UW–Madison’s David Bell, a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology, recently contributed his expertise to a USA Today feature examining when young athletes should specialize in a single sport. The article, which explores both the potential benefits and risks of early specialization, draws on Bell’s research into how focused training affects young athletes’ health.
In the piece, Bell emphasizes that sport specialization is best understood not just as playing one sport, but as “the intentional and focused participation in a single sport for a majority of the year that restricts opportunities for engagement in other sports and activities.”
He notes that youth sport specialization carries significant costs. Citing recent research, he explains that injuries linked to early specialization account for an estimated minimum of around $5 billion per year in health care spending.
A recent UW–Madison study, of which Bell is a co-author, expands the definition of a specialized youth athlete to include social and motivational factors. The study also introduces the Wisconsin Sport Specialization Questionnaire (WISSQ), the first validated tool designed to measure youth sport specialization.
Read the full USA Today article.