Childhood athletics portray a significant tradition in the growth and development of youth generations throughout the past.  In recent years the trend of limiting the amount of sports a child plays to one has rapidly increased.  This trend is known as sport specialization which is the process of participating in one sport year round.  The specialization route increased rapidly since the early 2000s resulting from pressures from coaches, parents, and the broad competitive community.  The thought of specialization arose from the belief that the more you do something the better you get, so those involved in the athletic community saw specialization as an alternative course to reaching maximum potential.  The youth sports community placed great emphasis on the concept of winning rather than fun, because of the wide scale belief in specialization.  The longing for success in youth athletes, coaches, and adults inspired the concept of specializing at a very young age to reach maximum potential and success by adulthood.  The original purpose of youth sports includes lifelong health, joy, and physical and social development.  With increased specialization the purpose now emphasizes winning which demands for intense, prolonged, and persistent practice at a young age.  These features give rise to the question if specialization is beneficial or not.  Since specialization is a process encouraged at a young age, the controversial question is whether or not specializing at an early age generates more potential for success than specializing at a later age.  Specializing in athletics should be delayed until high school or after diversification and development, because early specialization proposes multiple detrimental effects concerning inhibited athletic development, psychological and social development, physical health, and success.

The process of specializing actually inhibits athletic ability in comparison to participating in multiple sports.  Specialization hampers the amount of sports one participates in to a specific sport, so the athlete doesn’t get to experience alternative activity.  Youth sports plays a key role in the development of proper athletic ability and body coordination.  Specializing limits the athlete to specific activity which hinders their development in comparison to diversifying the number of sports.  Sport diversification is the process of participating in more than one athletic sport throughout a year.  Diversification provides the athlete with multiple different forms of activity, thus helping the athlete develop natural athleticism associated with general athletics.  The adolescence stage is a key time period in the development of proper motor skills and hand eye coordination.  Practicing multiple sports throughout the year gives the athlete different forms of activity to help better develop natural athletic abilities associated with common sports.  Diversification allows the athlete to experience different sport activity and acquire different attributes relating to the common athletic abilities such as running, jumping, kicking, or throwing.  Specialization limits the diverse activity to a specific motion which inhibits the child’s acquisition of a diverse skillset (Caruso).  The sport specific motion associated with specialization causes the athlete to only develop that specific motor skill, rather than playing multiple sports which would help develop all motor skills.  Specialization should follow diversification to allow the athlete to develop common athleticism first which will give them more potential for success.  Diversification during adolescence and the development of motor and athletic development can lead to increased careers and the ability to transfer acquired skills to other sports (O’Sullivan).  O’Sullivan’s claim supports the idea that diversification is a better route than specialization, because diverse athletes develop the proper general motor skills that aid the cognition and transferability of certain skillsets. Early specialization can limit the range of specified skills an athlete learns, because the athlete is coached to specific movements.  Diversification allows the athlete to experience multiple forms of activity which will help develop balance and coordination associated with general sports.  Impaired motor skill development can affect long term physical activity involvement (Baker).  Those who don’t develop proper motor skills may eventually feel excluded from the pursuit of physical activity as lifelong goal.  Waiting to specialize offers better motor skill development, and therefore fulfills the purpose of encouraging lifelong physical activity.  Diversification offers a better route at an early age than specialization because it allows the athlete to perfect the basic, common athletic attributes which will be more beneficial when used to transfer skills or specify in a sport.

