The first time I ever heard that was from Randy Sullivan when I took my son down to The Armory (now the Florida Baseball Ranch). Randy’s meaning was that you can’t have the same approach to improving velocity with all pitchers and that there needs to be hyper individualization in order to maximize benefit. I learned a lot from Randy and it completely changed the way I think about coaching athletes.
Today, however, there seems to be a trend for people to make proclamations that playing one sport or playing travel ball is terrible, is a scam, or is ruining the game. My answer to that, One Size Fits No One. In today’s egocentric world we seem to feel the need to push our own personal beliefs on to others and tell others that they are wrong for whatever it is that they are doing. Where and when did we lose the ability to have empathy, understanding, or even individuality. Your way is not the only way nor does one size fit all.
Now let me just get out in the clear right away that I am a proponent of multi-sport athletes. My daughter competed in 5 sports (ski, swim, softball, basketball and tennis) until she was 14. That year she verbally committed to play softball in college and decided to ‘only’ play 3 sports and has done so, to date, throughout her high school career. My son also competed in 5 sports until age 13 (same as above) and narrowed it down to just 2 in his high school career. My wife was All State in 3-sports in high school before playing college softball. Me, well I am the odd ball in the family only playing baseball and basically only baseball my whole life. The only other sport I played was basketball but only recreationally and never for a competitive team or in high school.
It is with this background that I would like to offer some understanding as to why certain kids, parents, families opt to play only one sport.
Let’s first address the love of the game. Some kids have such a deep rooted loved for a game that they just don’t want to play another. There is an athlete on my son’s current travel ball team that embodies this. He is the true meaning of eating, sleeping and breathing baseball and doesn’t want to do anything else. This is not something his parents are pushing on him. I am confident this comes from within. Although I wasn’t a travel ball kid, I did play baseball as much as I possibly could growing up. I had a mound in my back yard and threw frequently, I had a tire on my patio and hit that just as much. My dad bought $1K worth of tokens (1,000 tokens) each year from Grand Slam USA and when he did that would receive another 1,000 tokens for free. Therefore, I know firsthand that I was in these cages swinging at least 34,000 times a year. (17 pitchers per token) I just didn’t want to do anything else. Individuality!
Another aspect of one sport athletes is the cost of playing sports these days. It’s expensive! Additionally, if you live in a cold weather state and travel outside of the state, the cost skyrockets even further. Now add to that a brother that plays competitive sports, a sister or yet another sibling. I struggle to understand how parents can afford each of their children playing just one sport each let alone multiple. Ever think that the only reason they play one sport is because that’s all their parents can afford? Empathy!
Separate from cost but perhaps just as impactful is when parents with multiple children must get them to practices, to games, to tourneys in and out of the state. My wife and I are fortunate to have flexible summer schedules to juggle our two to these events. Consider single parenting, parents with full time jobs in these summer months and or parents that must travel for work and you might too consider some empathy for this single sport athlete. Understanding!
In all the discussions about athletics, I rarely hear about the impact of academics in this conversation. The single most impactful benefit to an athlete playing a sport in college is their academic scores. Rare is the athlete to have the physical ability and mental acumen to juggle the rigors of being a multisport athlete and achieving high academic standards in a high academic high school with high academic classes. I again ask for some empathy for the students that needs to spend more time reading, more time taking notes and more time studying to achieve great grades and test scores. Let’s rejoice and embrace the athlete that makes the conscious decision to play one less sport or only one sport to insure high academic standards. Understanding and Empathy!
One thing that I hear a lot is that kids just don’t ‘play’ as much as they used to. Yeah, I get it. I am certain that the reason I was as successful as I was is because I had neighborhood friends that all decided to meet up at the Hanover Park baseball fields and just simply play. Looking back, I’m not sure how we did it. The “Gross brothers’ were most certainly natural leaders and organized this all and we just showed up. Literally just like in the movie the Sandlot. Now I do agree that is definitely missing from today’s society but that is a topic for a different day. The reality is that this is mostly gone in neighborhoods across the country and we should not fault kids who are passionate about their sport to want to play more regardless if its in the sandlot or in organized play. I would argue they aren’t playing more but just playing more organized games.
I again stress that I am a proponent of kids playing as many sports as they can at a very young age. It is during this time that kids get to make their own decisions on which path they want to take. If cost, time or academics is a deciding factor in narrowing their sports down help them make this decision unemotionally. I vividly remember having this discussion with my kids. I didn’t answer the question for them I only helped ask the questions. Inevitably it was this one question that helped them make the decision(s). Which sport do you love to practice? Because it is this sport that you will inevitably play the longest and be the best at. You can’t get better unless you love to practice.
One size fits no one. Play as many sports as you can or as little as you want. Help your kids make the decision that is in their best interest and not in yours or anyone else’s. More than anything, don’t allow others to push their personal agendas on to you.
Tony Gilio 