single-sport specialization: more harm than good?

By: Lora Scott, MD, co-director sports medicine at Dayton Children’s

It’s 5am on a Saturday in July. For many families, that means it is time to pack up the car with lawn chairs, snacks, blankets, and sports equipment for the next tournament. While this is becoming more and more common, how can we be certain this is what is best for our children?

New research shows that it might not be.

As more children become active in sports – a wonderful, healthy thing – the pressure to specialize and play on multiple teams also increases. But how much is too much? Growing evidence shows that early specialization, playing the same sport on multiple teams, and practicing too many hours per week can cause burnout, overuse injuries, over-training syndrome, and career-ending injuries in children who should still be playing for fun.

What does the evidence say?

• Most college scholarship athletes played multiple sports seasonally, not one sport year-round. They don’t specialize in one sport until college.
• The best predictor of whether or not your child will get a college sports scholarship is if a parent or sibling got one too, not how many hours they practice or how many teams they play on.
• Children who play 9 or more months per year in one sport are at increased risk of overuse injuries. They can still play sports year-round, but they are going to get more injuries if they play baseball year-round, or soccer year-round.
• The average age of major surgeries for sports injuries is getting younger. Examples include ulnar collateral ligament (Tommy John) surgeries and ACL surgeries. Younger and younger children are having injuries which used to be rare before reaching the elite level. When those children still have growing bones, the surgery becomes even more complicated.

How do I know if my child is playing too much?

• Look for signs of burnout: reluctance to go to practice, fatigue, or recurrent pain without injury. This could mean that your child is practicing too much.
• It affects your family dynamics or finances in a negative way. It is not the end of the world to sit out for a season. Family dinners together are also important in child development!

What are the recommendations?

• Let your child play the sports that are in-season and switch as the seasons change
• If your child loves one sport, they can play it 9 months out of the year. They don’t have to be 9 months in a row, just 9 months total. Spend the other 3 months taking a break from organized sports, or playing another sport.
• Hours practiced per week, across all sports, should be no more than the child’s age. An 8-year-old can practice up to 8 hours per week for all sports combined.
• Make sure some of their physical activity is free play. They should have time to goof-off and be kids. Climbing trees and jumping off playground equipment still burns calories and teaches the body important lessons about balance, reaction-time, agility, and coordination. These translate well into organized sports without the overuse injuries.

Despite these recommendations, some kids are difficult to slow down and love the travel team! Let kids be kids and you be the parent. Put down some limits and channel their energy into other positive activities. In the long run, it is better to play less for the rest of their lives than to play intensely and get a career-ending injury before they finish growing.