Early sports specialization is the phenomenon of a child or teenaged athlete intensively pursuing a single sport or athletic activity year-round, instead of participating in a wide variety of activities. Premature emphasis on a single sport is associated with physical injuries, mental health problems, and psychosocial harm to young athletes.[1] Many young athletes who are pushed to excel in a single sport quit playing prematurely, or are forced to stop because of injuries.[2][3]
Early sports specialization and the intensive training that accompanies it is associated with sports injuries, especially overuse injuries,[1][2] and a higher rate of serious or career-ending injury among teenagers and young adults compared to multi-sport athletes.[4] In addition to overtraining, early sports specialization risks burnout and a refusal to continue playing.[2][3] Multi-sport youth athletes also have more fun playing sports, and once the young athlete becomes a teenager, are more likely to enjoy their sports activities and are less likely to quit than those who specialized early.[2][5][6]
Early sports specialization is often motivated by a mistaken belief that starting early will result in better performance as a young adult.[7][8] However, most successful elite athletes did not specialize until at least the middle of adolescence, and some remain multi-sport athletes.[9]Long-term athlete development programs encourage young athletes to develop the ABCs of physical literacy (agility, balance, coordination, and speed) by playing a variety of different sports.[6] Playing a variety of sports before specializing (if wanted) in the late teens increases the likelihood that the youth athlete will experience a lifetime of sports and physical fitness.[6] Early sports specialization is associated with shorter athletic careers.[6] Early sports specialization is part of the increasing dominance of adults in children's leisure activities.[6]