Almost every day there are articles written or posted about early specialization in sport versus athletes participating in multiple sports. Personally, I am a proponent of playing multiple sports as a child and doing so well into the teen years because there is plenty of evidence that this helps athletes build their movement pattern bank account and become very athletic. Having said that, there will come a time in an athlete’s career when they will discover what they excel at the most, and they will need to make a decision to specialize in that sport or to keep being a solid multi-sport athlete.
The decision will come down to the following: do I want to excel at one sport or be good at many sports? This point in time will be different for every sport based on an athlete’s ideal age for peak performance. For example, a gymnast will need to specialize earlier because their peak performance age is typically earlier while endurance sport athletes tend to peak later.
There was a great stat that came out after the 2019 Super Bowl that polled all of the players in that game that said that approximately 95 per cent of the participants were at least two-sport athletes growing up. What is important to note here is that those athletes all specialized at some point and became great football players but not before reaping the athletic benefits of playing more than one sport for the majority of their developmental years.Vball
This athlete is skilled but also has the physical characteristics most junior scouts are looking for, he may very well get drafted by a CHL team or at the very least his provincial junior league. This will allow him many opportunities to move on to higher levels at his young age.
The strength and power gained through early growth and development will allow this athlete to compete with older, stronger players and show his superior physical strength over players in his own age group.
A mentality that because of the early development they are superior in every way to Athlete 2 giving them a feeling that they don’t have to work as hard to be successful and move to the next level.
Early success in sport where an athlete doesn’t have any disappointments or failures can lead to devastation when a player gets cut for the first time later in their athletic career. This can often be career-ending for an athlete like this.
Almost every day there are articles written or posted about early specialization in sport versus athletes participating in multiple sports. Personally, I am a proponent of playing multiple sports as a child and doing so well into the teen years because there is plenty of evidence that this helps athletes build their movement pattern bank account and become very athletic. Having said that, there will come a time in an athlete’s career when they will discover what they excel at the most, and they will need to make a decision to specialize in that sport or to keep being a solid multi-sport athlete.
The decision will come down to the following: do I want to excel at one sport or be good at many sports? This point in time will be different for every sport based on an athlete’s ideal age for peak performance. For example, a gymnast will need to specialize earlier because their peak performance age is typically earlier while endurance sport athletes tend to peak later.
There was a great stat that came out after the 2019 Super Bowl that polled all of the players in that game that said that approximately 95 per cent of the participants were at least two-sport athletes growing up. What is important to note here is that those athletes all specialized at some point and became great football players but not before reaping the athletic benefits of playing more than one sport for the majority of their developmental years.Vball