Lens 29: Single Sport or Multi Sport

Back to School also means Back to Sports for our family. There’s anticipation and excitement to get back into the building and see friends, meet new teachers and get after another school year. There’s also a scramble to get into the right sports and the right teams for the year and to get back out onto the courts and grass. And, in a sport obsessed family, that brings the yearly dilemma and question of how many sports can we really support?

I was reading through LinkedIn this morning and came across Luke Bonner’s story, and his evolved point of view of advocating toward multi-sport youth athletes. You can quickly make a case for either single sport focus or a multi-sport path if you look at the paths of today’s star athletes. Whether it’s Tiger or Roger, Steph or Lebron, there’s plenty of evidence to support either single sport-ism or a buffet approach.

David Epstein is one of the best journalists around. His book Range makes a compelling case for generalists in the modern business and sports worlds. “The likes of Federer play a variety of sports whether formally or informally, with lots of unstructured play; they learn these broader skills that scaffold later technical skills; they learn about their interests, they learn about their abilities, and they systematically delay specializing until later than their peers.”

I was also speaking to a coach earlier this morning and speaking of the increased ACL injuries among young female athletes and the recent research that advocated for multi-sport participation as a good risk mitigation strategy.

I’m with Luke and David. In our house we’ve always had a two sport rule. Pick a team sport, and pick and individual sport. That’s evolved into a mix of football (soccer), basketball, rugby, tennis, field hockey and golf. And, some busy weekends.

It’s the same at SportsVisio. Our work in basketball is giving us an incredible head-start as we apply our computer vision tech to Volleyball and quickly adding 3×3 Basketball over this summer. The current water cooler debate is evolving around whats next….

Player Spotlights

SportsVisio athletes are reaching audiences around the globe, connecting in ways they never imagined possible. Hit us with an Insta DM if you have a player we need to spotlight.

Sneak Of The Week

There’s nothing better than clean, new, white sneaks. These new releases from Way of Wade blend great design with a clean look, with a reasonable price tag of $119. And, who wouldn’t benefit from a BOOM midsole and ULTRA LIGHT FOAM in the heel.

DLO 1 Lunar Rock.

What we’re reading this week

If you follow the business of youth sports, the guys at Buying Sandlot have quickly become a must read.

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