The One-Sport Myth: What We're Getting Wrong About Youth Athletes
Examining the mental health risks, burnout, and false promises of early sport specialization in youth athletes.
Ask GRM
I've seen this play out more times than I can count.
A 10-year-old shows real promise. The parents get excited. The coach gets excited. And then the calendar fills up. Fall ball, winter clinics, spring travel, summer showcases. One sport, pretty much all year.
Somewhere in there, the kid stops smiling.
For a long time I thought that was just part of chasing a dream. I don't think that anymore.
Earlier this year, Dr. Brandonn Harris wrote a piece for the NFHS's High School Today on sport specialization and mental health. He's a professor of sport and exercise psychology at Georgia Southern and a Certified Mental Performance Consultant. I've gone back to it a few times now, mostly because of the numbers.
About 71 million kids in the U.S. play organized team sports, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. That's the biggest group of athletes at any age. Roughly a third of them quit every year. And up to 70% are out of sports by 13.
By 13.
Some of that is skill. Not every kid is going to play in college, and that's fine. But after years around young athletes, on fields and in dugouts, I have a hard time believing skill explains most of that number.
Harris draws a line between early specialization, where a kid commits to one sport too soon, and sport sampling, where kids try a mix of sports. Sampling is what's recommended for roughly ages 6 to 12. The research he cites links early specialization to burnout, injury, anxiety, lower mood, lower self-esteem, and kids simply enjoying the sport less.
What caught me off guard was the next part. Specializing before about 13 to 15 doesn't seem to make a kid more likely to succeed later on. Harris even suggests it might work the other way. Which means a lot of families are paying for an edge that may not exist.
Cross-training the brain
When a kid plays soccer in the fall and baseball in the spring, they aren't only working different muscles. They're cross-training the brain. New movements, new decisions, new teammates, a different kind of pressure. Harris makes the point that multi-sport kids build skills across a lot of settings, and that it prepares them for challenges one sport can't.
I'd add something from the mental performance side. Every new sport lets a kid be a beginner again. They get to be bad at something for a while and find out they're okay. That lesson, that struggling doesn't say anything about who you are, is one I spend a lot of time trying to teach older athletes who never got it.
I'd call that development, not a distraction from it.
Where the adults come in
Most of the pressure doesn't start with the kids. It starts with us.
Harris makes a point I appreciated. Kids generally want adults involved in their sports. But being too involved in their decisions, or not involved enough, has been linked to burnout, stress, and anxiety. It's a balance, and most of us (me included) don't always get it right.
A few things I'd suggest:
- Give them a real say in which sports they play and how much. Kids stay motivated longer when the sport feels like theirs.
- If your kid wants to try something new, treat it as data, not defeat. It doesn't mean they aren't committed.
- Know who's coaching them, and make sure those coaches and trainers are actually trained to work with kids.
- Build a bullpen of good resources. The Association for Applied Sport Psychology, APA Division 47, Hilinski's Hope, the USOPC's mental health resources, and Mental Health First Aid are good places to start.
Harris also notes that pressures once limited to top college athletes, NIL included, are working their way down to high school and younger kids. I see that too. Everything feels higher stakes, and it starts earlier.
But I read his piece as mostly good news. Kids can still chase big goals, college included, without locking into one sport at nine. And they might turn out to be better athletes for it.
I'll be honest that we don't have all the answers yet. Harris himself says the research on mental health in high school athletes is still limited. But I know what I see on the field.
The kids who stick with it tend to be the ones who still love the game.
That's worth protecting.
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Source: Brandonn Harris, Ph.D., "Sport Specialization and Youth Athletes: Considering Mental Health, Well-Being," NFHS High School Today, February 10, 2026.
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About the Author
Scott K. Wilder is the founder of Game Ready Mindset™, a program and platform for teams and athletic programs, working with players, position groups, and teams in baseball, soccer, softball, and volleyball. He holds a Master's from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sofia University), an MBA from New York University, and a Master's in International Studies and Conflict Resolution from The Johns Hopkins University, with coaching credentials from Georgetown University, Brian Cain's MPM Program, the National Federation of High Schools, and FC Barcelona Football Club. He is the author of Millennial Leaders and the forthcoming book Compete in Any Weather.
About the author
Scott K. Wilder is the founder of Game Ready Mindset™, a program and platform for teams and athletic programs, working with players, position groups, and teams in baseball, soccer, softball, and volleyball. He holds a Master’s from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sofia University), an MBA from New York University, and a Master’s in International Studies and Conflict Resolution from The Johns Hopkins University, with coaching credentials from Georgetown University, Brian Cain’s MPM Program, the National Federation of High Schools, and FC Barcelona Football Club. He is the author of Millennial Leaders, Find What Energizes You (just published), and Compete in Any Weather.