Specialization or diversification in sports development: An integrative review

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doi:10.15359/mhs.21-1.14731

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Artículo • MHSalud 21 (1) • Jan-Jun 2024 • https://doi.org/10.15359/mhs.21-1.14731 linkcopy

Specialization or diversification in sports development: An integrative review

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

Purpose: To explore and discuss theoretical and practical scientific literature to compare sports diversification and early sports specialization as a sport and educational approach.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines, and 61 studies were included. Results: Coaches, parents, and children consider that the best way to develop sports talent and enter the elite in sports is to practice a single discipline as early as possible to achieve specialization and maximum technical skills and physical and psychological conditions. Sports specialization paths may lead to a physical, social, and mental state that compromises their integral development.

Conclusion: Sports diversification should be considered first at an early age and, afterward, the specialization once the bases of strength, conditioning, neuromuscular training, and a specific psychomotor maturation have been achieved, so that sports performance and health are not compromised in the medium or long term. It is necessary to consider that few children enter elite sports, so for many of them, sports education will be the basis for exercising their citizenship as active people.

Keywords: assessment; childhood primary education; competency-based teaching; diversification of education

	1. Eligibility criteria were specified	2. Subjects were randomly allocated to groups (in a crossover study, subjects were randomly allocated an order in which treatments were received)	3. Allocation was concealed	4. The groups were similar at baseline regarding the most important prognostic indicators	5. There was blinding of all subjects	6. There was blinding of all therapists who administered the therapy	7. There was blinding of all assessors who measured at least one key outcome	8. Measures of at least one key outcome were obtained from more than 85% of the subjects initially allocated to groups	9. All subjects for whom outcome measures were available received the treatment or control condition as allocated or, where this was not the case, data for at least one key outcome was analyzed by “intention to treat”	10. The results of between-group statistical comparisons are reported for at least one key outcome	11. The study provides both point measures and measures of variability for at least one key outcome
Wiersma (2000)	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Watts (2002)	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Gould et al., (2002)	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Mojena & Ucha (2002)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Soberlak & Cote (2003)	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	YES
Baker et al., (2003)	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES
Hecimovich (2004)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Gustafsson et al. (2007)	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Rose et al. (2008)	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Baker et al. (2009)	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES
Strachan et al. (2009)	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Balaguer, et al.(2009)	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Kaleth & Mikesky (2010)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Malina (2010a)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Gould (2010)	YES	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES
Caruso (2013)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Merkel (2013)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Martínez & Javier (2014)	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Sheridan et al. (2014)	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Jayanthi et al. (2013)	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Fergurson & Sternstern (2014)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
DiFiori et al. (2014)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Myer et al. (2015b)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Horn (2015)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Smucny et al. (2015)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Hastie (2015)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Goodway & Robinson (2015)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Hall et al. (2015)	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO
Brenner (2016)	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO
Correa et al., Tierling, Treter, de Souza & Abaide (2016)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
García-Parra et al., González & Fayos (2016)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Fabricant et al. (2016)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
LaPrade et al. (2016)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
McFadden et al., Bean, Fortier & Post (2016)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Feeley et al. (2016)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Post et al. (2017)	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	YES	NON	YES	NO
Blagrove et al., Bruinvels & Read (2017)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Normand et al. , Wolfe & Peak (2017)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Smith et al. (2017)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Sluder et al. (2017)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
McGuine et al. (2017)	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES
Wilhelm et al. (2017) Pasulka et al. (2017)	YES	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES
Bell et al. (2018)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Jayanthi et al. (2018)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Garinger et al. (2018)	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Watson et al. (2018)	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Bell et al. (2018)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Walters et al. (2018)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Anderson et al. (2018)	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES
DePhillipo et al. (2018)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
DiStefano et al. (2018)	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Russel & Molina (2018)	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Post et al. (2019)	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Heydinger (2019)	YES	YES	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Weekes et al., (2019)	YES	YES	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Moseid et al. (2019)	YES	YES	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
McDonald et al. (2019)	YES	YES	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Field et al. (2019)	YES	YES	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES

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None Universidad Nacional, Campus Benjamín Núñez, Escuela Ciencias del Movimiento Humano y Calidad de Vida, Heredia, Heredia, Costa Rica, Heredia, Costa Rica, CR, 86-3000, 2562-4779, 2261-0032 - E-mail: revistamhsalud@una.cr

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[TFN1] +: increase; -: decrease; =: no effect, NR= Nonspecific reports.

