We’ve all heard it by now:
Multi-sport athletes are better off. (To Learn More, Read this article: The Truth About Sports Specialization - before continuing).
Multi-Sport athletes get injured less, burn out less, and develop into more adaptable, resilient players.
I believe in that. Deeply.
My own daughters are proof.
One plays Division I soccer.
One is committed to a Division I beach volleyball program.
And both of them played a lot of sports growing up.
The played everything:
- ⚽️ Soccer, 🏀 basketball, 🏑 field hockey, 🏐 volleyball (indoor and beach), 🏊 swimming.
- They played in rec leagues, middle school teams, high school programs—and yes, club sports too.
But there’s a big difference between multi-sport and what I call multi-simultaneous sports.
And the second one? It can do more harm than good.
The Myth of “More is Better”
It’s tempting to think more activity = more progress.
That by playing two sports at once, our kids are becoming more well-rounded.
But when that overlap becomes constant—basketball after school, soccer at night, multi-sport weekend tournament we’re not building athleticism.
We’re just stacking physical load.
Multi-sport is a long-term strategy.
Multi-simultaneous is an injury waiting to happen.
Looking back, I absolutely think the variety of sports helped shape my daughters into stronger, smarter athletes. But the seasons where we had them doing two sports at once?
