deadbq03 said:

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The argument should focus on the hordes of sub 6' athletes who play football and/or basketball because it's popular, are maybe quick enough to get a random college scholarship and then never go pro because they're not a physical freak of nature. There is a massive population of folks that fit that bill. And I guarantee that if all of them played soccer instead, there'd be a lot of them who would've made it at the professional level in soccer when they're afterthoughts in the sports they love.

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This. Exactly this. If this were the case, US professional soccer would already be a multi-level system with at least 2-3 top tiers being full professionals.

Guys that might have been great football players, managed to get a full-ride to Valdosta State (or whatever), be stand out college players only to turn out to be marginal late round picks and undrafted free agents whose careers max out a NFL practice squads. Instead, they might play for the local academy soccer team, sign a professional contract at age 16 and make their way into the first team for a second-tier (but still very much full professional) squad.

Ultimately, the greater the depth of the talent pool, the greater the chance that you find great soccer players. It's not about height or strength alone, it's just a sheer numbers game.

So you're saying that an elite athlete would equally dominate each and every sport in the world if they had just focused on it from a young age? That Lebron James could've hit 700 HRs or scored 700 goals or caught 200 TDs and the only reason why he didn't is...fate or chance?

It's an argument that's virtually impossible to prove but...agree to wildly disagree.

No. Someone said it best above.

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Ultimately, the greater the depth of the talent pool, the greater the chance that you find great soccer players. It's not about height or strength alone, it's just a sheer numbers game.

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And Soccer training gives the foundation for most sports. Being able to have good footwork helps in all sports. The only sport it really doesn't help is baseball.

I would argue that the biggest thing we have done, is increase the quality of training players get as well as that training starting a younger age.

We had the first generation that was in youth leagues when we hosted the world cup in 94. Every generation after has gotten better training and more of it. More money has gone into the infrastructure. Its a long process.

The wider net to pull players from is very accurate and important as well. As playing soccer starts to be seen as a real option to make money, we will get more and more players giving it a real go.

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I would argue that the biggest thing we have done, is increase the quality of training players get as well as that training starting a younger age.

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That's a really good point. When I was a kid everyone played req until they went to select at 11 or 12.

Now each club has what they call acadamy or pre-select, and they're playing year round starting at 6 or 7. My daughter started academy when she was 6.

Dre_00 said:

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So you're saying that an elite athlete would equally dominate each and every sport in the world if they had just focused on it from a young age? That Lebron James could've hit 700 HRs or scored 700 goals or caught 200 TDs and the only reason why he didn't is...fate or chance?

It's an argument that's virtually impossible to prove but...agree to wildly disagree.

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Not each sport but Lebron would have been a helluva TE/DE. So many professional athletes were really good at a number of sports as youth. I don't know that Kobe was a good soccer player but he definitely had some skills.

I sort of recall that Steve Nash was so talented at soccer that the Canadian national team seriously considered calling him up.

There is a certain level of raw talent that translates to any sport. Some people have it, some don't. It would be great if we could pull more Americans in that group into playing soccer, but that's a long, slow process.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dre_00 said:

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So you're saying that an elite athlete would equally dominate each and every sport in the world if they had just focused on it from a young age? That Lebron James could've hit 700 HRs or scored 700 goals or caught 200 TDs and the only reason why he didn't is...fate or chance?

It's an argument that's virtually impossible to prove but...agree to wildly disagree.

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Not each sport but Lebron would have been a helluva TE/DE. So many professional athletes were really good at a number of sports as youth. I don't know that Kobe was a good soccer player but he definitely had some skills.

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I actually think its good for kids to play multiple sports, at least up to a certain age. I think you essentially have more tools in your belt then someone who has only played soccer.

ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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I sort of recall that Steve Nash was so talented at soccer that the Canadian national team seriously considered calling him up.

There is a certain level of raw talent that translates to any sport. Some people have it, some don't. It would be great if we could pull more Americans in that group into playing soccer, but that's a long, slow process.

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I believe his brother was a pro indoor soccer player as well

So, weird thing to say, I know, but I was somewhat amazed by some of the things I saw watching a bunch of behind the scenes videos of the NHL bubble. A lot of them could go out and nail 45/50 yard field goals or smack home runs or whatever when they were bored and stuck inside a fence...stuff that's not really related to what they do on the ice.

There's a level of athleticism that most elite, well, athletes have that translates across sports and just makes them good at physical stuff. Coordination, base strength, quick feet, etc.


Environment and exposure plays a huge role in what sport elite athletes end up going pro in...like, I don't believe there is some special gene amongst Canadians that makes them better hockey players than most Americans. Or some reason why Swiss athletes are really good skiers but Germans can barely ski a lick.

