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Multiple Sport Athletes

wcbsas said:
There are degrees of skill ... if your a good to great athlete ... you can find a spot on the high school football team ... may not be QB but the sport lends itself to athleticism ... the more athletes you have, the more successful the team can be.

Basketball too has spots for good to great athletes ... they again may not be the guys asked to score 20 points per game. There is a need for someone to rebound, defend ...

The ability to shoot a ball is a learned skill. The ability to have a counter move is a learned skill. And its not just basketball, its volleyball, soccer and baseball. There are specific skills that a newcomer cannot be expected to master by showing up at the beginning of the sport season. If a good athlete shows up at the beginning of a football season, most schools will find a spot for him - tight end, guard, tackle, special teams ... he may not beat out guys who've worked at the sport harder than he has. Its the nature of the sport ... football needs 11 athletes, basketball needs 5!
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Football also utilizes specific people to specialize in a particular skill/technique. If you are a lineman, you aren't spending time working on route running. If you are a linebacker, you aren't working on throwing.

Basketball, pretty much everyone needs to be able to dribble, shoot, defend, rebound, etc. You at any point can be called to use any of those skills. Basketball's skills are also not things you can develop while you do another sport. For instance, a wide receiver can work on getting past a defender in lacrosse or basketball. There isn't another sport where you can work on dribbling, outside of basketball.
 
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wcbsas said:
A D1 caliber athlete in any sport likely has had success in multiple sports. For the vast majority of us we will never experience being that athletic where our size, speed, strength, quickness, athletic IQ, competiveness are transferrable from sport to sport.
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The other thing is superior athleticism can make up for a lot of the things you might lack by being a multi-sport athlete. Don't have to be an incredible route runner in football if you are just way faster than everyone. Don't have to have a bunch of ball handling moves if you can just plow your way into the lane. Don't have to have to have a bunch of pitches mastered if you can sling a 90mph fastball in high school.

When you get to college, everyone is that athletic. You can't get away with letting your athleticism carry you, you have to specialize and get better at certain skills.
 
wcbsas said:
There are degrees of skill ... if your a good to great athlete ... you can find a spot on the high school football team ... may not be QB but the sport lends itself to athleticism ... the more athletes you have, the more successful the team can be.

Basketball too has spots for good to great athletes ... they again may not be the guys asked to score 20 points per game. There is a need for someone to rebound, defend ...

The ability to shoot a ball is a learned skill. The ability to have a counter move is a learned skill. And its not just basketball, its volleyball, soccer and baseball. There are specific skills that a newcomer cannot be expected to master by showing up at the beginning of the sport season. If a good athlete shows up at the beginning of a football season, most schools will find a spot for him - tight end, guard, tackle, special teams ... he may not beat out guys who've worked at the sport harder than he has. Its the nature of the sport ... football needs 11 athletes, basketball needs 5!
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My point in my first anecdotal response was that these boys weren't better than the sophomores. They weren't more skilled and they weren't better athletes. They just made it to the things the coach wanted them to be at. The only thing that was accomplished was to piss off some boys and make them not want to play basketball. One of my son's friends that basically came to nothing, but is a very good athlete played reserve basketball that year.
 
A great hitter sometimes rides the bench if he can't field and throw on time. Consistency in Any sport often wins the day. Repetition drives consistency.
There's arguments for either side, but to me the winner is often pure competition. Practice just doesn't bring that, to the level you may need.

But on the flip side, self starters, the Jerry Rice' of sports, where an athletes long learned to compete against them self is another argument for specialization
 
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NUinID said:
Yeah probably for girls. Never met a basketball coach that didn’t want guys just playing basketball.
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And I never met a volleyball coach that wanted their players playing multiple sports once they hit high school.

As soon as the high school season was over the girls immediately began playing for their club team.
 
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NorthwoodHusker said:
A great hitter sometimes rides the bench if he can't field and throw on time. Consistency in Any sport often wins the day. Repetition drives consistency.
There's arguments for either side, but to me the winner is often pure competition. Practice just doesn't bring that, to the level you may need.

But on the flip side, self starters, the Jerry Rice' of sports, where an athletes long learned to compete against them self is another argument for specialization
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One of the issues with American sports has been a driving movement to bypass practicing and just focus on games. It could depend on the sport, but I believe in most you get a lot more development out of practice than you do games. Games are more fun, but what do they build?
 
TFrazier said:
And I never met a volleyball coach that wanted their players playing multiple sports once they hit high school.

As soon as the high school season was over the girls immediately began playing for their club team.
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Coaches are often going to want what is best for the athlete in the sport they coach them in. There aren't a lot of negatives from a skill standpoint that come with specialization. The biggest advantage that comes with being a multi-sport athlete is conditioning. Doing something that works other muscles and strengthens them. I'd venture to say you see less injuries in multi-sport athletes than those who specialize. The same repetitive movements aren't good on the body.
 
NUinID said:
My point in my first anecdotal response was that these boys weren't better than the sophomores. They weren't more skilled and they weren't better athletes. They just made it to the things the coach wanted them to be at. The only thing that was accomplished was to piss off some boys and make them not want to play basketball. One of my son's friends that basically came to nothing, but is a very good athlete played reserve basketball that year.
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Listen we both can agree that the coach doing this probably did not do a good job of handling the situation. I believe the ability to communicate is the most important skill a coach can have … his words and actions can be motivating and can be problematic.

Every situation is different but I am very well aware of the pressures kids have upon them. Every coach wants a piece of their time, many kids have jobs, many have family obligations, many have transportation issues, many have parents who do not see eye-to-eye with the coach in terms of effort required.

We all see the situation through the lense of our perspective. If we were talking back in the day I would have encouraged your son to talk to the coach. Doesn’t mean the coach won’t still be a pain-in-the-arse but it would’ve helped your son evaluate the situation and decide whether the effort was worth the payback.

My school is the smallest in its conference almost 50% of the enrollment of many conference schools. I can match those schools, most years athlete vs athlete … I cannot match them skilled athlete vs skilled athlete … and we are not winning many of those games.
 
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wcbsas said:
Football at the high school level is about whomever has the best collection of athletes. Most coaches want them to play multiple sports - many push them towards track & field and wrestling. But do something - be athletic. My brother-in-law (a swim coach) had the football coach at his school guide his players to swimming for the conditioning, flexibility and endurance that sport provided. One year my BIL had the teams entire offensive line (250+ lb guys) swimming a relay for his program .... was fun to watch!
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That’s a lot of water displacement… :)
 



CrabHusker said:
You basically described me as a basketball player, but I didn't quite hit the '4-6' points per game. I averaged 2 pts, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 fouls a game. Yes. I fouled out of every game I played in as a senior.
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Everyone has a role to play! LOL Way to be a team enforcer.
 

CrabHusker said:
You basically described me as a basketball player, but I didn't quite hit the '4-6' points per game. I averaged 2 pts, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 fouls a game. Yes. I fouled out of every game I played in as a senior.
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That was my son Tate. He only fouled out of half of his games. I was always amazed at how good of a rebounder he was at 5’9. He had long arms which helped but he was just a good position rebounder.
 
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