If it seems like every sport season your child does overlaps with another, new sport season, you are not alone. Unlike generations ago, most sport seasons today don’t seem to ever end, with most youth sports offering competitive play year-round. Practically speaking, this means your child can play his or her favorite sport any time of the year — even if it means playing indoors. On the surface, it might seem great that there are now these endless opportunities, but problems arise when one sport your child does directly interferes with a second sport (or third!). How can kids commit to multiple sports that interfere directly with each other? Is there a special secret method that allows them to fully live up to each team’s expectations and requirements? Or should parents instead take pause, step back and revisit the commitment expected from each team, and make choices that will allow their child to be a responsible member of a single team?
The cost of sports over-scheduling
As the interest in youth sports increases, so have the opportunities for kids to compete. It might seem funny to kids today to learn that in their parents era, a sport only lasted one sport season, and year-round opportunities for a sport was unthinkable. But like most things, as more sport opportunities emerged to meet the demand, more natural time conflicts occurred, creating new problems not yet experienced. How does your son both swim at a high level, and play baseball? Or how does your daughter play softball, volleyball, and lacrosse all at the same time?
When kids compete in multiple sports concurrently, many of the following things occur:
- Physical demands. Simply put, kids who double their sport participation, also double the odds for injury. Kids who play multiple sports at the same time also run the risk of not getting enough rest, enough time to recover from injury, or even enough time to eat a nutritious diet.
- Mental health and sport burnout. When kids are constantly stressed to actively participate in multiple sports, it can become overwhelming for their mental health. Additionally, when kids play sports without a break, sport burnout can occur and steal the fun from an otherwise exciting life endeavor.
- Coach issues with playing time. Every kid wants to play, but is it fair to start a kid who only comes to some of the practices? Kids involved in multiple sports rarely attend all practices from both teams, as time conflict decisions are often a daily occurrence. Should partially-committed kids start and play in front of other kids who are fully-committed?
- Team cohesion issues. Similar to the last point, when kids only attend some of the practices and games because of other sport conflicts, the team pays a price by means of confusion around playing time, adherence to team rules and expectations, and even stated consequences around missed practices.
- Travel conflicts. What do you do when one team is going to one city, and your child’s other team is heading in an entirely different direction?
- Missed opportunities. The bottom line is by competing in two (or more) sports at the same time, there will be missed opportunities with the team your child didn’t play with today..
So, what’s your next move? Continue to over-book with multiple sports and deal with the issues above, or instead sit down and take a closer look at the best decisions for your child? Will you value a reasonable sport schedule that includes breaks, or choose to do as many sports as possible — regardless of the cost?
Final thoughts
Your child can play multiple sports at the same time, and play them year-round, but is this a good thing? Like most things in life, more isn’t always better, and this might be a perfect example of the value of moderation when it comes to your child’s physical and mental health. Sport participation can be one of the greatest things your child ever does in life, but if he or she quits prematurely simply because sports became overwhelming, is that a good thing? Instead, step back, slow down, and have ongoing conversations as a family to determine the best choices for your kids.
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