Early Youth Specialization In Sports Is Not Recommended For Higher Levels Performance

How do we become more physically literate?  In this episode, Andrew highlights how early youths benefit from trying multiple sports and activities, as opposed to specializing in one sport at an early age.  This episode is especially great for helping parents, coaches, and trainers to understand the importance of training early youths through a multifaceted approach.  Early single-sport specialization is not necessary for performance.  There’s a common myth that kids who train as frequently as possible, beginning at an early age, get a head start and gain a better chance at becoming professionals.  We’re taking a deeper look at how this philosophy is counterintuitive and poses a greater risk for overuse injuries.  In Andrew’s approach to optimizing human performance, he brings up some studies that have shown the benefits of playing a wide range of sports at least until the age of 14.  This style of training can help an individual with basic body mechanics, balance, and neuromuscular control.  Here in this podcast, you can gain a better understanding as to how we can shape our youths to become more well-rounded physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

Buckley, P. S., Ciccotti, M. C., Bishop, M., Kane, P., Selverian, S., Exume, D., … Ciccotti, M. G. (2020). Youth Single-Sport Specialization in Professional Baseball Players. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 8(3), 232596712090787. https://doi.org/10.1177/2325967120907875 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2325967120907875

Post, E. G., Thein-Nissenbaum, J. M., Stiffler, M. R., Brooks, M. A., Bell, D. R., Sanfilippo, J. L., … Mcguine, T. A. (2016). High School Sport Specialization Patterns of Current Division I Athletes. Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach, 9(2), 148–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941738116675455

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5349389/pdf/10.1177_1941738116675455.pdf

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