When to specialize?
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Anonymous
| My 13-year-old still plays 4 sports at varying commitment levels, but one sport gets priority. He's starting to get passed up in his main sport. Most governing bodies for different sports encourage late specialization, but the kids who focus on one sport are better in that sport. At some point, sports get so technical and competitive; aren't helping sports less relevant? All the kids on high-level teams are good athletes. I don't think the general focus on athleticism is as important now. He inevitably misses practices in his main sport to make a game in a secondary sport because he doesn't want to let down his teammates and coaches, but that comes at a cost. He chooses to play everything - he loves the competition and friendships; however, he's also torn by all the conflicts, and he knows he's falling behind in the sport he loves the most. |
Anonymous
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Now. Or a year ago for many.
Unfortunately that is the way it works. I’d try to narrow it down to 2 sports, depending what they are. What is his main sport? |
Anonymous
| What's his goal? Enjoy playing multiple sports or make a high school/elite team in one specific sport? |
Anonymous
| Need to know sport why is this so vague |
Anonymous
+1 I’m surprised his stop sport that he was skipping practice in didn’t reduce his playing time. Our U13 soccer team is extremely strict on attendance, communicate expectations and follow through with repercussions. |
Anonymous
The sport had a five-strike rule last season: If you miss more than five practices for any reason other than injury/illness, you sit out a period or more. He missed exactly five last season. He played less than I thought he should have. I think he's one of a handful of kids on the team playing other sports and the only one trying to play four. His goals are lofty because he's young. He's already on a high-level travel team and will make the high school team even if he doesn't progress beyond where he is now. He's gone from a top 3 player on the team to a bottom 3 player in one season. Some of that is that he hasn't reached his growth spurt yet. We'd love to see him be able to continue through college at the D3 level or play it as a club sport because it's such a big part of his identity. There are real benefits to playing other sports, mostly for his mental health and friendships. |
Anonymous
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Never, what's your end goal? to please an ego driven wanna be big time coach who never could reach their goals?
The best of the best all say the same thing, play multiple sports, if they are good enough the coaches know it and allow it, if they are average, the coaches jump up and down and say you are not going to get better. Multi sport athletes are healthier as well. |
Anonymous
| Not necessarily pushing spécialisation if he doesn’t want to, but how about just doing 3 sports? Ideally one per season with minimal overlap. |
Anonymous
The issue is that OP’s son may well get shut out of his favorite sport unless he devotes more of his time to it. |
Anonymous
| I don’t think anyone but your son can answer your question. Lay out pluses and minuses and he decides. |
Anonymous
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In high school, he either makes the team or he doesn't. None of this will matter.
If he doesn't make the team in one sport, he tries out for something else. |
Anonymous
Thanks. The issue is the optimism of youth. When we had this discussion last year, he listened and believed he could do everything without further repercussions. |
Anonymous
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Never. College if they go that far.
Look up Brent Metcalf on Instagram. He was a two-time NCAA wrestling champion at the University of Iowa. He did a great series of posts on his account about all the different sports he played from youth all the way up to college. He never specialized in wrestling, even in high school. He played football in the fall, wrestling in the winter, and track in the spring. |
Anonymous
| His point was kids should try/play whatever is fun. He did gymnastics, skateboarding, bmx racing, soccer, etc. |
Anonymous
| This is so sport dependent |