1	Wiersma (2000)	Review	Young Athletes	+Eating disorders	+Remain in sport	Less intense training
				+Amenorrhea	+Social Development	Allow other sports
				+Development injuries		Training Breaks/Recovery
				+Overuse injuries		Long-term periodization
				Greater affectation in females		Multiple sport Practice
2	Watts (2002)	Review	High School	+Eating disorders	+Multiple Motor Skills development	Long-term periodization
			Students	+Overuse injuries		Set realistic goals
				+Burnout	+Learn of different values	Stress management
						Failure as a learning experience
3	Gould et al. (2002)	Original	10 US Olympic	+Social isolation	NR	Read psychological needs
		Research	Champions
4	Mojena & Ucha (2002)	Original Research	40 Spanish Elite Athletes	+Burnout	NR	Stress management
				+Sport Withdraw
				+Social isolation
5	Soberlak & Cote(2003)	Original Research	4 Elite Athletes	NR	development	Multiple sport Practice
6	Baker et al. (2003)	Original Research	15 Coaches	NR	+Decision making expertise	Multiple sport Practice
			16 Athletes
7	Hecimovich (2004)	Review	Young Athletes	+Eating disorders	NR	Set realistic goals
				+Overuse injuries		Training Breaks/Recovery
				+Delay sexual maturation		Long-term periodization
				+Amenorrhea		Play sports accessible
				+Cardiac disfunction		Health controls
				+Sport Withdraw		Multiple sport Practice
				+Sedentary future
				+Burnout
				+Social isolation
8	Gustafsson et al. (2007)	Original Research	980 youth athletes	+Burnout (individual sports)	NR	Less intense/volume training
9	Rose et al. (2008)	Original Research	2721 high school athletes	+Injuries	NR	Less intense training
10	Baker et al. (2009)	Original Research	28 athletes	+Decision making expertise	NR	Quality training instead of volume
						Multiple sport Practice
11	Strachan et al (2009).	Original Research	74 youth athletes	+ level of physical and emotional exhaustion	+higher levels of physical/emotional exhaustion	New pathways of sport development
					+higher levels of physical/emotional exhaustion
					+higher levels of physical/emotional exhaustion
					+integration of sport and family
					.
12	Balaguer, et al. (2009)	Original Research	225 young internationally elite tennis players	+importance of motivational variables as correlates of burnout	NR	Motivational to prevent burnout
13	Kaleth & Mikesky(2010)	Review	Children (6 to 12 years)	= endocrine system	+Training philosophies	Multiple sport Practice
				Muscular system	-Injuries
				+strength	+Multiple Motor Skills
				-Hypertropia	development.
				Nervous system	+physically active lifestyle
				= process of myelination
				Cardiovascular system
				= benefits of regular exercise
14	Malina (2010a)	Original	Young Athletes	+social isolation	NR	Multiple sport practice
		research		+overdependence
				+Burnout
				+Risk of overuse injury
15	Gould (2010)	Original	Elite Athletes	NR	+Parents support	Parents support
		research			+Talent development	Talent development was easier
						for young people who learned
						habits fostered by their talent
						rather than training.
16	Caruso (2013)	Review	Children	+Injuries	+Physical abilities	Multiple sport practice
				+Burnout	+Cognitive abilities
					+Rate cardiovascular
17	Merkel (2013)	Review	Young Athletes and children	+Physical activity	NR	Recreation as critical part of children’s lives
				-Risk of obesity
				-Minimizes development of
				chronic disease
				+Improves motor skills
				+Stress to be an elite player
18	Martínez & Javier(2014)	Original research	Young Athletes and adults (13 a20 years)	+Burnout	NR	Less volume of sessions
19	Sheridan et al. (2014)	Review	Children, adolescents, and adults (10 a 22 years)	+Pressure from coaches and parents	NR	Coaches have a fundamental role as supporters
20	Jayanthi et al. (2013)	Review	Children and adolescents	+Psychological stress	+Enjoyment	Multiple sport practice
				+Dropping Out of Sports	-Fewer injuries
				+Injury	+Longer participation contributing to the chances, of success.


