Why Playing Two Sports Can Be Beneficial

“I play soccer.” It’s out of your mouth faster than the person can ask the question. Soccer is the first thing you do whenever you have free time. You play on your high school team, with an indoor league, and a club team which can be year-round. You live and breathe girls soccer. It defines you.

However, have you ever considered giving up one season to play something else? Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have the ball in your hand? Or maybe, how it would feel to play a sport without a ball? We celebrate the sports specialist, but a one-sport athlete is at a higher risk of injury and burn-out.

Here are three reasons why you should consider picking up a second sport in your offseason.

Avoids Burnout

Personally, I love soccer. I was the player who spent hours outside of practice working on my ball handling skills, punts, and my goalkeeping form. By the summer of my senior year in high school, soccer engulfed my life for six hours a day until the final whistle of my last postseason game.

It was easy for me to spend every day playing soccer, but I also never played for a team until my junior year. I did end up with a great tan and beautiful blonde hair highlights from all the hours I put in on the field. Looking back, I can’t imagine devoting that kind of hours to soccer for more than the two years I experienced.

Ultimately it would’ve burnt me out from all of those hours on the pitch if I had played longer, and in college, I found a new love away from soccer. Joining our LaCrosse Club, I spent the fall playing intramural soccer before beginning my preseason training for LaCrosse in the winter. The second sport improved my soccer skills—especially in the goal—and stimulated my mind in new ways.

I believe Michelle Smith summarized it best in an article a few years ago. She stated, “Having a variety of experiences keeps things interesting, the monotony of a single sport goes away, and so does that pressure.” Meaning, you don’t have to be the soccer star all the time and have a way to just be good at something in between seasons.

Reduces Injuries

Playing more than one sport can help avoid injuries. While certain sports — like baseball — are more prone to wear and tear, muscles adapt to how they’re used. For example, a track runner is in peak condition to run a straight line, but joining soccer years later without training could make her more susceptible to an ACL tear. Playing a second sport would prevent her body from creating muscle memory to running and reduce her chance of tearing her ACL.

In the age of specialization, High Schools have seen a growth of injuries among their athletes. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, research has revealed ACL surgeries in 6-to-18- year-olds are up 60 percent” as well as other sports-related trauma. Having an offseason from a sport can prevent the overuse of any one group of muscles and give them time to recuperate.

Improves Your Athleticism 

Multiple sports can help keep you in shape during the offseason. Training a variety of muscle groups and built-in accountability, another sport can make training easy. With practice every day after school, you can show up and do what you did during soccer but with a different activity. Some sports also can help improve your skills on the field.

Running track in the offseason can help you improve your speed. With the sole purpose of challenging how fast you cover a distance, indoor and outdoor track puts you up against some of the fastest athletes in your area and can really improve your fast break.

It’s also one of the qualities NCAA recruiters look for in players. It helps expands you as a player and shows you aren’t simply good at one sport, but you are an athlete. With only 7.1 percent of female soccer players (NCAA) going on to play in college, a second sport could give you an edge on someone else.

We all love soccer, and I’m sure if you could, you’d play every day. However, your body—while amazing—wasn’t built to endure the same hard labor day-in and day-out. A second sport will give your body a chance to catch its breathing and may reduce your chances of suffering an injury while becoming a better athlete.

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