Specialized Athletes Essay

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In Chapter 5 we discussed how athletes are starting to become specialized athletes at such a young age. I am 100% against this idea. I think that all kids no matter who they are should have the opportunity to broaden their horizon in the athletic field as much as possible. Whether that is trying out a new sport in middle school or high school, I think the more you participate in other sports the more it will help an athlete down the road in their “favorite” sport they would like to pursue after high school. Specializing has started to become relevant to the sport of wrestling.
I started wrestling when I was five or six years old. I would go to a little kids practice every Tuesday night and roll around with my buddies. While growing up I could …show more content…

There was one kid, when I was younger and wrestling, that you didn’t want to have in your bracket at any tournament. He was stronger then everyone, had more technique, and was just downright better then everyone within 2 years of his age. This kid was a multiple time AAU state champ and won nationals multiple times as well. He wrestled all year round for as long as I can remember until he got to high school. In high school he finally decided to try another sport, football, and tore his ACL. After recovering from that ACL injury he decided to just focus on wrestling because football had created this injury for him. The very next season he rushed into wrestling too quick and tore his ACL again because he still wanted to have the chance to become a 3 time state champ, which very well could have happened. After recovering from that ACL tear, the following year decided to wait until conference and the post season, “when it counted” to wrestle. With having very minimal mat time against different opponents besides the guys on his team, he lost at sectionals and never made it to state. In my eyes if this athlete would have competed in multiple sports growing up instead of just focusing on wrestling, these injuries may not have happened. With football he could have built those muscles up in his knees to help prevent his ACL from

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