The University of Kentucky Office of Public Relations and Strategic Communications provides a weekly health column that may be used and reprinted by news media. This week’s column is written by Ben Wilson, MD, pediatric orthopedic surgeon at UK HealthCare.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (October 2, 2023) –“Sports specialization” is a topic that has come to the fore in recent years, referring to athletes who play a particular sport, particularly throughout the year. This is to the exclusion of other activities they would otherwise do, which can have negative effects on the athlete.
How does sport specialization affect young athletes?
Sports specialization can affect children in several ways. Personally, I see the physical manifestations. The reason this has come to the forefront in recent years is because we have started to see an alarming number of injuries among our young athletes, not just the typical ankle sprains and fractures that we are used to seeing.
What we’ve seen is an increase in the number of adult-type injuries occurring at younger and younger ages, so consider “Tommy John” surgeries, more formally known as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction . These elbow surgeries were once performed only in the major leagues. Now we see high school and even college aged pitchers undergoing operations like Tommy John surgeries. The same thing happens with torn ACLs or dislocated patellas, cartilage injuries, etc.
But the mental or psychological aspects of sports specialization are almost more important. We are seeing an alarming number of children becoming burned out by the activity they choose. And instead of turning to another sport, they abandon sports altogether, which we certainly don’t want to continue.
How can young athletes fall into the trap of sports specialization?
What happens is kids start playing sports when they’re younger because they’re interested in it, and then it becomes a situation where they feel the need to continue signing up for leagues because everyone does it or the coaches encourage them. This really brings us back to the concept that it takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill or activity. The fallacy is that in youth sports, more time playing the sport will equate to perfection or excellence, and that is not always the case.
What we often find is that athletes go all year round, non-stop. When I was little, we played baseball in the spring and summer, soccer in the fall, and basketball in the winter. Now, take baseball for example: we have spring leagues, summer travel leagues, fall ball, winter workouts, exhibitions, and travel. It becomes a vicious cycle in which children feel that if they stop, they will go backwards and not be as competent as their peers or fall behind.
How can parents determine if their children are at risk for overuse injuries related to sports specialization?
I like to tell my patients that a young athlete should not participate in a single activity for more hours per week than their age in years. So the average 12-year-old should not be playing three hours a day, seven days a week. This would cause them to exceed this limit. But he recognizes the fact that as they get older and mature, they can tolerate more and more.
But our younger athletes should actually be playing one or two nights a week, and then as they grow and develop a little more, they can get more involved. Likewise, when we talk about sports specialization, they should not practice the same sport for more than eight months a year.
Certainly a sport like football that has a regular season in the spring and fall. They can train in the summer, but they should really consider doing another activity during the winter to give their body a break.
Another quick way to combat burnout and overuse injuries is to try playing multiple sports in the same season. I see a lot of kids playing soccer and volleyball at the same time. And yes, they play multiple sports, but they do it at the same time, and it’s almost as bad for their young bodies.
