Essay On Sports Specialization

Sports for Children: Diversity is Key

As a child, Stephen Curry was raised like any other child, except he grew up playing multiple sports. “In an age of hyper-specialization, Curry has reached the pinnacle of his sport by doing the exact opposite. He played basketball, but he also played some baseball, football, soccer and basically everything else in a sports buffet” (Cohen). Now, Curry is known as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Is this because of his vast background of many sports? In today’s world, children should be introduced to a variety of different sports in order to promote discipline and hard work, prevent injury, and fulfill their college desires.

Direction and determination are taught to children through

sports, which will be convenient to them in the future. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, youth sports "should promote lifelong physical activity, recreation and skills of healthy competition" (“Sports for Children”). In other words, not only does being involved in more than one sport aid someone physically, but also benefits them mentally and emotionally. Since kids are playing sports, they get a great sense of teamwork and competition against others. Coach Ron McCunn of St. Paris, Ohio, once said to his athletes, “Discipline is doing what you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it” (Jordan). In shorter terms, this means accomplishing a task by doing it right, not by doing it the easiest way. By Coach McCunn teaching this lesson to his athletes, they have learned a concept that they can apply to their lives. Additionally, “athletics can ultimately help children develop into adults who can handle pressure and overcome adversity. Sports, when done right, instill important principles and healthy habits in young people all across America” (Jordan). This evidence only further supports the fact that sports for children promote healthy habits leading into adolescence, and eventually adulthood. By participating and being involved in the community of sports, kids can learn many valuable concepts like managing time, accepting losses, and working to earn an award. Athletics can teach one many life lessons that can be applied to adulthood, but can also keep one safe and injury-free.
The prevention of injury is another reason why children should participate in numerous sports. Studies have shown that “specializing in one sport at a young age is unnecessary and may even be unhelpful. Early focus on one sport--and only one sport--can increase the risk of overuse injuries and raise the potential for burnout” (Cohen). By only participating in one sport, the same muscles and parts of the body can be overused, causing the child to be hurt or leave them unable to play sports for good. Basically, a minor mistake of specializing in one sport can result in permanent retirement of sports overall. Furthermore, Neeru Jayanthi, a sports physician and director of tennis medicine at Emory University, said that “even accounting for age and hours of sports played per week, young multi-sport athletes are at less risk for serious overuse injuries than those competing in highly specialized single sports” (Rosenwald). This explanation additionally supports the claim that multi-sport athletes are safer and healthier than specialized athletes when it comes to injury tolerance. Clearly, playing numerous sports that keep the entire body active and healthy will reduce the risk of any kind of injury that could end an athletic career. On another note, there is mounting evidence that playing multiple sports helps elite athletes with pattern recognition and hones their hand-eye coordination in a way that translates to other sports (Cohen). Not only do diverse athletes benefit from injury prevention, but also from various mental and physical skills. Without a doubt, these multi-sport athletes are more advanced than other kids because they can play more than one sport well, but can also gain hand-eye coordination and other skills that differentiate them from other athletes. Overall, these athletes will be more successful due to the decreased injury and increased cognitive abilities. These strengths can benefit to the athlete’s game, but also to their game in terms of college.
The advantage of one’s future in college life can be factored in when discussing children and sports. According to Dr. Joel Brenner of the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Children who play multiple sports, who diversify their play, are more likely to enjoy physical activity throughout their lives and [be] more successful in achieving their athletic goals" (Perry). In simpler terms, children who have a vast athletic background are more likely to receive college scholarships or even make it to the professional level of play. Obviously, colleges want to recruit kids who are worthy of playing at the next level, and multi-sport athletes tend to stand out from the crowd. In fact, “Only 1 percent of high school athletes receive an athletic scholarship, and only 0.03 percent to 0.5 percent of high school athletes make it to the professional level,” states the Academy of American Pediatrics (Perry). Since the percentage of athletes that move on to the collegiate level is minute, only a select group of sports players get to pursue their dreams of becoming college athletes. If only a certain amount of people get to play, then multi-sport athletes will be towards the top of the list because they are more valuable to athletic programs. Kids who play more than one sport are more attractive to colleges, since they are more active, healthy, and involved than other athletes. In addition, more than 45 national sports groups, including the USTA, MLB, NFL, PGA, and NHL, are backing an effort to encourage multi-sport play (Rosenwald). This only further reveals how more organizations and coaches are interested in diversified athletes because “multi-sport play” promotes athleticism throughout the world. Clearly, playing multiple sports has its advantages, but not everyone sees eye-to-eye with these arguments.
Some may proclaim that sport specialization is superior, since it will allow athletes to improve to their greatest potential of that sport.

More specifically, children are also increasingly pressured--again, usually by parents and coaches--to specialize in one sport and to play it year-round, often on several different teams (Perry). Now, if sports specialization is such a great idea, then why are kids being “pressured”? As stated before, sports specialization can result in severe injury or even retirement from sports all together. Evidently, parents would not want to risk their athlete’s entire athletic career just because of an overuse injury. Knowing this, a diversity in sports activities is the solution to the problem. Additionally, a specialization in sports can lead to the young athlete not experiencing a sport that he or she may truly enjoy in their life. If a parent already makes a child decide on a sport to play, how will the child know if that is the sport they truly want to participate in? As the child ages, they could realize that the sport they play now is not one that they love anymore, so they could just quit. Deciding at such a young age is not only a hasty decision, but also a terrible one. Finally, this specialization can also create social problems. If a child is already so competitively involved in a sport, then their social lives and relationships with friends are at risk. The clear choice here is to let the child live a normal life by allowing them to make friends and play, rather than taking over their lives with competitive

sports.
Stephen Curry’s success can be primarily derived from his multi-sport background as a child. Curry’s knowledge and experience from other sports obviously helped him become who he is today: a professional basketball player. Overall, children should be allowed to play multiple sports due to its benefits in life lessons, decreased pain, and college attraction. Without a doubt, playing various sports, as Stephen Curry did, will bring a child recognition and success.