It has become common practice in youth athletics to specialize in one sport. For whatever reason our society is convinced that our young people have to compete in one sport year round in order to compete at the highest level. Which could potentially lead to a college scholarship or hopefully a professional contract. Unfortunately in our chosen sport, Division 1 college athletics is about as high a goal as most wrestlers can set for themselves. The vast majority of us never reach that goal. So is sport specialization really worth it? Also, what is the actual cost?
To be very upfront and honest about this topic I understand both points of view. My personal view is that sport specialization, to a degree, is necessary after a certain age. I dont believe anyone should specialize in a sport until they are in high school, preferably a sophomore in high school. There are several positive aspects for playing multiple sports at a young age that you miss out on when you specialize at an early age. The main positive being able to build a foundation to become a well-rounded athlete.
There are many reasons to participate in multiple sports, especially as a young wrestler before puberty. While a young person’s body is growing and developing it is critical that young people are exposed to several sports. Some of the benefits to playing multiple sports are injury prevention, improving social skills, developing different skills, and avoiding burnout. We will also briefly go over some of the drawbacks for sport specialization such as the risk of injury and burnout, which are some of the major factors. In addition, there can be a significant financial burden placed on the athlete and the entire family unit.
While I am not an advocate for sport specialization, I am a realist and not blind to the fact that in most cases participation in specialized practices and in major tournaments throughout the year has become necessary if wrestlers want to move on to the next level and compete. Qualifying and competing at tournaments like Fargo, Ironman, and Super 32 can go a long way to get a young wrestler on a division 1 team’s radar for recruitment. That is why I dont believe kids should specialize until after their freshman year in high school. By that time, most athletes have hit puberty and are more capable of handling the mental and physical toll that year-round sport specialization can take on a young athlete, namely, being able to handle cutting weight properly without stunting their growth.
The more time you spend participating in a given sport the chances of injury obviosuly increase. In wrestling there are two major types of injuries that we see the most often: acute injuries and overuse injuries. Acute injuries are broken bones, muscle strains, dislocated shoulders and elbows, and different fractures of bones in the body. Overuse injuries happen more deliberaltey as your body will slowly deteriorate over time. Accodring to a study focusing on acute injuries done in 2019 “Nearly 10,000 sports injury hospitalizations occur in the United States each year.” “Approximately 90% of these hospitalizations are in patients 10 to 18 years of age, and boys are 6 times more likely to be admitted compared to girls” (2019).
A three year study was published in 2020, the researchers wanted to see if there was a link between acute injuries, overuse injuries, and sport specialization. The findings are very interesting. Jayanthi states “the degree of sport specialization had an effect such that more specialized athletes were significantly more likely to be injured or have an overuse injury compared with less specialized athletes” (2020). Through this study they were able to link sport specialization and the risk of injury. Out of 529 participants, 421 (73%) of those participants experienced an injury over the three year span of the study (Jayanthi, 2020).
There are several reasons for burnout. A prevalent cause of burnout that I have seen in wrestling is the parents. Some parents, and I am sure you have seen them, put an enormous amount of pressure on their children to win and be perfect. That much pressure will make the athlete feel they have to be perfect in order to please their parents, which is impossible to sustain over long periods of time. When an athlete feels like they can never do anything right or nothing is ever good enough, they tend to just walk away from what is causing them stress or putting tension on the relationship.
One cause for some parents to put pressure on their athletes to be successful is the financial burden of participating in a sport year round. Between club fees, the rising cost of gas, travel expenses such as hotels and airfare, participating in this sport can very quickly become too expensive for many families across the country. In a study by Michael Normand in 2017, he found that “some parents spend up to 10% of their income on select/club teams per year” (Normand, 2017). According to GeorgiaData.org the median household income in Georgia in 2023 was $71,355, making it impossible for the vast majority of families in our state to afford club teams practice and participating in major tournaments such as Fargo, Super 32, Ironman, Beast of the East, or Powerade.
Ultimately, whether to specialize in one sport or participate in many sports comes down to each wrestler’s individual situation and family. It’s an important decision to make, one that is dependent on each person’s personal goals and financial situation. There are several positives to playing multiple sports as well as some downfalls to sport specialization.
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