Curious what people’s kids’ experiences with high school sports have been.

Next week is when 8th graders sign up here and Mini is super excited - but I’ve heard some horror stories (not at her school).

Graduating daughter was a captain, younger 2 are upcoming captains.

One of the things they did was group girls into “families”. Each family had a middle schooler, a younger high schooler/newer girl, and a “vet”. At least 2 of the girls are able to drive.

1. Took ride pressure off parents
2. It’s much cooler to get friend rides vs parents
3. Everyone had someone to reach out to with problems—both inside and outside of dance.
4. No one was alone.
5. Role modeling

Parents of younger kids loved it. It taught teamwork and responsibility.

My son played high level travel and school baseball from 4th -8th grade, but also ran track in middle school and loved it. As a freshman, the high school baseball coach basically told him he needed him to do fall workouts instead of running XC if he wanted to play in the Spring. I hate this attitude. My son chose XC and track and is loving it but I really miss baseball and he does as well. If he was a future D1 prospect I’m sure the coach would let him do both, but he is still a good player and could contribute on the diamond. It makes me mad that these coaches demand year round commitments out of high schoolers, but that’s the landscape now. Specialization.

Curious what people’s kids’ experiences with high school sports have been.

Next week is when 8th graders sign up here and Mini is super excited - but I’ve heard some horror stories (not at her school).

Curious what people’s kids’ experiences with high school sports have been.

Next week is when 8th graders sign up here and Mini is super excited - but I’ve heard some horror stories (not at her school).

I go back and forth on the "pressure" to do one sport year round.

On the one hand, doing multiple sports as a kid makes for better all around athletes they say. On the other hand, lots of kids do the same sport year round. I never stopped playing soccer growing up (abroad), like lots of US kids play basketball year round. Pickup and playground games are great for developing individual creativity, and keeps the sport fun - which is important..

Kids should play multiple sports and NOT play the same year round until close to physical maturity (transition to college).

Hard stop. End of story.

Well, that depends on the intensity of a single sport focus. Agree it's too much, if a kid's forced to focus like a "pro-athlete/elite" player. And if that also means the exclusion of other sports b/c there simply no time left over. And maybe it's a US thing -- where the only way to do a sport is some kind of organized league etc. vs. just playing (the sport).

Kids should play multiple sports and NOT play the same year round until close to physical maturity (transition to college).

Hard stop. End of story.

Kids should play multiple sports and NOT play the same year round until close to physical maturity (transition to college).

Hard stop. End of story.

It is interesting to see how many Pro athletes played multiple sports as a kid. Playing multiple sports makes you more well-rounded.

It’s a balance between specificity and general development for sure. Each kid will be a bit different and each sport have its own requirements. I don’t believe there can be a black and white “rule”.

One thing that was surprising is how the funnels into each sport are much stronger that one expects until you’re in it/them. Good to have a plan before you’re being drug along.

You’re not wrong at all with your second paragraph. I’m saddened by what I’m seeing at our youth levels.

Regarding your first paragraph…why is it you don’t think the rule can be black or white? It’s been proven that specificity isn’t really necessary at a young age.

There’s been no data showing taking time off or reps off from your preferred sport results in decreased performance or lack of athletic success. As Nutella alluded the majority of higher level athletes were multi-sport. General preparedness results in far greater risk of injury and subsequent time off. We have the data for this. It’s a no-brainer. It’s going to be either mental fatigue or physical fatigue. A small percentage will eek through unscathed.


And regarding general preparation; it’s just good for the youth that don’t want to play competitively. I tell parents of these individuals all the time to get a basketball hoop or invest in a solid playground or jungle gym at their house if they don’t have to spend money on uniforms and team fees or travel. Just get the young kids moving, jumping, sprinting, and falling in all directions.

Skeletal structure of individuals who rowed, cycled, ran XC, swam, or did nothing was substantially different than their age-counterparts who played multi directional power sports. And that’s to say nothing of the joint health and connective tissue health achieved by the varied power movements.

For me it’s a no-brainer. Proper movement is like having a proper diet at that age.

Thanks for posting this. I am curious too. I have an 8th grader who has been doing two club sports, which we realize is ridiculous. One is swimming, which she would like to continue, as a swimmer on the high school team in addition to club swim. The other sport is skating and doesn't have a high school team, but she also wants to continue. Part of me thinks she should bag club teams, swim for the high school, and try other sports. Another part of me wants her to maintain something. But I also don't want some crazy schedule and no time for being a teenager. Would appreciate any perspective.

Nobody is arguing against proper movement, or that diversified pursuits aren't valuable early on, but if you wait to specialize until AFTER high school, you're going to have some serious difficulty in many sports. I'd set the bar for specialization a bit earlier, but it might depend on the actual activities. Some sports require earlier specialization than others when a kid has elite level aspirations.

There are a lot of examples of kids who didn't choose to focus on a sport, got left behind, and eventually drifted into other things. It's unlikely that those examples are captured as data, but they are pretty common. The opposite is certainly true, early specialization can easily lead to burnout and overuse injury, no doubt. It's an interesting balance for sure.

I understand the philosophy of doing multiple different types of activities but I also understand the reality of sport and in current times, things move pretty fast and too much diversification can get you left behind in some sports. I had college opportunities in 3 sports coming out of high school, but that was the 90's and things are much different in the 2020's.

"Multisport" can also mean a lot of different things. If a kid is a QB in football and a pitcher on the baseball team, it may be technically multisport but it's hard to argue there's much "well rounded" about those patterns. Show me a kid who is a linebacker in football, swims during the winter, and then plays soccer during the spring at a high level and we're in an extreme minority. It can happen, especially at lower levels and smaller schools, but it's rare at higher levels in current times.

