Free Young Athletes Essay Sample

Thesis Statement: Young athletes mature into more elite athletes when they participate in multiple sports growing.

Most professional athletes grew up playing more than the sport that made them professionals.
Playing multiple sports allows athletes to develop multiple and complementary skills sets. (Hastie, 1998)
The emotions surrounding successes and failures can bleed over to a secondary sport as motivation. (Vast, Young & Thomas, 2010).

Sixty-nine athletes participated in a study that determined their motivation levels through Likert-scale questions.

Athletes who participate in only one sport reported low emotional satisfaction. (Soyer, 2012)
Children who participate in single sports have a good turnout into adult athletes as well.
When children can choose what sports they play or how invested they become in those sports, they can become successful athletes as adults. (Martin & Shapiro, 2014)

A child’s self-perception and social well-being can be enhanced through sports.

A child’s ability to handle conflict and emotional highs and lows can be developed through sports.
Children who are only allowed to play one sport can feel great frustration, as they want to choose and “sample” other sports available to them. (Soyer, 2012)

Children, who participate in only one sport, do not develop the skill sets of other children who play multiple sports.

Children who participate in multiple sports have an increase in concentration, attention, and performance. (Vast, Young & Turner, 2010)
Coaches at higher levels prefer athletes that have built a full component of athletic abilities, which can be built through participation in multiple sports.
Football players, for instance, who can have fast speeds and high vertical jumps, have often played sports that developed those skills.

These skills are different, however, for male and female athletes and depending on the sports they play, can develop differently.

Athletes can become fully capable of building all necessary abilities from playing and training in one single sport. 
Being an accomplished athlete in a single sport is, of course, possible.
For example, one sport can develop one skill that is highly beneficial in that sport, but that skill does not translate well to a second sport (swimming, for example).

The chances of becoming a better athlete when playing multiple sports is even more possible.

When an athlete plays multiple sports, the athlete gains greater skill sets.
These skills sets include coordination, muscular strength, agility, emotional control, and a higher enjoyment of sports.