The Wrong Way to Play Multiple Sports

Almost everyone knows what Early Sports Specialization is nowadays, even my grandma. They know it is good to play more than one sport when you are young to develop your overall athletic abilities and find what you are really good at. This is a topic that will be debated for a long time as everyone can name a pro athlete that played multiple sports growing up, but just as easily name a player that only played one.

With such a high awareness of specializing in sports, there has been a shift in coaches and parents recommending their kids play more than one sport as they develop athletically. Now, this is not another article on the benefits of playing more than one sport. I can’t revive that horse; it’s still dead from its last beating. What I do want to bring to light is a new “phenomenon” that seems to be taking place in youth sports.

70% of kids drop out of youth sports by the time they are 13 years old. That is a scary stat and one that I want to desperately improve. While we as coaches and parents are doing what we can to help kids choose the best sport for them, allow them to play multiple sports, and make the environment fun; has anyone else heard the phrase “more is not better?” Too much fun? Is that even a thing?! Yes, it is. Especially when it comes to sports.

The phenomenon that seems to be occurring is a backlash at early specialization, but a Frankenstein version. Instead of coaches and parents forcing kids to play one sport (which we can debate, but for the purpose of this article, that is bad), these same kids are now being pushed to play multiple sports (which for the sake of this article is good). However, the Frankenstein monster appears when we realize that instead of making our kids play one sport year-round, they are playing multiple sports year-round, causing overuse, burnout and potentially higher injury rates. Now, I don’t have any stats to back this up, but what I have been seeing is that instead of kids playing baseball in the summer, football in the fall, and hockey in the winter, they are playing baseball, football, and hockey 365 days a year. What we have done is allowed our kids to explore more sports – great! But in that process we have actually overloaded them 2-3 times more than if we just let them stick to their one sport, which can lead to much greater fatigue, injury risk, and yes, burnout from “too much fun” (fun simply implying that all sports environments are fun, even though we all know they may not be).

The phenomenon that seems to be occurring is a backlash at early specialization, but a Frankenstein version. Instead of coaches and parents forcing kids to play one sport (which we can debate, but for the purpose of this article, that is bad), these same kids are now being pushed to play multiple sports (which for the sake of this article is good). However, the Frankenstein monster appears when we realize that instead of making our kids play one sport year-round, they are playing multiple sports year-round, causing overuse, burnout and potentially higher injury rates. Now, I don’t have any stats to back this up, but what I have been seeing is that instead of kids playing baseball in the summer, football in the fall, and hockey in the winter, they are playing baseball, football, and hockey 365 days a year. What we have done is allowed our kids to explore more sports – great! But in that process we have actually overloaded them 2-3 times more than if we just let them stick to their one sport, which can lead to much greater fatigue, injury risk, and yes, burnout from “too much fun” (fun simply implying that all sports environments are fun, even though we all know they may not be).

Is this better? Is it worse? Time will have to tell, but from a physical performance and load management perspective, I would argue that it is much worse. We are taking away the rest from the equation in our kids’ development. Yes, kids love sports. Yes, sports are good and teach life lessons and provide an outlet for kids to express themselves. But once again, too much of a good thing is not necessarily better. Having your son or daughter go from baseball practice one night, to hockey the next, and then basketball afterwards is not “giving their arms a break from throwing”. The body doesn’t differentiate between different types of stress. All it senses is stress. And too much of it leads to decreases in performance, moods, and an increase in injury risk. Is that what we really want for our kids?

Those of you working more than one job, you know this is true. You just finished a 6-hour shift at the office, and then you rush over to train clients or work another job for 3-4 more hours. Yet, when you get to your second job, you are already fried. Why? You weren’t doing that job all day, you were doing a different one. You should be fresh, right? Now you see what our kids are going through. Playing more than one sport over a year is good, great even. Playing too many sports constantly with no break can lead in the opposite direction that you want it to. If I told you that your reward for banking holidays through work was that you had to use them by working at another job, you wouldn’t be so thrilled, would you? Exactly.

So please, let’s keep the conversation about our kids’ development going. It is headed in the right direction. However, we can’t disregard basic physiological principles when doing so. Sports are good. More than one sport is great. Too many sports at once constantly are bad. Put some rest into the equation and let’s watch our kids’ development and enjoyment soar!

Changing the Game Project (2016) Why kids quit sports. Available at: https://changingthegameproject.com/why-kids-quit-sports/ (Accessed: December 1st, 2025)