Viewpoint: Specialization sells athletes short

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By Eric Page | Sunday, July 06, 2008 |

High school athletes are missing out on opportunities.

Leagues, club sports, traveling teams and weight training programs have hijacked their lives and forced them to keep year-round schedules that ultimately interfere with their ability to participate in multiple extracurricular activities.

And state associations have made it even worse in recent years by opening up the summer, approving offseason contact days on which high school coaches can conduct practice.

The calendar has been so saturated with competition, even the best athletes no longer can keep up, and they are forced to make a choice. That choice is known as sports specialization. Simply put: Athletes are giving up one sport or more to concentrate on another.

That stinks.

Kids get one chance to play high school athletics. To rob them of the opportunity to make the most of it is cheating them out of many of the experiences interscholastic athletics were intended to provide.

Memo to parents: You are not in the business of raising scholarship athletes. You are, or should be, in the business of raising, healthy, happy, well-balanced children.

Athletics can and should play a part in that.

Education is and always will be the foundation of extracurricular activities. By encouraging students to focus on a single sport rather than a broad spectrum of activities — be it another sport, a school play, concert choir or a part-time job — you’re narrowing the scope of your child’s education.

Some argue it will all be worth it in the end when the specialization pays off and college coaches are offering scholarships. That just isn’t true.

According to the NCAA, only about one percent of high school athletes receive athletic scholarships. And there is no data that suggests the ones getting the scholarships are the ones specializing.

In fact, studies have shown just the opposite. The athletes who do earn college scholarships often are dominant in multiple sports.

You see, playing different sports allows for multilateral development. For instance, playing volleyball helps develop skills and muscle sets used in basketball. Running hurdles helps athletes develop a strong leg drive, which builds explosiveness for other sports. Playing tennis improves an athlete’s ability to move laterally, which is useful in a number of other activities.

Most importantly, playing multiple sports provides athletes with natural rest and recovery — physically and mentally.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says athletes should be discouraged from specialization in a single sport to avoid physical and psychological damage. The risks range from overuse injuries such as stress fractures to delayed menstruation, eating disorders, emotional stress and burnout.

Bottom line: High school athletes should be free to pursue all endeavors.

How is that possible when coaches are demanding year-round participation in exchange for a spot on the varsity roster? In most sports, coaches say, if you aren’t out there competing the other nine months during the year, you’re not going to be able to compete during the season.

That’s a sad truth.

It’s all gotten a little out of hand. Coaches have lost sight of the big picture, and over-involved parents with unrealistic expectations have let it spin out of control.

It’s the athletes, though, who are paying the greatest price.

Eric Page can be contacted at (563) 383-2277 or epage@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.