Let Them Play (Multiple) Sports

Making kids specialize isn't the key to success.

My 12-year-old has had quite the soccer season. He has been playing on the Modified team with his school as well as a separate travel team, which means that he has practiced roughly five days a week, with two different practices on two of the days, and has played games three times a week.

It’s been a lot — way more than his past soccer seasons. I’ve enjoyed seeing him get more passionate about the sport. But yesterday was his last Modified game and I can’t say I’m particularly sad. I’m excited for him — and me — to have more free time in the afternoons in the evenings. Also, hallelujah to doing less laundry.

In many U.S. communities, this kind of sports intensity is the norm rather than the exception. It’s hard to get firm numbers on how many kids focus wholeheartedly on one sport at the exclusion of others, but researchers say it’s become more common in recent years, especially among affluent families — and that the trend is likely to continue.

One key reason parents intensely push their kids into a single sport is because they believe that this will help their child excel and, ultimately, increase their chances for college or professional play (and, of course, help them get into college in the first place). In one study, for instance, a whopping half of parents surveyed said they had encouraged their child to specialize in a single sport because they wanted their kid to play collegiately or professionally.

Parents also vastly overestimate the chance that their kids will receive athletic scholarships (student athletes do this too). The sad truth is, only about six percent of high school athletes participate in NCAA sports, a mere two percent of high school athletes receive college athletic scholarships, and fewer than two percent of college athletes continue play professionally after college.

Often, parents reference the story of Tiger Woods, as well as Venus and Serena Williams, all of whom specialized early and whose intense practice schedules at a young age are thought to have contributed to their athletic success.

Others reference psychologist K. Anders Ericsson’s research suggesting that people need to engage in an average of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to unlock expert performance — an idea made popular by journalist Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. The idea has since been challenged by scientists (including Ericsson himself!), though, and a 2018 meta-analysis concluded that the amount of deliberate practice athletes engage in only accounts for about 18 percent of the variation in sports performance. This suggests that intense practice is not actually what makes or breaks an athlete.

Other families go the route of sports specialization simply because they are told, over and over again, that they should. Youth sports is a multi-billion dollar industry, and companies and organizations make lots of money off of families who buy into what they’re selling.

The reality is, though, that specialization doesn’t help kids excel — and can instead put kids at risk.