UW study finds greater injury risk to student-athletes specializing in one sport

Over 1,500 Wisconsin high school athletes were studied.

It may seem like a good idea, having a student-athlete specialize in their favorite or best sports.

A University of Wisconsin study, however, has come out against such practices, because of injury risk.

Surveying over 1,500 athletes, who specialized in one sport, the study found they were “twice as likely to report previously sustaining a lower-extremity injury while participating in sports (46%) than athletes who did not specialize (24%).”

The report also stated that “specialized athletes sustained 60 percent more new lower-extremity injuries during the study, than athletes who did not specialize.”

Gundersen Lutheran Health System trainer Joe La Mere agrees with the UW School of Medicine and Public Health study.

“Each sport helps each other,” La Mere said. “When you have football players playing basketball, they’re starting to work on footwork. 

“You have any type of soccer player who likes to run track, you’re starting to work with the explosiveness of running.”

But there’s more to it than simply the physical aspects.

“At the end of the year, they can kind of check out,” La Mere said. “You wonder if it’s the child who’s choosing to do this sport year round of if it’s their parents.”

La Mere added that if your child does specialize, make sure they have plenty of recovery time.

“If you’re a baseball player that’s throwing a lot, rest that shoulder,” he said, “so you don’t have overuse of those muscles.”

The UW study was conducted throughout the 2015-16 school year at 29 high schools in Wisconsin, involving more than 1,500 student-athletes equally divided between male and female participants.