Before 12 years old. Maybe.
A recent article in The American Journal of Sports Medicine tackles (pun intended) an often-asked question in recent years: when is it too early for sport specialization?
What does single-sport specialization mean exactly?
The article is not saying that it’s potentially bad for an adolescent athlete to play baseball during the season and then not play another sport until the following baseball season.
It is, however, saying that it’s potentially harmful for an adolescent athlete to play baseball during the season in school, and then play club baseball, and then do specialized training for baseball during the offseason. Sports specialization refers to focusing your training, and athletic movements around one sport, which can have detrimental effects such as skeletal-structure change and overuse injuries.
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