Psychosocial development is a large benefit of youth sports with the “fun, go-play” comradery, however certain effects of specialization can actually inhibit natural psychosocial development.  Youth sports target key psychological and social aspects of youth development such as friendship, cooperation, balance, heart, motivation, and interdependence.  Youth sports help develop these aspects through team comradery, practice, and competition.  Specializing in a single sport calls for intense, demanding practices and competition throughout the whole year.  The external pressures associated with specializing increase the athlete’s chance for burnout due to stress, and can take the fun out it causing the athlete to be less motivated.  Those who diversify the sports they play can actually reek benefits in decision making and pattern recognition, as well as team cooperation and leadership skills (O’Sullivan).  These benefits are impaired by specialization because the athlete is faced with lots of pressure from a demanding coach and environment.  Overtraining through specialization can lead to burnout due to lack of motivation or fun, which can be a detrimental effect to the athlete’s participation in sports as a lifelong healthy activity (Brenner).  The concept of burnout through specialization occurs through the year round practice and competition which is very demanding.  These demands can cause the athlete to socially isolate themselves.  The focus on a single sport during adolescence can cause the child to isolate themselves from their peers which may alter relationships with peers, parents, and family (Malina).  The busy lifestyle of young specialized athletes may be hectic and can correlate with a loss of control in the child’s life.  This can lead to overdependence on other people or subjects to compensate for their loss of control (Malina).  The persistency required for specialization may lead to burnout or loss in desire to compete.  This can impact the choice in life long activity due to the lack of desire to participate (Malina).  Athletics serve as a common means to develop social skills like cooperation and socially acceptable behavior through the interaction with teammates, other players, and coaches.  However, specialization puts emphasis on training rather than interaction, so in turn it can limit social development because of lack of time (Wiersma).  Specializing at a young age has become a common trend in pursuit of success, but the process causes detrimental effects to the psychosocial development of the child.  Postponing the specialization process until high school or after the child develops is a better option, because the child has more time and a better environment to assimilate the proper psychosocial attributes.

Early specialization is very physically demanding with the intense, year-round practice and competition.  The more the athlete participates during adolescence, the more risk they have for acute or overuse injury.  Acute injuries are instantaneous, and overuse injuries develop over time through repeated motions.  Both injuries are prevalent in specialization because of the intense, deliberate practice schedule.  The growing skeleton during adolescence is primarily susceptible to injury due to the presence of cartilage at three locations and the consistent tightening of muscles over under developed joints (Dalton).  The rapid, strenuous movements involved with specialization strains the developing body causing potential growth inhibition and joint threatening injuries.  Diversification offers a better route because the athlete experiences multiple motions of activity rather than a repeated specific motion.  This allows the athlete to condition their body to different kinds of activity which can help prepare it for unique activities or prevent injury.  The risk of injury associated with early specialization is key evidence to postpone the process until after the body develops.  With the trend of early specialization becoming more common, the number of injuries relating to overuse has increased.  The growing bones in adolescent athletes are not mature enough to handle great amounts of stress associated with intense athletic play, and it increases their risk for repeated injury from overuse (Dalton).  This trend for injury raised questions about the cause of these common injuries, and studies show how they have dramatically increased since the 1990s.  For example, young elite tennis players who specialized had a 50% higher rate of injury than those who played other sports (Carter).  This evidence is mostly due to the fact that specialized athletes aren’t as conditioned because they haven’t experienced alternative activity to help develop their body.  Time of rest is a big factor in relation to recurring injuries, and specialization does not offer the athlete enough time to rest.  Limited rest time can lead to fatigue and burnout in which the athlete is too exhausted or unmotivated to perform.  This fatigue in relation to time of rest increases the risk for injury because the athlete is not getting sufficient recovery time.  The best alternative is to allow at least 2 to 3 months off per year to allow the athlete to develop, condition, and reduce the risk for injury (Dalton).  Rest is a key factor in youth development, so specialization is not the best tactic to prepare a child’s body for a lifestyle of intense athletic play.  Some commonly specialized sports such as gymnastics, dance, or wrestling involve high stress on the developing skeleton of youth athletes.  The training method involved with specialization in these sports can leave the athlete susceptible to inhibited growth and injury (LaPrade).  There are two solutions to prevent specialization and its physiological defects.  One lays in diversification, and the other involves multiple breaks throughout to year to allow rest.  Diversification is a suitable alternative because it helps condition the athlete to prepare for sport specific movement later on after development.  It also allows for proper rest time between sports.  The other option allows for recovery breaks throughout the specialized athletic year to prevent injury.  The first solution is most likely more relevant because it is more beneficial if followed by specialization at a later age.

