It’s becoming more rare…that young athletes play multiple sports…any strength coach worth their salt knows the importance of long-term athlete development and the difference between early specialization and late specialisation sports…with the advent of junior academies shuttling athletes into year performance round programs, the athletes long term development is hindered.
The analogy I use is that very few if any of the professional elite athletes I have coached played the 1 sport year round. Dayne Beams played Cricket, Little Athletics, Kurt Tippett played Soccer, basketball and swam. Nick Reiwoldt, did athletics and cricket, Sam Gilbert played touch footy and rugby league.
So why play multiple sports? Prevent player burn out, prevent over-use injuries and boredom,. By playing multiple sports you will develop other athletic qualities e.g. footballers playing basketball pick up clean hand skills, agility and vision from playing basketball.
It’s why our off-season strongman camps-have athletes play multiple sports. One USP Athlete that plays multiple sports is Jack Brinsmead as a 14 year old he competed at the national titles for swimming in multiple events, competed for the QLD Rugby Union Team and played for the QLD Basketball team. He is a stunning example of what is possible for the multisport athlete when workload is managed appropriately! Well done Jacko!!
All the best,
Joey Hayes