Canadians learn to skate at the same time they learn to walk. Swiss kids are strapped to wood and thrown down a mountain before they know how to run.

There's not a shared gene between Japanese, Dominicans, Cubans and white southern Americans that makes them good at baseball. They're exposed to the sport.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dre_00 said:

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So you're saying that an elite athlete would equally dominate each and every sport in the world if they had just focused on it from a young age? That Lebron James could've hit 700 HRs or scored 700 goals or caught 200 TDs and the only reason why he didn't is...fate or chance?

It's an argument that's virtually impossible to prove but...agree to wildly disagree.

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Not each sport but Lebron would have been a helluva TE/DE. So many professional athletes were really good at a number of sports as youth. I don't know that Kobe was a good soccer player but he definitely had some skills.

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Kobe did have some skills. He was exposed to soccer at a kid growing up in Italy.

So many great athletes in America are barely or never exposed to soccer.

PatAg said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dre_00 said:

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So you're saying that an elite athlete would equally dominate each and every sport in the world if they had just focused on it from a young age? That Lebron James could've hit 700 HRs or scored 700 goals or caught 200 TDs and the only reason why he didn't is...fate or chance?

It's an argument that's virtually impossible to prove but...agree to wildly disagree.

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Not each sport but Lebron would have been a helluva TE/DE. So many professional athletes were really good at a number of sports as youth. I don't know that Kobe was a good soccer player but he definitely had some skills.

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I actually think its good for kids to play multiple sports, at least up to a certain age. I think you essentially have more tools in your belt then someone who has only played soccer.

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I agree. Kids should play multiple sports through high school but we don't build our schools to allow that to happen.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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PatAg said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dre_00 said:

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So you're saying that an elite athlete would equally dominate each and every sport in the world if they had just focused on it from a young age? That Lebron James could've hit 700 HRs or scored 700 goals or caught 200 TDs and the only reason why he didn't is...fate or chance?

It's an argument that's virtually impossible to prove but...agree to wildly disagree.

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Not each sport but Lebron would have been a helluva TE/DE. So many professional athletes were really good at a number of sports as youth. I don't know that Kobe was a good soccer player but he definitely had some skills.

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I actually think its good for kids to play multiple sports, at least up to a certain age. I think you essentially have more tools in your belt then someone who has only played soccer.

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I agree. Kids should play multiple sports through high school but we don't build our schools to allow that to happen.

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I don't think that's true. i know many kids that play multiple sports in middle and high school.

What I've heard re school sports is that it's now so specialized that its hard to be multi-sport athletes. One of my friends had a kid that played baseball at a mega-school in the Houston area. Unless you were a serious prospect, you weren't cracking the varsity squad until senior year. Point being that apparently, the pressure for kids to "specialize" at a young age is high and even higher if you want to play at a large school.

ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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What I've heard re school sports is that it's now so specialized that its hard to be multi-sport athletes. One of my friends had a kid that played baseball at a mega-school in the Houston area. Unless you were a serious prospect, you weren't cracking the varsity squad until senior year. Point being that apparently, the pressure for kids to "specialize" at a young age is high and even higher if you want to play at a large school.

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A lot of clubs make you agree to not play other sports, or even play for your high school team.
I think I agree with it once you are at a certain age, but as long as you are at least playing what you want until high school age thats important.

PatAg said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dre_00 said:

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So you're saying that an elite athlete would equally dominate each and every sport in the world if they had just focused on it from a young age? That Lebron James could've hit 700 HRs or scored 700 goals or caught 200 TDs and the only reason why he didn't is...fate or chance?

It's an argument that's virtually impossible to prove but...agree to wildly disagree.

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Not each sport but Lebron would have been a helluva TE/DE. So many professional athletes were really good at a number of sports as youth. I don't know that Kobe was a good soccer player but he definitely had some skills.

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I actually think its good for kids to play multiple sports, at least up to a certain age. I think you essentially have more tools in your belt then someone who has only played soccer.

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It's funny. My daughters coach encourages school sports in middle school. You can always tell the soccer players on the volleyball, bball, XC, and track. They may not be the best, but they're the best all around atheletes. It's hilarious watching a soccer player play basketball. What do you mean, foul? It's shoulder to shoulder! And they can run the entire game because it's so short of a distance.

Kevin the 3-legged dog said:

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PatAg said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Dre_00 said:

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So you're saying that an elite athlete would equally dominate each and every sport in the world if they had just focused on it from a young age? That Lebron James could've hit 700 HRs or scored 700 goals or caught 200 TDs and the only reason why he didn't is...fate or chance?

It's an argument that's virtually impossible to prove but...agree to wildly disagree.

