The idea of specialization in sports emerged in the 1950’s.
The term was officially coined in 1988.
AI Overview:
Sport specialization is the intense, year-round training and participation in a single sport, often to the exclusion of other athletic activities. The concept mushroomed into Giant Land during the 1990’s and has been the expectation in this century.
This story isn’t about me, but it hits home because I grew up as a multi sport athlete on the cliffside of specialization and was pushed over the edge to my death because of my resistance in more than one sport.
I was our back-up point guard in high school basketball because I didn’t play Club, whereas the starting point guard did (FOR our high school basketball Coach of course). Oh, and when I was on the floor, I got benched every time I shot a 3-pointer even though I made MOST ALL OF THEM! Crowd goes wild (they did!); shooter yanked. I quit during my sophomore year. And for the record, not a quitter 🙋♀️.
Softball. Same story; different day – S💩DD. I was the best shortstop and “Look at me, I can be centerfield,” in my high school and yet a single-sporter got moved up to the sophomore team instead of I (as a yet to be 9th grader; you could play high school softball upon graduating 8th grade). I guess the varsity shortstop and/or centerfielder was better than me, but who can know since I was stuck in the Rookie League?!? I completed that season, but did not go out for softball the next year.
I quit high school swimming because I didn’t like trekking across a snow filled parking lot in the darkness of 5 AM with my pointed direction being a (might as well be melted snow) pool. This had nothing to do with specialization, other than the fact that you now know why I didn’t specialize in swimming.
I still had tennis and soccer in my life and went on to play both at the DI level. I played ultimate frisbee while in grad school (2nd fastest woman in college ultimate), and have competed in 4 semi-pro sports – ultimate frisbee, tennis, pickleball, triathlon – as an adult.
* The fastest woman in ultimate was a sprinter at Stanford so I feel good about being second in this case.
Maybe I would have made it pro in one of those semi-pro sports or another sport if I had specialized in A sport to the exclusion of all other sports (that statement alone makes my ready-set-go athletic bones quiver 😰)?!?
But, you could also argue that maybe I would have made it pro in one of the sports that I was pushed out of? Maybe I would have been “Caitlin Clark” before Caitlin Clark? You may think that is a stretch, but the friends of my older brother that I played countless hours of driveway basketball “every man (or tag along younger sister) for themselves” may argue not.
And also, would I be the tennis player that I am without my soccer quads and fancy footwork? Would I be the swimmer that I am without tennis developed shoulders? Would I have cat like reflexes without “man in the middle” childhood play? Would I have Ironman endurance without 34,000+ hours of athletics?
Me as an athlete is the epitome of Malcolm Gladwell‘s 10,000 hour rule.
I got you. 👊
Now, I said this story isn’t about me and it’s not (though maybe a little). You don’t know me because I didn’t “make it”. So, let’s talk athletes that did.
Can you imagine how different the world would be right now if, gosh forbid, someone had exclaimed the following:
“Jannik, you are a National Runner-Up Champion Skier! Put down that silly tennis racquet and hike your way back up the mountain young man.”
– Italian Accented Fellow
Maybe your world wouldn’t be that much different because you don’t fantasize about Jannik hitting a forehand as clean as Jannik?
And what if we had missed out on the talents of Jim Thorpe, Bo Jackson, Babe Didrikson Zaharias or Deion Sanders in one of their respective pro sports because some Coach along the way held them back or pushed them out of said sport because they also wanted to throw a pigskin around?
Even, within sport, how about these two-way, multiple position, too many tools to list players? Would we have been treated to their talents had a Coach exclaimed, “T’is a (insert position). Not a (insert another position)!”
“An 🍎 is not an 🍊!”
Travis “Heisman” Hunter. Specialization Wide Receiver Cornerback Football Talent.
Shohei “Shotime” Ohtani. Specialization Pitcher Hitter Baseball Talent. Added note on the topic:
Additional names that need to be mentioned on the “Specialization: Talent” topic:
….Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray, Michael Jordan, Dave Winfield, Danny Ainge, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Tony Gonzalez, Steve Nash, Joe Mauer….
And the list goes on (literally here).
I guess what I’m lengthily getting at here is that specialization may in fact be a 🔑 to success (especially high level success!), but perhaps we ensure that it is on the terms, timing, drive, desire and motivations of the athlete? Personally, I believe that an athlete will gravitate towards the sport(s) and position(s) within said sport(s) in which they most excel and/or love.
So, maybe we just add a caveat?
Natural Selection Specialization
AND, once natural selection has landed a “needle in the haystack gem of an athlete” on your squad, maybe we keep an “outside this world talent” on the outside of the box that they never fit into in the first place?
Natural Selection and Never Boxed Specialization
You know, the athlete that is chomping at the bit on the sideline because they don’t sit still, the athlete that has excelled at every sport and every position ever attempted, the athlete whose greatest love is to just be AN ATHLETE? Perhaps we call them up as a whatchamacallit and proceed to watch them chameleon into that jack-or-jill-in-the-box for our eyes to see?!?
“Hey Shohei, any chance you can hit?”
Utes Football knows what I’m attempting to iterate. If you haven’t seen Lander Barton in his role as a receiver, I BEG you to imagine the GoPro view vision from the standpoint of a cornerback staring down balking at linebacker Barton after the catch!
If an athlete wants to be the best (insert sport) player they can be, or the best (insert position) they can be, to the exclusion of the other sports that they are playing, I think they’ll find their way without “needing” to specialize and maybe, just maybe, with the athletic tools derived from other endeavors!
What would come of our athletes if we didn’t push them away from multi-sport or multiple position development? Specialize if you want to, but if not? Don’t. Be free. Fly. Down the field. Over the crossbar. In the pool 🦋.
Just imagine. What kind of sports world would we have had the term specialization never been thrown around? How many “Jim Thorpes” would exist? Would NCAA football not be chock full of two-way players? Short in the cornerback position? Put your elite wide receiver out there and tell him to do exactly as he does but facing backwards.
And believe me, athletes are conditioned these days to do just that!
I leave you with just one more thing to ponder. Would Carlos Alcaraz have won the 2025 U.S. Open but for his ability to focus (in which he is often refining on a golf course!)?!? Who can know other than of course Bo?
Kristine Joy, Writer 
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