Today in 2017, the youth sports culture in the United States is unique and very different from the way things used to be. At times, parents see their sons and daughters as investments and an outlet to future success. It has been said that parents sometimes live vicariously through their children. *cough* Lavar Ball *cough* Through all of this, the athlete can suffer from unnecessary stress while playing a GAME or competing in an EVENT. Besides the psychological stress parents and coaches cause single sport athletes, the risk of injury increases with constant participation in one sport through all four seasons. Don’t get me wrong, I love sports as much as the next American. It has been a mainstay in our culture for decades and that isn’t changing any time soon. On the other hand, I think we should take a good, hard look at what we are doing to young athletes that feel the need to be “elite” at younger ages.
10,000 hours. It has been reported that in order for musicians to attain expertise, they must work on their craft for 10,000 hours over 10 years. When one breaks down this daunting task, that is almost 20 hours per week and 2 hours and 45 minutes every day (including Sundays). There are 168 hours in a week. If we sleep for 7 hours each night, 119 hours are spent awake. The 10,000 hour requirement for expertise has been generalized to include sports (Ericsson). This seems logical considering repetition is crucial in practicing for both music and sports. With this being said, are we willing to look our children and athletes in the face and tell them that they should be spending almost three hours each day practicing one sport that they may or may not succeed at?
Children see what we as a society value. Americans loves athletes. Athletes are continuously marketed to youth via shoes, clothing, skill camps, advertisements, and social media. If you ask a sixth grader who Steph Curry is, they can run off a list of what he has done since coming into the NBA and who he has a shoe/apparel deal with. Ask the same sixth grader who Tim Cook is and you’ll get a blank stare as a response as they fiddle with his product, the iPhone, in their hand. We can’t blame the kids though. This is the culture we have created! They want to be like who they see every day on social media and in popular culture. Finally, there is obviously an attraction to the financial gain professional sports can provide. Giancarlo Stanton, the highest paid player in the MLB, makes $154,000 every game. That’s more than most households make in a year in the United States. Damn! That would pretty awesome, huh? The truth is though that the odds of playing professionally are not in your favor. The percentage of high school athletes that end up competing professionally for men’s basketball, baseball, and football are 0.03%, 0.09%, and 0.5% respectively. On top of this, think of how many athletes last maybe one or two years and are replaced. So, if an athlete wants to specialize in one sport, they must be aware that it all could be for nothing.
The definition of single sport specialization, according to Jayanthi et al, is “intense, year-round training in a single sport with the exclusion of other sports.” There has been discussion on what constitutes “intense” training. Coté et al established that the motive of intense training is “deliberate practice,” which is the act of practicing to improve performance. This is compared to “deliberate play,” which is the enjoyment of the activity. In addition, Ericsson et al suggested three stages of establishing expertise: start at an early age, specialize and increase participation, and dedicate full-time commitment. Instances of single sport specialization tend to increase with age. 70% of 519 US Tennis Association junior tennis players began specializing at 10.4 years old. This rate increased after fourteen and then by eighteen, 95% of players were specialized (Jayanthi).
Does specializing at a young age predispose an athlete for success? The research says no for most sports with the exception being women’s gymnastics. This is because “peak performance” comes to fruition before maturation for female gymnasts. With this being said, intense training must begin prior to puberty. When athletes begin intense training later than their competitors, they are able to avoid burnout. According to research by Law et al, rhythmic gymnasts who specialized earlier and trained for more time from ages four to sixteen “rated their health lower and experienced less fun.” Barynina et al and Wall et al reported similar findings in swimmers and hockey players respectively. In swimmers, those who began intense training and specialized earlier consequently spent less time on the national team and retired earlier. Minor league hockey players who began training outside of the rink before their competitors dropped out of the sport sooner. Continually training for and competing in one sport without supplementation of other sports or activities can cause burnout. The stress and psychological effects of single sport specialization forces athletes to quit, even though their bodies and skills are still intact.
