HOW TO ADDRESS SPORT SPECIALIZATION
Structural Strategies to Avoid Overspecialization and Exclusive Specialization
- Perform strength training (8 to 20 weeks out of the year)
- Incorporate skills training
- Consider active & passive recovery
- Play multiple sports
Long-term athletic development should always trump specialization when it comes to youth sport.
And the benefits of strength training during youth and adolescence have far-reaching health benefits, including:
- Increased bone density.
- Decreased body fat.
- Improved physical performance, which reduces risk of injury when playing sports.
- Improved motor performance skills.
No athlete should be restricted from diversification through high school participation. This recommendation is designed to preserve young athletes’ rights to diversify their sport participation through their high school years. Others have recommended 15 years as the cutoff age for protected diversification (Wiersma, 2000), and we agree that this is a logical age cutoff. However, we see no reason that club coaches or high school team coaches should mandate specialization before college when 98% of high school athletes are not going on to play at the collegiate level. Parents and sport performance coaches should guide young athletes in making important decisions about multiple sport participation versus more specialized approaches. But this should be discussed on an individual-case basis and should ultimately be the athlete’s and parents’ decision. 
DeShawn Fontleroy
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