Study, after study, after study have proven the advantages of playing multiple sports growing up and over the past year the issue has morphed into a big topic of discussion that has dominated national headlines.
The NCAA recently did some research with their student athletes that looked at the issue from a slightly different lens by asking its athletes in a variety of sports which ones “wish they had spent more time participating in other sports growing up.”
The sport receiving the highest percentage of kids that wish they had participated in other sports growing up was football, with 43% of those surveyed.
Basketball (which is dominated by AAU and other tournaments during the off season) follows closely behind at 39%, with baseball just behind that at 37%.
— NCAA Research (@NCAAResearch) May 17, 2016
For women, basketball received the highest amount of responders at 28%, with tennis just behind.
NCAA’s research also found that 30% of elite athletes are specializing in the sport by age 12, which is an alarming number considering the data supporting multi-sport athletes at a young age. Those numbers are much higher across all division (NCAA Division I, II, and III) for boys sports like soccer (63%), ice hockey (59%), tennis (45%), basketball (40%), and baseball (37%).