-elite” quit all other sports in favor of tennis at age 11, while eventual “elites” developed in a “harmonious club environment without greater demands for success,” and played multiple sports until age 14.
Another study found that 97% of pro athletes believe that experience playing multiple sports was important to their eventual success. Finally,, also published by Rutgers, a study of Olympic athletes found that 88% participated in more than one sport as a child, with 76% participating in three or more sports separate from their eventual sport of choice.
Besides not being correlated with elite performance, early specialization has many detrimental effects.
Most commonly, early specialization can lead to overuse injuries (injuries that happen over time) and can facilitate acute injuries (traumatic injuries caused by “freak accidents”). Overuse injuries, the more common of the two, account for 50% of injuries in all youth athletes. These injuries are caused by repeated motions and overtraining. The risk for these injuries is increased when 16+ hours per week are spent on one sport, or when an athlete has no rest time between a single sport’s season.
As mentioned before, specialization at some stage is inevitable in serious athletes. However, it should be delayed until at least after puberty to maintain a healthy relationship with sports and exercise and to avoid burnout. Unfortunately, as a result of the current environment in youth sports, it is becoming more difficult to do so. Even still, athletes and parents should endeavor to sample as many sports as possible to create a sense of enjoyment associated with recreational activities, allowing for a longer and healthier life and career in sports.