Considering I’m a student physical therapist, the issue that troubles me the most with single sport specialization is the risk of injury these athletes must deal with. Research shows that increased exposure to a sport and resulting intense training is the most important risk factor for injury (Rose et al). This isn’t shocking to anyone that understands basic anatomy or how the body functions. Let’s equate a muscle/tendon or ligament with a woman’s hair tie. Now imagine continuously stretching the hair tie in the same direction without deviating in any way. After repeated use, this hair tie will become stretched and may fray. When one participates in one sport every season of the year, the same muscles, ligaments, and joints are continuously being used. The most obvious example is a pitcher in baseball. The rotator cuff muscles, ulnar collateral ligament, tendon of the long head of the biceps, labrum, and glenoid fossa in general are under constant stress when an athlete throws every month of the year. Being a former college athlete, I know single sport specialization. I gave up basketball after 8th grade in order to “focus on baseball.” In reality, I just wasn’t growing as fast as my classmates and I was getting embarrassed at practice. Let’s stick with the “focusing on baseball” narrative though! I was playing baseball in the spring for school, the summer for my summer league teams, the fall for my fall-ball teams and then would spend the winter getting ready for the upcoming spring. It’s a routine baseball players know all too well. I didn’t pitch in high school or college and I can’t imagine going through this for 12 months out of the year as a pitcher.
The research tells us just how harmful single sports specialization can be for the body. The relationship between exposure and risk of injury is a linear one meaning the more often an athlete is exposed to an activity, the more likely he or she will be injured.
Research done by Flesig, Andrews, and Cutter examined 481 baseball pitchers who were between the ages of nine and fourteen. From this research, they concluded that pitchers who threw more than 100 innings in a year were 3.5 times more likely to be injured. Since this research emerged, leagues across the United States have been establishing more conservative pitch and inning limits for pitchers. Further research was conducted by Olsen, Flesig, Shouchen, Loftice, and Andrews comparing the number of months each year pitchers were throwing and the incidence of shoulder and elbow surgery. They found that when pitchers throw more than eight months out of the year, the risk of elbow or shoulder surgery is significantly higher. The Andrews I cited above is Dr. James Andrews, arguably America’s most popular orthopedic surgeon. He has performed surgeries on some of the most popular athletes including Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Roger Clemens, Shaq, Allen Iverson, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees.
As a society, we must take a good look at ourselves in the mirror. What are we portraying to the youth of this nation? Are parents banking on their children to achieve the success they never could? *cough* Lavar Ball *cough* Are parents and coaches boxing athletes into one sport too soon? Research shows that early sport specialization is detrimental to children but it still happens. In my opinion, we need to take a step back and think about what we are doing to our kids. Coaches and parents need to realize that sports are games. This is coming from a former college athlete. The most important take-aways from baseball, in my experience, are intangible. The life lessons I learned and friends I gained are worth more than any dumb medal or trophy that is collecting dust in my closet. Let the kids play a couple of sports, make some friends, and have fun. They’ll thank you (as a parent or coach) for it and you can look back knowing you did the right thing.
References
Barynina II, Vaitsekhovskii SM. The aftermath of early sports specialization for highly qualified swimmers. Fitness Sports Rev Int. 1992;27:132-133
Côté J, Lidor R, Hackfort D. ISSP position stand: to sample or to specialize? Seven postulates about youth sport activities that lead to continued participation and elite performance. Int J Sport Exerc Psychol. 2009;9:7-17
Ericsson KA, Krampe RT, Tesch-Romer C. The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychol Rev. 1993;100(3):363-406
Fleisig GS, Andrews JR, Cutter GR, et al. Risk of serious injury for young baseball pitchers: a 10-year prospective study. Am J Sports Med. 2011;39(2):253-257
Jayanthi NA, Dechert A, Durazo R, Luke A. Training and specialization risks in junior elite tennis players J Med Sci Tennis. 2011;16(1):14-20
Jayanthi N, Pinkham C, Dugas L, Patrick B, LaBella C. Sports Specialization in Young Athletes: Evidence-Based Recommendations. Sports Health. 2013;5(3):251-257. doi:10.1177/1941738112464626.
Law M, Côté J, Ericsson KA. Characteristics of expert development in rhythmic gymnastics: a retrospective study. Int J Exerc Sport Psychol. 2007;5:82-103
Olsen SJ, Fleisig GS, Shouchen D, Loftice J, Andrews JR. Risk factors for shoulder and elbow injuries in adolescent baseball pitchers. Am J Sports Med. 2006;34:905-912
Rose MS, Emery CA, Meeuwisse WH. Sociodemographic predictors of sport injury in adolescents. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008;40(3):444-450
Wall M, Côté J. Developmental activities that lead to dropout and investment in sport. Phys Educ Sport Pedagogy. 2007;12:77-87
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Aaron Burger | Physical Therapy 
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