21	Fergurson & Stern(2014)	Review	Children	+Overuse injury	+Gain competitive edge	Multiple sport practice
				-Proper rest	+Develop skills faster
				-Interest in sport	+Early talent recognition
				+Social isolation	+Increase opportunity for
				+Burnout	scholarships or
				+Overdependence	professional contracts
22	DiFiori et al. (2014)	Review	Children andadolescent	+Risk overuse injuries Burnout	NR	Multiple sport practice
23	Myer et al. (2015b)	Review	Children and adolescents	+Repetitive Technical Skills and High-Risk Mechanics	NR	Less intensity and volume in sessions
				+Overscheduling and		Multiple sport practice
				competition
				+Psychological burnout
				+Primary Injury and Effects of
				Fear of Reinjury
24	Horn (2015)	Review	Children	+Overuse injury	+Gain competitive edge	Multiple sport practice
				-Proper rest	+Develop skills faster
				-Interest in sport	+Early talent recognition
				+Social isolation	+Increase opportunity for scholarships or professional contracts
				+Burnout
				+Overdependence
25	Smucny et al (2015).	Review	Children and adolescent	+Detrimental both physically and emotionally	NR	Multiple sport practice
26	Hastie (2015)	Review	Young athletes	+Unnecessary Intense training and specialisation before puberty	NR	Train less and Multiple sport practice
				+Long competitive goals.
27	Goodway & Robinson (2015)	Review	Children and adolescent	=Elite level performance in sport.	NR	Motor skill programs (not sport-specific)
				+Sport specialisation benefits in gymnastics.		Multiple sport practice
				+Youth sport injury.
				+Incidence and severity of overuse injuries.
				=Lifelong physical activity patterns.
28	Hall et al. (2015)	Original research	Female adolescent athletes	+Risk of anterior knee pain	NR	Specialisation led to more injuries
29	Brenner (2016)	Clinical Report	Young athletes	+Overuse injuries	NR	Multiple sport practice
				+Overtraining
				+Burnout
30	Correa et al. (2016)	Review	Youth athletes	-Respect maturation and development stages and motor, coordinative and conditioning capacities’ optimal window of trainability	+General development of fundamental motor skills and technical/tactical skills.	Competitions only after the players have their basic techniques and patterns of play under control
				+Sports dropout
31	García-Parra et al. (2016)	Review	Man and woman	+Burnout due to training loads	NR	Motivational aspect
				+Burnout due to specialisation		Prevention burnout
32	Fabricant et al. (2016)	Review	Children and adolescent	Incidence of injury Overuse injuries	NR	Increased risk of overuse injury due to specialisation
33	LaPrade et al. (2016)	Review	Children and teenagers	+Overuse injuries	+Long-term sports	Avoid excessive sports
				+Burnout	performance	commitments.
				+Decreased motivation for participation	+Enjoy physical activity	Monitor burnout.
					+Lifelong recreational	Have a balance between sports, school, and friends.
				+Sports withdraw	sports participation
34	McFadden et al. (2016)	Original research	61 youth male hockey players	+Psychological needs dissatisfaction	-Psychological needs dissatisfaction	Specialize in a certain sport after age 12.
				+Demotivation	+Mental health	Coaches and parents offer a positive, supportive, and empowering motivational climate that will lead to low levels of mental illness
				+Lack of autonomy	+Wellness
35	Feeley et al. (2016)	Review	Young Athletes	High level of achievement	NR	Educate parents, coaches, trainers, and physicians on the risks of early sport specialisation and the early signs of injury.
				+Overuse injuries
36	Post et al. (2017)	Original research	Young Athletes	+Overuse injuries	NR	Long-term periodization
						Promote the fun
						Multiple sport Practice
37	Jayanthi & Dugas(2017)	Review	Young Athletes	+Overuse injuries	+Leads to success	Sports Specialisation at the end of adolescence
				+Burnout	+Promote motivation
				+Leave the sport	-Less injury
					+More participation
38	Blagrove et al. (2017)	Review	Female teenage athletes	+Female athlete triad	NR	Multiple sport Practice
				+Amenorrhea		Long-term periodization
				+Overuse injuries
				+Limit motor skills
39	Normand et al. (2017)	Review	Young Athletes	Professional status	+Healthy psychological development	Sport specialisation only after the development of specific skills, abilities, and psychological maturity.
				Early recognition
				+Social pressure	+Participation in multiple youth sports allow for periods of active rest and recuperation
				+Overuse injuries
				+Burnout
					+Sense of autonomy
					+Multiple motor skills
40	Smith et al. (2017)	Review	Young Athletes	+ increase injury risk,	NR	Before making sweeping recommendations against early sports specialisation, solid data are needed. Only research done with rigorous methodology will provide answers
				-decrease social opportunity
				- life satisfaction
				+Skill acquisition required for competitive success in many sports
41	Sluder et al. (2017)	Review	Young Athletes	+ Coaching & skill instruction	+Development of pro social behaviours and personal	An athlete’s early specialisation in a sport does not guarantee a future in that sport at an elite level Based on available evidence. Multiple sport practice
				+ Skill acquisition through deliberate practice accumulation	. +Promotes development of intrinsic motivation.
				+ Time management	+Promotes motor skill development
				+ Peer relationships within group


