“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
It’s a question we’ve all heard at least once in our lives, usually when we are young children. Typical children’s answers that come to mind are an astronaut or a veterinarian. However, according to a study taken in 2015, the most common answer among children ages 1 to 10 is a professional athlete. This is quite a daunting aspiration, considering that less than two percent of athletes talented enough to make it to the college level, a feat hard enough in itself, continue to play on in the pros. The only exception is for baseball players, who have a higher chance of playing professionally from college, although they only have a 0.6 percent chance of making it to the college level in the first place. With such slim odds of achieving this dream, children are forced to dedicate more and more of their lives to one sport in an effort to make that dream into reality. This dedication comes with a price.
Nowadays, children start to play competitive, organized sports at the shockingly young age of six. This means that not only are their brains and bodies rapidly developing, they are being subjected to intense physical training as well. Generally, involvement in sports is a good thing for these children. It can strengthen them physically by the workouts involved, and mentally by the values learned, such as teamwork and discipline. The issue with youth sports arises when youngsters are pushed into specializing in only one sport.
Parents of children who specialize often understand how small the chance is of their child playing professionally. Instead of making sure their child is exposed to several different activities and pursuits in addition to sports, they decide that they must channel all their child’s time and energy into one single sport in an effort to guarantee that they will excel in it. They often fall into the belief that their child needs 10,000 hours of practice in a single sport before they can "make it" on a college or professional team.
The problem with sport specialization at a young age is that it significantly increases the child’s risk of injury. Children who specialize in one sport account for 50 percent of all youth overuse injuries. These types of injuries occur because these young athletes are using the same muscle groups every day, over and over again. In comparison to their multiple-sports-playing counterparts, they are 70 to 93 percent more likely to get any type of injury.
Youth sports-related injuries have gotten so bad that they are even starting to be nicknamed after the sport organization that causes them. For example, Little League Elbow is a term used to describe an overuse injury to the growth plate on the inside of the elbow. This damage is the result of children repeatedly using their elbow to throw in baseball. It is important to note that this injury is specific to children because it targets the growth plate while it is still growing and has not set yet, therefore it is weak and easy to damage. If these children had been spending their time in different sports and activities in addition to baseball, it is likely that they would not have overused their elbow to the point of damaging their growth plate.
There are a slew of other youth injuries to growth plates on account of sports, such as Salter-Harris fractures, Sever’s disease and Osgood-Schlatter disease, to name a few. The bad news is that these diseases are growing more and more common. ACL injuries in youths are rising every year and, a few years down the road, often subject the child to repeat surgery. There are even injuries developing that we don’t know yet how to diagnose. In a study that came out just a few weeks ago, research showed changes in the brains of children who played football but who were never diagnosed as having suffered a concussion. This study shows that these young, developing brains are bearing the consequences of being subjected to such high-intensity training and playing even without suffering a concussion.
As a nation, we need to realize the gravity of this growing fad of child specialization and help put an end to it. Contrary to common belief, children who single-specialize in a sport are actually less likely to go on to compete at a college or professional level. Let’s make this message heard. Injuries to growth plates and developing brains will last a lifetime. We need to stop putting children’s health and futures on the line for a few hours of competitive sport games each week. Encouraging children to follow the sport they love is one thing — pushing them into a cycle of physical damage and overuse is another.
As a current or future American parent, it’s time to get your priorities straight.