December 20, 2022
Deciding on what teams to join next year? A new study finds that top athletes who focused on one sport later in youth had a reduced injury risk at the elite level.
Sport specialization involves playing only one sport at least eight months of the year. Researchers reviewed articles on youth sports specialization and risk of injury in high-level athletes. They found that high-level athletes who specialized in a sport later in youth had a lower risk of injury at the highest level of competition. High-level athletes who specialized later also generally performed better.
Learn more in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23259671221129594