It's summertime. That means long hot days, no school— and summer camps. Lots of kids spend at least some of the summer at camps. Some kids spend the whole year playing one sport. And what do they do during the summer? They go to a camp and keep playing that sport. So what's wrong with that?
A study published in the journalSports Healthfound that "for most sports, there is no evidence that intense (集中的) training and playing one sport before 13 or 14 are necessary to achieve elite (精英的)status." How big is the risk of injury if you specialize in one sport? A Loyola University Chicago study of 1, 200 youth athletes found that kids who specialized in one sport were 70 percent to 93 percent more likely to be injured than multi-sport athletes. That's a lot. Kids who specialize in one sport also get burned out. An Ohio State University study found that kids who played a single sport were more likely to quit their sport and be physically inactive as adults.
But don't you have to specialize in one sport when you're a kid to have a chance to play in college or be a professional? No! Sorry, but I have to talk about another study. This one was a survey of college athletes by the American Society of Sports Medicine. The study found that 88 percent of college athletes played more than one sport when they were kids.
Look at this year'sNational Football League(NFL) draft, 26 of the 31 first- round picks, including Jared Goff, the player drafted ahead of all the others, had been multi-sport athletes in high school, according to Tracking Football. It wasn't just the first round: 224 of the 256 draft picks had played more than one sport in high school. More than a third of the drafted players were three-sport athletes.
So if you are a year-round baseball kid, try soccer this summer. It will get you into great shape and help you move your feet in the field. Or if you're a soccer kid, try tennis or rock climbing. Have some fun, and try something new. It's summertime.
