Just read a really compelling article providing more reasons why young athletes who specialize too early, contrary to popular belief held by parents, actually decrease their chances of finding success later on in a sport. Two main reasons: sports become a grind rather than a joy and the increased incidence of serious injury. Great advice from hockey legend Wayne Gretzky too!

My advice to parents of young athletes: Resist the emotion-based messages you’re hearing from our out-of-control youth sports culture and the youth-sport-development industrial complex (which cares more about making $$ than what is best for your kids) and listen to what the experts are saying about the advantages of allowing your children to develop as multi-sport athletes until it’s really time to specialize (depending on the sport, usually from early to later teens).