[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I think a lot of parental strategies may backfire in this.

If you specialize a kid in one sport in the hope that he/she will be good enough to get a college scholarship, you can invest a lot of money and Eliza Doolittle pretty much any kid up to a "good" level by age 14 or 15 or 16 that gives you false hope. Then the kids who are simply better will grow and be clearly faster/stronger/better and blow by your little Hunter/Tanner/Dakota kid. Coaching and lessons and opportunities will only buy you so much, and it's less than raw talent plus effort in the long run.

Plus, if you specialize your kid, I think he/she loses out on the cross-training benefit of playing different sports, not to mention losing out on the chance that maybe some other sport would end up being their best sport.

Of course, I think the truly elite kids are probably playing multiple sports in high school anyway, just because they're all easy for them. Have you ever looked at Randy Moss's high school resume?

- Back to back state championships in football playing WR, FS, KR, PR, K, and P
- West Virginia player of the year in basketball twice, setting his school record for points while his teammate was future NBA player Jason Williams, though losing the state championship game.
- West Virginia state champion in the 100 and 200 meter dash

Coaching and specialization is not going to beat Randy Moss, and specialization would have only hurt him.

My son has noticed how different sports train the body differently. For example, track absolutely KILLS his hamstrings, while basketball (at a high level), absolutely KILLS his quads.