Why Kids Should Play More Than 1 Sport
Great guest post from our youth coach lead Jacob McLaughlin…. On why kids should play multiple sports.
Basketball, Baseball, Football, Soccer, Tennis, Golf…. The list goes on and on
In the day and age, we live in there’s so many kids playing only one of these sports. Sometimes it’s because the kid only loves that sport, but many times I see parents love a certain sport and they see their kid is decent at it so they just push them to only play that one sport…
Will the child get better at this sport??? Most likely yes, if they are doing it more often than not, but there is a problem with only playing one sport and not playing others.
First off, if your child only plays one sport they only do that sports movements (running forward, cutting to the side, etc..) which means they are missing out on other movements…
For example, if your child plays soccer they will be decent at running forward and cutting most likely, but if they also played tennis they would learn how to move laterally, which they wouldn’t experience from just playing soccer…
Why is this important??
The Number 1 Reason:
- Overuse INJURIES
We are now seeing injuries in children that we’ve never seen before. We are seeing kids under the age of 14 tearing their ACL, which is absolutely mind blowing!
This is linked to the specialization in sports in the more recent years…. Kids do the same movement over and over and over and the muscles aren’t strong enough or improper form and over time this leads to stress on the ligament until one day it can’t take any more!
Conclusion
The reason it’s great for kids to play more than 1 sport is because:
- Learn new movement patterns’
- Less chance of overuse INJURIES
- Less chance of Burn out of the Sport
So until next time eat well, train hard & be nice to people.
Jeremy Scott Fitness ~ Scottsdale Personal Trainer
Scottsdale Youth Fitness ~ Phoenix Youth Fitness ~ Scottsdale Kids Fitness