When it comes to children who specialize in only one sport, the risk of injury is a real concern for sports medicine professionals.
“We know that the risk of injury increases by 30-50% if you specialize in sports particularly early,” said Dr. Nik Verma, director of sports medicine at Midwest Orthopedics at RUSH.
Verma is also the head team doctor for the Chicago White Sox and he said baseball is a prime example.
“We’re starting to see Tommy John procedures that we would normally do on college players, mostly minor league and professional athletes, now on kids as young as 12 or 13, and actually on most of them Tommy Johns are now performed on patients below 18 years compared to patients above 18 years,” said Verma.
Overuse injuries are a concern, but there are also mental health risks.
“Mentally, there can be some contributing factors to burnout and perfectionism,” said Dr. Kathy Weber, director of women’s sports medicine at Midwest Orthopedics at RUSH.
Weber said more research is now focusing on the effects of concentrating on one sport.
“There’s this whole push to think that if you specialize early, you’ll make it to the big leagues. And the reality is that that’s not shown,” Weber said.
“There is no scientific data or data when you look at the progress of athletes over time to suggest that specializing early in a single sport makes them better at that sport later in life,” Verma said.
As participation in travel and club teams booms, Verma said parents need to remember that these teams are part of a business.
“You have to participate to fund this service,” Verma said.
He also said it was important to leave peer pressure out of the decision-making process.
“You see every other kid in your neighborhood playing in all these different leagues. The children are forced to do this. And they really feel like they have to either commit or just not play, and I don’t think that’s the right answer for the 95% of our kids,” Verma said.
“I looked around at professional pitchers and they said they didn’t start pitching until they were in college. “So specialization later, after puberty, seems to be our goal,” said Weber.
After puberty, it can vary depending on the child, but Weber recommends ages 15 to 17.
Both doctors emphasized that sports should be fun for children, a place where they can learn to be good teammates, a lesson they can carry with them throughout their lives.
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