When to Specialize?
November 20th, 2008 - by
Many student athletes and families face a difficult choice during the college recruitment process of when, if ever, to specialize in a single sport. The days of Bo Jackson tearing up both the diamond and gridiron appear over. The thinking goes if an athlete could spend all of his or her time focused on improvement in a single sport, thus improving the athletes chances of attaining an athletic scholarship.
Naturally there is a wide range of disagreement. One extreme advocates that each sport compliments the athlete overall. Former Bronco QB Jake Plummer is in this camp, crediting his development to multiple sports.
“I guarantee it helped my career by rounding out my ability: hand-eye coordination, endurance and mental toughness,” Jake says. “My ultimate goal is to get coaches to stop specializing their athletes, telling them they can’t play other sports because it’ll hurt their football. I played all three sports and handball whenever I could. That’s why I made it in the NFL – that rounded me out as an athlete.”
The nations number one defensive tackle prospect Jacobbi McDaniel was once a top baseball prospect, but gave up the sport after last spring to focus solely on football. Still, scouts marvel at his quick hips, and one wonders if baseball helped develop that quickness.
At the extreme far end of the spectrum are athletes like the Martin brothers Zachary and Josh. Their parents decided to have them drop all sports and focus on golf. They were 6 and 8. Today, they are two of the best young golfers in the country.
Their father justifies the decision with a simple, “I just wanted them to be great at something.”
Should athletes specialize in one sport, and if so what is the proper age? What do you think?
