Desire to play college ball

[Bouldersdad]

Guess I screwed up, need to tell the dd who is a senior in college that we did it all wrong. She was a single sport athlete all her life, with the exception of one spring she threw shot for the track and field team. But even then she never missed a softball practice or game.

She took off from any organized practices between Thanksgiving weekend and new years and that was pretty much her time off, what is that 5 weeks or there about?. After that she was softball Jan all the way to the Next thanksgiving.

Work ethic, burnout, and love of the game are individual things. Seems to me when my dd was 12u on they played more games, had less rules, hotter bats and less injuries. And not alot were multi sport then. I think the desire for multi sport is more from adults than what the kids want. Its the coaches in their school program that do not want to lose out on a good athlete. Suzy is a great softball player but she kicks butt in volleyball and basketball also. Besides its great off season conditioning right?....

I have lost really good softball players to hard wood sport injuries. Basketball especially. one of the best center fielders I have ever seen blew out her knee in her senior season. She lettered 12 times in varsity sports. Softball, basketball and volleyball. It not only cost her a Scholarship for softball, but at 21, both knees are gone.

To the original poster do what makes you your dd and family happy and your dd successful. Use common sense on down time. And enjoy the ride. It goes by way to fast

 

[TorontoCFE]

If you are I terested in the benefits of being a multi sport athlete, changingthegameproject.com cites
Some studies.

Mainly it is the better balanced Godoy, the greater overall coordination and better ability to recognize patterns.

Even cites an AMA study that showed 88% of college athletes played more than one sport.

 

[dbronstein]

Another good site is StopSportsInjuries.org. One of the founders is Dr. James Andrews, who knows a thing or two about the issue. Here's their softball recommendations, which are primarily focused on pitchers - Softball Injuries | Softball Injury Prevention & Treatment I'm sure some people here will disagree with a lot of the recommendations

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Even cites an AMA study that showed 88% of college athletes played more than one sport.

Sorry - this is another chicken or the egg debate.

I bet I could write a paper that concluded 88% of college athletes were the best athletes in high school and 100% of those "best athletes" were expected (or coerced) to join multiple sports.....

This argument is like kissing yer sister as the saying goes....

 

[TorontoCFE]

The power of the 88% is that it shows that you can be successful as a one sport athlete but most don't get there that way.

If people here follow the Hanson Principle for hitting and pitching, why not for overall approach to sport?

read Ethan Skolnick and Dr. Andrea Corn’s Raising Your Game: Over 100 Accomplished Athletes Help You Guide Your Girls and Boys Through Sports, which interviews over current and former professional athletes, from Lebron James to Steve Nash to Brett Hull. The common link: they all played multiple sports. I high recommend this book if you are on the fence on this subject, as it will give you a lot of reassurance that multi-sport participation and elite performance are not mutually exclusive"

 

[dbronstein]

it will give you a lot of reassurance that multi-sport participation and elite performance are not mutually exclusive"

Exactly. You don't need to play softball or any other sport year-round to become elite and get a scholarship. We can debate the cause/effect all day. The key point is that you don't need to specialize at age 10 or even in high school if you want to get a scholarship. You are not hurting your chances if you take three months off of softball to play basketball over the winter.

 

[TorontoCFE]

And, directly related to the overuse question:

"Overuse Injury: In a study of 1200 youth athletes, Dr Neeru Jayanthi of Loyola University found that early specialization in a single sport is one of the strongest predictors of injury. Athletes in the study who specialized were 70% to 93% more likely to be injured than children who played multiple sports!"

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

Who died and determined the best thing for a kid is to aimlessly wander? Yes this is a dramatic portayal but isn't that what it turns out to be?

Ridiculous. Kids NEED unstructured play time. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics:

*Play is important to healthy development of the brain;
*Undirected play helps children learn how to work collaboratively, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and learn self-advocacy skills;
*When play is child-driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover areas of interest on their own, and ultimately engage fully in the passions they wish to pursue;
*When play is controlled by adults - such as in organized sports - children have to follow to adult rules and concerns (like winning) and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership and group skills.
*Play offers parents a wonderful opportunity to engage fully with their children;
*Play and unscheduled time that allows for peer interactions is an important component of social-emotional learning; and
*Free, child-driven, creative play protects against the effects of pressure and stress

Also worth noting that recent research at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago suggests another benefit of free, unstructured play: that children who spend more time in free, unstructured play suffer significantly fewer overuse injuries. That's a topic I've seen raised more than once here at DFP.

"Aimless wandering" appears to be a good thing.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

And, directly related to the overuse question:

"Overuse Injury: In a study of 1200 youth athletes, Dr Neeru Jayanthi of Loyola University found that early specialization in a single sport is one of the strongest predictors of injury. Athletes in the study who specialized were 70% to 93% more likely to be injured than children who played multiple sports!"

From that same study, which was actually looking at socioeconomic status and overuse injuries:

"...researchers postulate that more unstructured free play may help protect athletes against serious overuse injuries, a hypothesis they hope to confirm with further study."

and

"A good rule of thumb, says Jayanthi, is not to spend more than twice as much time playing organized sports as spent in unstructured play."

 

[riseball]

From that same study, which was actually looking at socioeconomic status and overuse injuries:

"...researchers postulate that more unstructured free play may help protect athletes against serious overuse injuries, a hypothesis they hope to confirm with further study."

and

"A good rule of thumb, says Jayanthi, is not to spend more than twice as much time playing organized sports as spent in unstructured play."

When you are 10 or when you are 18? These studies sound like they are more geared to tee ball at the YMCA than college bound athletes.