Dejected young soccer player

As soccer has grown in popularity and the path to a professional career (which was previously a college scholarship) has become more well-trodden, you see an increasing trend of parents pushing their kids to specialize in that sport at earlier and earlier ages. But is this a good or bad thing? And when is it too early to specialize for youth soccer players?

The data – early specialization is bad for most team sport athletes

For most team sport athletes, specializing too early can be detrimental for later development. It can lead to burnout, lack of athletic diversity (i.e. training the same movement patterns too much), and overuse injuries. 

The article linked above goes into more of the benefits, but basically you get a broader development of athletic abilities that can apply to your main sport. For instance, Tim Howard was an all-state basketball player in New York growing up. The amount of jumping, lateral movement, and ball-handling directly translates to the goalkeeper position. 

Many famous athletes from other sports benefitted from an early soccer career. Steve Nash, Dirk Nowiski, and Hakeem Olajuwon all played soccer growing up, as did Andrew Luck and Chad Johnson (Ochocinco, who still plays soccer competitively). 

Eventually most (almost all) top level athletes have to specialize, but what age is considered too early? There’s no consensus across the board, but around the middle school age (11-12) would be considered pretty early to only focus on one sport all the time. 

Certainly basketball, football, baseball, and other American sports benefit from the crossover, as these sports focus on hand-eye coordination (and is probably a reason why we used to develop world class goalkeepers). It’s clear to see how playing different sports could help a young athlete excel in his or her preferred sport. 

Is soccer different? Why or why not?

As opposed to other popular American sports, soccer has a unique skill set that others don’t require – foot-eye coordination (technical skills with your feet). 

Having been a soccer coach in some competitive club environments, you see the push for specialization starting as early as 8 years old (training 3x per week, position-specific training, 2 days of games on the weekends, etc…).

And in other countries where they churn out world class players, soccer is overwhelmingly the most popular sport. You’d assume that these kids are not playing many other sports growing up. 

Do soccer players need to specialize early because of these unique skills? Will playing other sports, which mostly focus on using the hands, help or hurt soccer players? Are there other benefits besides pure athleticism or skill acquisition?

What are other countries doing?

While they may have not play many other sports, I think the difference is in the approach with younger players in other countries. They play more unstructured games (pickup), which mitigates the negatives of specializing too early.

In the case of the US, early specialization usually leads to structured training almost every day of the week, in addition to multiple games every weekend. Often these kids will be on 3-4 teams (my nephew is currently on 4 different teams throughout the year), practicing in team training almost every day. 

This is where specialization is different – due to our sporting culture, the talented players in the US are almost forced to specialize early to stay on the top level teams in the most competitive environments. This leaves them no room for other sports or even free play. 

In other countries, they still have room to play pickup games and other sports for fun. It helps that they have a concentrated population of high level players too.

Famous soccer players who excelled at other sports

Although soccer dominates the sporting landscape almost everywhere else in the world (especially where they consistently develop world class players), this article has a list of many who excelled in other sports. 

Some notable names:

Paolo Maldini – Tennis

Gareth Bale – Golf

Christian Vieri – Cricket

Henrik Larsson – Floorball (?)

Rodrigo Palacio – Basketball

Ivan Perisic – Beach Volleyball

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – Rugby

Lev Yashin – Hockey, Track and Field

Taylor Twellman – Baseball (was drafted by the Royals)

Tony Meola – Baseball (was drafted by the Yankees)

Harry Kane famously does boxing workouts as cross training, and Alex Morgan played basketball, softball, and ran track. 

Although soccer requires a special set of technical skills that must be developed from an early age, these athletes show that becoming a more well-rounded athlete can benefit you in the long-run.  

The negatives to specializing too early

Regardless of background, specializing too early has some significant downsides. Even if you only play soccer, playing exclusively in a structured environment from an early age does not give a player an optimal outcome. 

Dejected young soccer player

Burn out

The mental downside probably ranks as the biggest negative impact. Being a professional athlete is a mental grind even for the most mentally robust, and placing those expectations on a child can cause them to fall out of love with the sport.

3+ team practices per week, 2 days of games on the weekend, and years and years of this pattern starting before age 10 will take its mental toll. Ask any elite soccer player in the US, and they have stories of multiple players who were great at age 11 or 12, but ultimately burned out from the game and never even made it to college (or played at a much lower level than their talent would have warranted).

A burning passion from within tends to create the longest and most successful careers. Overtraining a young child can extinguish this flame before it has the chance to flourish. And once you burn out the flame, it’s usually gone forever. If they feel like they have to go to practice, then you kill their inner desire to improve and compete. 

Overuse injuries

Young athletes who have not physically matured run the risk of incurring serious injury from overuse. Specifically if they only stick to one sport – repeating the same movement patterns every day can cause long-term muscular imbalances and structural injury problems. 

Playing multiple sports allows these younger players to use different movement and motor patterns, which can diversify their athletic profile and balance the use of different muscle groups. 

Even if young soccer players don’t play other sports (even recreationally), the ability to allow them time to free play or even play pickup soccer reduces the risk of overuse injuries, as they don’t have to conform to drills at the demand of a coach – they can listen to their bodies and play in a way that isn’t too robotic or repetitive. 

Not reaching athletic potential

I played a lot of basketball growing up, and I know the amount of jumping and lateral movement helped me to develop the athletic qualities that allowed me to play professionally (especially as a shorter goalkeeper). I don’t think I would have developed these skills as well otherwise. 

Sure you can provide athletically focused training, but nothing replaces the intensity of playing a sport to develop different athletic qualities. 

For instance, you can tell Harry Kane benefits from boxing training by the way he absorbs and uses contact to shield off defenders and gain an advantage. Would he have been able to develop this ability if he only played soccer? 

Even if kids are just playing for fun in the neighborhood, there’s no substitute for developing different athletic qualities through competing (in children especially). Landon Donovan played a lot of different sports in the neighborhood growing up, which helped in his athletic development (and he became one of our best ever players, some would say the best…). 

The positives of specialization at the right time

Certainly specialization has its place. As soccer players from all over the world compete for a limited number of professional spots in the top leagues, players are getting better and better. And since soccer is a sport where technical skill makes a huge difference, the ability to develop these skills from an early age will give players the edge. 

David Beckham is a good example. If you watched his documentary, his dad pushed him from an early age to develop his skill set for soccer. Luckily Beckham had the internal appetite to succeed, but it’s not true (or optimal) for everyone else. As I said, all high-level players know plenty of people who burned out from this approach. 

Getting players in competitive environments from a young age is good, and the overseas clubs do a great job of funneling the most talented players into playing against each other from an early age. 

But they also allow room for fun for these kids, even just a couple days a week to play another sport (or soccer) for fun, or just to take time to be a kid. 

Verdict

How early is too early to specialize? Definitely before age 10, and you probably don’t want to push it too much before age 12 (unless the player really wants to do it). They can always use the diverse athletic background to their benefit later, and at age 12 they have plenty of time to develop the skills necessary to succeed

(If you think specializing earlier does make the difference between a non-pro and pro, you’ve never encountered the natural genetic differences that a true pro has to their advantage… no amount of early specialization can create top level talent).

Specialization has its place, but there are significant downsides to specializing in soccer too early. For you parents out there, be careful not to push it too much too soon.

It’s good to have the room to play other sports for fun or even competitively, and the many examples in this article show that a balanced approach can develop top-level soccer players. 

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