					.
				+overuse injury	+Increased connection to community, integration of family, and better health outcomes
				-Cost development of lifetime sports skill
				+Burnout to include emotional and physical exhaustion	.
				+Social development issues
42	McGuine et al (2017).	Original research	Young Athletes	+risk of musculoskeletal lower extremity	NR	Specialisation leads to a higher risk of musculoskeletal lower extremity injuries than athletes with low specialisation
43	Wilhelm et al. (2017)	Original research	Children and adolescent	+serious injuries during their professional career	NR	Higher rate of serious injury if specialisation development was selected
44	Pasulka et al. (2017)	Original research	Children and adolescent	+proportion of overuse injuries	NR	Athletes in individual sports may be more likely to specialize in a single sport than team sport athletes. Single-sport specialized athletes in individual sports also reported higher training volumes and greater rates of overuse injuries than single-sport specialized athletes in team sports.
45	Bell et al. (2018)	Review and meta- analysis	adolescent	+overuse injury	NR	Sport specialisation is associated with an increased risk of overuse musculoskeletal injuries
46	Jayanthi et al. (2018)	Original research	Children and adolescent	+sport injuries	NR	High-income athletes reported more serious overuse injuries than low-income athletes, possibly due to higher rates of sports specialisation, more hours per week playing organized sports, a higher proportion of hours per week in organized sports relative to free play and increased participation in individual sports
47	Garinger et al. (2018)	Original research	351 Division II and III specialized and multiple-sport athletes	+perfectionistic	NR	Stress associated with burnout and perfectionistic
				+burnout		Specialized athletes’ lower levels of burnout
				+stress
48	Watson et al. (2018)	Original research	49 Female youth soccer players	+stress	-Stress	Sport specialisation is associated with significantly worse mood, stress, fatigue, soreness, and sleep
				+Fatigue	-Fatigue
				+Soreness	-Soreness
				-Mood	+Mood
				-sleep quality	+sleep quality
49	Bell et al. (2018)	Systematic Review with Meta analysis -	N/A Young multi- sport specialized	+risk an overuse injury	None	Sport specialisation is associated with an increased risk of overuse musculoskeletal injuries
50	Walters et al. (2018)	Systematic Review	N/A Young multi- sport specialized	+Resistance training decrease risk of injury and overtraining	NR	Correct supervision of Coaches and physical educators engage in healthy training for sport
				+increased repetition and increasing the risk of injury
				+ early sport dropout
51	Anderson et al. (2018)	Original research	5 Female of Division I college soccer team	+lower extremity injury	NR	Lost an average of four days of training
52	DePhillipo et al. (2018)	Case Report	1 Young alpine skier	+Patellofemoral articular cartilage defect	NR	healthcare professionals must be educated on the known causes of knee effusions and influence early sport specialisation may result in overuse injuries to knee joint cartilage.
53	DiStefano et al. (2018)	Cross-sectional	355 Youth athletes		+good neuromuscular control	Multi-sport participation may reduce injury risk in youth athletes
54	Russel & Molina(2018)	Original research	77 female high school athletes	= sport motivations and burnout		Specializers and non- specializers young athletes are similar levels of sport motivation and burnout.
55	Post et al. (2019)	Original research	647 Female youth athletes	+Daytime sleepiness associated high levels of specialisation, overuse injury traveled regularly	NR	Specialisation= increased daytime sleepiness
56	Heydinger (2019)	Original research	24 athletes	= risk injury	NR	Sports specialisation in high school does not ever affect the rate of injury in collegiate athletics
57	Weekes et al., (2019)	Original research	602 High school students	+Hours practicing their primary sport	-injured playing multi-sport	Relationship between more hours of sport specialisation and injure associated
				+Injured playing their primary sport
58	Moseid et al. (2019)	Original research	259 Youth elite athletes	= Increase injury risk	NR	Single sport and specialisation appear to represent risk factors for injury or illness
59	McDonald et al. (2019)	Original research	143 youth elite- level wrestlers	+more serious injuries	NR	Athletes, coaches, and parents should consider the risk of injury associated at the sport specialisation
60	Field et al. (2019)	Original research	10,138 youth athletes	+Females increased risk of injury	NR	Sports specialisation can be associated with a greater
				+Females association vigorous activity and develop injury= no clear pattern of risk		volume of vigorous activity and injury risk. Parents and coaches must be aware of volume training threshold