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Not each sport but Lebron would have been a helluva TE/DE. So many professional athletes were really good at a number of sports as youth. I don't know that Kobe was a good soccer player but he definitely had some skills.

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I actually think its good for kids to play multiple sports, at least up to a certain age. I think you essentially have more tools in your belt then someone who has only played soccer.

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It's funny. My daughters coach encourages school sports in middle school. You can always tell the soccer players on the volleyball, bball, XC, and track. They may not be the best, but they're the best all around atheletes. It's hilarious watching a soccer player play basketball. What do you mean, foul? It's shoulder to shoulder! And they can run the entire game because it's so short of a distance.

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I coach middle school sports and I wanted all the "leftover" soccer players I could get when I coached c-team basketball. The only thing I had to do was teach them to dribble and make a layup. They understood defense. Honestly, it's the same exact sport just with a few differences.

If I don't have a goalie, I got recruit the best basketball point guard/shooting guard I can find.

My daughters best friend and CB on her soccer team made the basketball team this past year. I asked her what they worked on in practice and she said they played a small sided game at the end.
Me-"Small sided game?"
Her-"Yeah, it was 5v5."

When I was an assistant varsity volleyball coach; most of the players were basketball players. There was a goalie from the soccer team. I think there were only 2 or 3 of the 14 players that didn't play another sport. Of course this was 20+ years ago.

In my experience the pressure to specialize in a sport is coming from outside a school setting. If you go to a typical high school today you will see many multi sport athletes but you will see a higher specialization rate in basketball and baseball in my opinion. I think a lot of that push is coming from those club coaches.

For instance I used to play club soccer and high school football and it was my club soccer coach that attempted to pressure me into dropping football so I could focus on club soccer solely. It didn't work and as far as my high school football coach was concerned soccer practice was just extra conditioning. In fact I had multiple HS coaches trying to work with my other HS coaches so that I could play multiple in season sports.

KCup17 said:

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In my experience the pressure to specialize in a sport is coming from outside a school setting. If you go to a typical high school today you will see many multi sport athletes but you will see a higher specialization rate in basketball and baseball in my opinion. I think a lot of that push is coming from those club coaches.

For instance I used to play club soccer and high school football and it was my club soccer coach that attempted to pressure me into dropping football so I could focus on club soccer solely. It didn't work and as far as my high school football coach was concerned soccer practice was just extra conditioning. In fact I had multiple HS coaches trying to work with my other HS coaches so that I could play multiple in season sports.

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It's 100% from the club scene. To some extent, I understand why academies that are paying for the player to participate, would want to restrict the activities of the player. Or if they are already training and playing a lot of games, the good intent would be to not overwork the player by also practicing and playing in games in another sport or two.

I don't think you really benefit from specializing until you are probably 16 or 17, and that would really only be for the elite players who will be able to go pro. Any other player will regret not participating in other sports they enjoy, when they are older

KCup17 said:

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In my experience the pressure to specialize in a sport is coming from outside a school setting. If you go to a typical high school today you will see many multi sport athletes but you will see a higher specialization rate in basketball and baseball in my opinion. I think a lot of that push is coming from those club coaches.

For instance I used to play club soccer and high school football and it was my club soccer coach that attempted to pressure me into dropping football so I could focus on club soccer solely. It didn't work and as far as my high school football coach was concerned soccer practice was just extra conditioning. In fact I had multiple HS coaches trying to work with my other HS coaches so that I could play multiple in season sports.

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Yep. I actually heard a club coach tell a kid that using blocks for track would screw up their first touch.

High school coaches are almost all coaching more than 1 sport and thus are in a good position to see skills translate across sports. Also, due to practice limits in the off-season, trying to restrict an athlete to one sport only serves to limit the amount of time a coach has with an athlete.

Yeah, sport specialization is almost entirely driven by clubs and/or parents who buy into the one sport, year-round ideas on development. School coaches for the most part *love* multi-sport athletes. They're typically more physically talented, flexible of mindset, and coachable.

jeffk said:

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Yeah, sport specialization is almost entirely driven by clubs and/or parents who buy into the one sport, year-round ideas on development. School coaches for the most part *love* multi-sport athletes. They're typically more physically talented, flexible of mindset, and coachable.

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I think a lot of techniques you develop in each sport provide an advantage in other sports too.
A lot of vision/sense of space around you, and control of your body.

I would encourage 2 sports. Personally, I had extreme burnout from soccer in high school. Club seasons in fall/spring, HS season in winter. Having another sport kind of recharged my desire to keep playing soccer.

I agree. I always felt like the players who specialized starting at a earlier age always didn't pan out once they got older. Partially because other kids caught up developmentally or because the kids who were specializing ended up burning out from that sport.