Of course you have the superior physical specimens that can do pretty much anything/everything with minimal practice/training just because they're physically superior to everyone else in HS. If you're 6'3, 200 lbs, and run in the mid 4's, you can do pretty much any/all HS power/ball sports without much practice/effort simply because you're a superior physical animal to 99.9% of your opponents. Those types of people tend to bend the narrative a bit, and also tend to choose sports where their strengths make things pretty easy for them at the HS level.

Nebraska has a starting, and NFL bound nose guard who wrestled, and a receiver and DB who ran track, but realistically, they're doing mostly the same things in a different application than they do on the football field. I'm not sure how much movement diversity there really is though they are technically D1 multisport athletes.

Nobody is arguing against proper movement, or that diversified pursuits aren't valuable early on, but if you wait to specialize until AFTER high school, you're going to have some serious difficulty in many sports. I'd set the bar for specialization a bit earlier, but it might depend on the actual activities. Some sports require earlier specialization than others when a kid has elite level aspirations.

There are a lot of examples of kids who didn't choose to focus on a sport, got left behind, and eventually drifted into other things. It's unlikely that those examples are captured as data, but they are pretty common. The opposite is certainly true, early specialization can easily lead to burnout and overuse injury, no doubt. It's an interesting balance for sure.

I understand the philosophy of doing multiple different types of activities but I also understand the reality of sport and in current times, things move pretty fast and too much diversification can get you left behind in some sports. I had college opportunities in 3 sports coming out of high school, but that was the 90's and things are much different in the 2020's.

"Multisport" can also mean a lot of different things. If a kid is a QB in football and a pitcher on the baseball team, it may be technically multisport but it's hard to argue there's much "well rounded" about those patterns. Show me a kid who is a linebacker in football, swims during the winter, and then plays soccer during the spring at a high level and we're in an extreme minority. It can happen, especially at lower levels and smaller schools, but it's rare at higher levels in current times.

Of course you have the superior physical specimens that can do pretty much anything/everything with minimal practice/training just because they're physically superior to everyone else in HS. If you're 6'3, 200 lbs, and run in the mid 4's, you can do pretty much any/all HS power/ball sports without much practice/effort simply because you're a superior physical animal to 99.9% of your opponents. Those types of people tend to bend the narrative a bit, and also tend to choose sports where their strengths make things pretty easy for them at the HS level.

Nebraska has a starting, and NFL bound nose guard who wrestled, and a receiver and DB who ran track, but realistically, they're doing mostly the same things in a different application than they do on the football field. I'm not sure how much movement diversity there really is though they are technically D1 multisport athletes.

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This. I'm in agreement with your perspective.

Should go w/out saying that balance and being well-rounded is obviously a good thing (though Yeeper seems to think we're arguing against that).

I mean this respectfully but this is just inaccurate. The research is out there. Waiting to specialize until late HS or transition to collegiate play is simply what most experts agree is the best avenue and it is what the data supports. I said "close to physical maturity (transition to college)" and that is what the research supports.



Of course there are going to be outliers. And I already said as much. However there are any number of studies that agree 80-90% of all D1 athletes were multisport. Similar percentages for NFL first round picks. There was a story about the 2015 USWNT World Cup winning squad in which all of them were multisport and many did not specialize until college. I'm sure I could go on and find more specific examples to cover the broad range of sport but the take home message is that the common trend for the top tier athletes is to play multisport through adolescence and wait until close to physical maturity to specialize.

There is also data to suggest that early specialized athletes risk injury at a rate almost twice as much especially to lower limb as compared to multi-sport athletes.



Regarding the bold, again that seems like a very emotionally founded opinion and not based in reality. The stats for the 2022 NFL Draft:


Multisport: 233/262 (88.9%)
Track & Field: 180/262 (68.7%)
3+ Sport HS Athletes: 113/262 (43.1%)
Football-only Specialist: 29/262 (11.1%)
Basketball: 120/262 (45.8%)
Baseball: 29/262 (11.1%)
Take a look at those numbers. Of course a sport like track or wrestling or shot put or discus or long jump will have similar movements as football but the main difference is in the nuances. No one trying to hit them. Not as much lateral pivoting stress on the lower extremities. And also not as much landing or decelleration which is where a lot of the stress of the LE occurs.

Your foot is your interface with the ground and so different playing surfaces will also change how the stress is applied and it changes your body's shock attenuation strategy for the Ground Reaction Force (GRF).

There is also no possible way to overstate the importance of rest and recovery. Days off from the pattern overload of the sport. So the simple fact that the players are getting a break from their normal physical stresses is important.

These nuances are the value. Multisport through late HS and collegiate transition leads to the best outcomes, reduces LE injury by 2x and tips the scales in the risk reward category. As I said, a no-brainer to me.

YMMV

As previously stated:

"Of course you have the superior physical specimens that can do pretty much anything/everything with minimal practice/training just because they're physically superior to everyone else in HS. If you're 6'3, 200 lbs, and run in the mid 4's, you can do pretty much any/all HS power/ball sports without much practice/effort simply because you're a superior physical animal to 99.9% of your opponents. Those types of people tend to bend the narrative a bit, and also tend to choose sports where their strengths make things pretty easy for them at the HS level."

Anybody drafted in the NFL is, nearly by definition, an outlier level superior physical specimen. Those types of individuals don't have to rely on sport specific skill development in order to excel, they're just mutants.

Football is also a late/very late specialization sport even compared to basketball.