Early Sport Specialization Among Former National Collegiate Athletic Association Athletes: Trends, Scholarship Attainment, Injury, and Attrition

Abstract

Background: Many youth athletes focus on 1 sport to gain a competitive advantage, but early sport specialization may increase risk of overuse injuries and burnout. College athletes have successfully achieved advanced status; therefore, the study of their specialization patterns is a method to assess how specialization affects an athletic career. Purpose: To determine trends in sport specialization by sex, sport, and decade of participation in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes and assess the effect of specialization on scholarship attainment, injury, and attrition. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: An electronic survey was distributed to NCAA athletes who participated from 1960 to 2018. Survey topics included sex, sport, decade of participation, scholarship status, ≥30-day time-loss injuries sustained in college, orthopaedic surgery in college, career length, and age of single-sport specialization. Early specialization was defined as specialization in a single sport before age 15 years. Rates of early specialization were calculated for each sport, sex, individual and team sports, and decade of participation. Rates of scholarship attainment, injury, and attrition were compared between groups. Univariate associations were queried with logistic regression analysis to determine predictors of specialization, scholarship attainment, injury, and early attrition. Results: Of 1550 athletes who participated (17% response rate), 544 (35.1%) were women. Overall, 18.1% of athletes specialized before age 15 years (n = 281). Athletes in gymnastics, tennis, swimming and diving, and soccer were significantly more likely to specialize early, whereas football and baseball athletes were more likely to specialize late (P < .05 for all groups). Early specialization was more common among women (23.4% vs 15.2%; odds ratio, 1.72; P < .01). There was a trend toward earlier specialization for recent college graduates, with graduates from the last decade more likely to be classified as early specialization than those from previous decades (P = .036). Scholarship attainment was overall equivalent between groups. Time-loss injuries, lower extremity injuries, and orthopaedic surgery in college were not statistically different between groups. Career lengths were similar, but burnout was more common among early specialization athletes (10.5% vs 7.0%; odds ratio, 3.76; P < .01). Conclusion: Less than one-fifth of NCAA athletes surveyed specialized before age 15 years, and neither scholarship attainment nor time-loss injury rate was affected by early specialization. Early specialization is on the rise but is associated with increased burnout.