Where did you go, Bo?

Remember Bo Jackson? Easily the greatest multi-sport athlete of my generation, and if not for a career ending hip injury, may have become the greatest of all time. Jackson was running for touchdowns for the Raiders on Sunday and hitting home runs for the Royals on Monday. How about Jim Brown? Best multi-sport athlete of any generation? Brown is always brought up in the "who was the best football player of all time" argument, but he is also one of the top lacrosse players of all time. I only wish I could have been around to see him play. What about Jim Thorpe? In the 1912 Olympics he won gold in the pentathlon and decathlon, and then went on to play professional baseball, football and basketball! These days a multi-sport athlete is a kid who plays 11v11 soccer in the fall and spring, 4v4 tournaments in the Summer, and indoor soccer in the Winter. Every sport has year round access and the pressure from clubs is ridiculous to get the kids to specialize early. I wonder why that is..... Hmmm, let me think about that for a second as I watch this soccer academy director speed away in his Porsche GT3 RSR... 

I know he's 8, but this is the "window". He needs to specialize. That will be $1000 for the season, another $600 for tournaments, and $300 for uniforms. Thanks :)

Youth sport specialization is a major problem today for two reasons. The first is burnout. Studies have shown that by age 14, 70% of youth athletes have stopped playing competitive sports. This can be attributed to bad coaching, bad experiences, high pressure from coaches and parents, and a host of other reasons. Essentially the kid stops having fun and doesn't want to do it anymore. Is it any wonder that Johnny is pretty much sick of soccer by the time he's 13 when he's been through over a thousand organized practices, games and tournaments in soccer starting when he was 4 and that he's actually been playing year round since he was 8? 

The second problem I see, and the one that I think is even more damaging, is that when a kid specializes too early (like before they are in college), they never completely develop as an athlete. Every sport has different neurological and physical demands on the body and causes different adaptations. In order to completely develop as an athlete you have to be exposed to as many different sports and physical challenges as possible. With early sports specialization, you get a one dimensional athlete that is injury prone because the athlete's body has only adapted to the stressors of one particular sport.

If you think I'm being subjective, here's a little objectivity from my experience of coaching athletes for the last 20 years. My best player is always my best athlete and my best player always plays more than one sport. Key word here is "always".. It's not sometimes. Not mostly. ALWAYS. 

Here's more objectivity. When I was in high school, the best player on the football team also starred on the hockey team and played baseball in the Spring. The best player on the basketball team also played football and baseball. The best baseball player was a standout hockey player and also played on the football team. To be perfectly honest I can't remember a single varsity player that didn't play at least one other sport at the varsity level. And back in those days, which was only 25 years ago, nobody even knew what the hell an ACL was. What does that tell you about how multi-sport athletes are better conditioned, stronger, and less injury prone?

Let's look at it from another perspective. One of the best analogies I've ever heard on the topic was this. Your son, Brad, is 8. He gets all "A's" in math. He loves math. He knows his times tables and can even do a little long division and he's only in the second grade! You decide, "That's it. From now on it's only math for Brad! No more English, no more spelling, no more Social Studies. Just math.". 

You're chuckling because it's so ridiculous to even think it. As far as our education goes we don't specialize until we are in Grad school. Half our credits in a college undergrad program are liberal arts. Why? Because learning as much as you can about as many different topics as you can makes you smarter, teaches you to think critically in a number of different capacities, and could possibly qualify you as the most interesting man at the company Christmas party, especially if you were a multi-sport athlete, because you can do a handstand, carry on a conversation about Plato's Republic, and thank the hostess in Flemish.

When we were kids we played football in the Fall, basketball and hockey in the Winter, baseball in the Summer, none of it was organized. We played kill the man with the ball. We played 500 (guarantee you there isn't a single kid today that knows what that is). We rode our bikes EVERYWHERE. We climbed trees and fell out of them and didn't get hurt. We started playing organized baseball only when there were kids who could pitch a ball and we didn't have to hit it off a tee. Tee ball is an abomination and I can't believe there is a 5 year old alive who goes on to continue with baseball after being subjected to Tee Ball. As a 5 year old I would have rather gone to the dentist then to sit through a 2 hr tee ball game swatting mosquitos and playing in the infield sand waiting for everybody on the other team to hit the ball off a stick so that I could get up and have a chance to hit once every 45 minutes. Oh yeah, and the score always ended in a 36-36 tie!

Know what else we did? We lifted weights! But that is for another post....

We were multi sport athletes. We were good at everything. We didn't get injured. And in many cases we continued playing and enjoying competitive sports well into our older years. I still compete and I love it. If your argument is "but there's a window when a kid has to specialize" just remember who you're hearing that from as you're writing them the next $1000 check for the 2012 soccer season.. When it's time to specialize, a college scout will tell you. Until then, play everything, play hard, and have fun doing it.