Why It’s Best to Be a Multi-Sport Athlete

Dr. Jennifer Gourdin

The adage says "practice makes perfect," but too much practice in one sport may harm your athletic performance and your health. As a sports medicine physician, I am seeing more and more young athletes training year-round in just one sport, otherwise known as early sports specialization. But the true recipe for athletic success is playing a variety of sports.

Benefits of Playing Multiple Sports

Playing multiple sports helps young athletes optimize performance, minimize injury, and prevent psychological stress and burnout.

Prevent Overuse Injuries

Young athletes’ bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments are still growing, making them more susceptible to overuse injuries. The risk of injury is even greater when children and teens specialize in only one sport because they are consistently putting stress on the same muscle groups.

By playing multiple sports, athletes can strengthen underused muscles while giving overused muscles a break. For example, when a swimmer plays pickup soccer on the weekend, she can rest her overused shoulder muscles and strengthen her quadriceps and glutes.

Improve Agility and Coordination

Playing multiple sports helps athletes improve their coordination, speed, motor skills, agility and overall athleticism by exposing them to different movements. Learning how to pivot and change directions quickly is essential in soccer, but it’s an important skill for baseball, too! Athletes can refine and transfer a variety of motor skills to different sports.

Improve Mental Health

Going to practice for the same sport every day can be grueling and lead to burnout. I often hear athletes who specialize in one sport say, “I’m sick of going to practice,” or “I don’t care about playing anymore.”

By adding variety, athletes can look forward to playing a new sport during the week. They will interact with athletes from another team, challenge other parts of their brain and body, and can feel renewed excitement for physical activity.

Examples from Elite Athletes

Young athletes can play multiple sports and still be successful in their favorite sport. In fact, many elite athletes played multiple sports growing up. Basketball star Michael Jordan played baseball and football in high school before playing basketball professionally. Soccer star Abby Wambach was a high school basketball standout before leading the U.S. women’s soccer team to gold in the Olympics.

Each athlete is different. What is too much for one young athlete may be just right for another. Listen to your body. Take steps to care for your body and mind so you can enjoy your favorite sports for all the years to come.

Kaiser Permanente Partners with The St. James to Support Healthy Athletes

Kaiser Permanente is honored to partner with The St. James, which offers diverse programs for youth sports, catering to beginners and advanced athletes alike to foster inclusivity and participation. Through this partnership, Kaiser Permanente supports The St. James youth sports events, teams and other activities that promote sports and wellness among youth in the region. The collaboration aims to cultivate a thriving environment for young athletes to excel, not only in sports but also in their overall mental, emotional and physical well-being.

Learn more about sports medicine at Kaiser Permanente here.

Dr. Jennifer Gourdin is a sports medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente in Maryland.