The specialization process has been recognized since the early 2000s, but to this date there hasn’t been much evidence of successes.  There are a select few who actually reach an elite status through specialization, and this includes the “goats” such as the Williams sisters and Tiger Woods.  With the exclusion of the freak athletes who make it big, in reality the majority of specialized athletes do not make it to an elite level.  In contrast to specialization, kids who play multiple sports and specialize later have a better chance for success than those who specialize first.  Majority of athletes playing at an elite level participated in multiple sports prior to specializing in one.  These include big name athletes such as Roger Federer, a profession tennis player; Alex Morgan, an Olympic soccer player; and Tim Duncan, a five-time NBA champion (Carter).  The list of successful athletes who diversified their sports early on goes on and on, because these athletes allowed their body and mind to develop before specializing.  Another study claims that the majority of athletes who specialize early end up dropping out or burnout of the sport, and those who wait to specialize have longer careers (Brenner).  This refutes the concept that specialization promotes success, because specialized athletes tend to burnout before reaching an elite status.  This burnout results from the consequences above such as psychosocial defects or physical injury.  A sports medicine survey shows that 88% of college athletes have a multi-sport background in which they developed socially and physically to prepare themselves for specialization (O’Sullivan).  The fact that 88% of college athletes diversified their sports early on demonstrates that diversification prior to specialization is a more effective route to success.  A common idea associated with specialization is the 10,000-hour rule influence by Malcom Gladwell.  This rule claims that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice leads to mastery.  Contrary to this rule, 10,000 hours of specified practice is not necessary for success, although it may help.  A study in 2003 shows that even though most professional hockey players had 10,000 hours of athletic involvement, only 3,000 of those hours were involved in deliberate hockey practice (O’Sullivan).  This evidence doesn’t necessarily defy the 10,000-hour rule related to specialization, but it rephrases it to include 10,000 hours of general sport participation.  Again, this allows the athlete to better develop motor skills associated with transferring sports.  Despite the belief that “practice makes perfect,” there is little need for a high amount of deliberate practice at an early age for the development of adults’ athletic career (LaPrade).  The concept that exceeding amounts of deliberate practice results in expertise performance has been misinterpreted among the athletic community.  Deliberate practice in a specific sport at an early age has many detrimental effects that can inhibit the potential for success, but deliberate practice in a multi-sport setting with rest periods can increase the potential for success because of the transferability of skills (Caruso).  This refutes the concept of early specialization, but it encourages diversification before specialization because of the benefits associated with transferring acquired athletic skills that are standard in most sports.  Since the early 2000s, the trend of specialization has increased.  However, evidence of success is still trivial due to the evidence supporting diversification and refuting early specialization. 

The process of specialization seems very basic in the fact that the more you practice, the better you will be.  This process however, comes with many negative consequences which can actually inhibit the development of success.  Although specialization is widely encouraged by coaches and parents to get a step ahead, diversification before specializing offers a better route to success. The diversification process eliminates the chance for inhibited motor skill development, psychosocial defects, and physical defects that are associated with specializing.  The roots of early specialization occur from the external pressures from coaches and parents who want their athletes to get ahead of the game.  For parents it may be nice to watch their child tear it up in little league sports, but risking key developmental attributes may not be worth it.  Also if the athlete diversified their sports before specializing, there is a better chance that they will tear it up at a later age and potentially reach an elite status.  The solution to the specialization dilemma lies in the athletic institutions surrounding youth sports.  Recently, there has been too much emphasis on winning rather than having fun and growing.  This results in deliberate practicing associated with specialization.  To solve this issue and eliminate the consequential effects on the child, society must think back to the purpose of youth sports in general.  Instead of deliberate, year-round practice, children should participate in multiple sports with fun but productive practices and rest periods.  Not only will this protect the youth athlete population, but it will help increase the athletic talent kids have to offer.  The trend of specialization has gone on long enough, and few athletes have benefitted from it.  But, a new trend should start on the path towards success first through diversification then through specialization after the child has physically and mentally developed.
