Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Welcome back to another edition of Unleashed Athletics. My name is Brian Vaughn. We are episode number six and today's edition is called the great debate of the multi sport athlete. And what really brought this question to the forefront was a friend reaching out and saying, here's a topic. This is a topic that I want to know more about because I think it's super important that it's talked about and I actually agree with them. This is a very important topic. I'm not sure that everybody knows what the right way is and I'm not sure that there is a right way, to be honest with you, but we are going to handle the conversation of is being a multi sport athlete necessary? Is it the most important thing and do you have to do it? I want to start by saying this. If you are someone who grew up in the eighties, the nineties, maybe in high school, in the early two thousands, the world has changed.
[00:01:15] It is not what it used to be.
[00:01:18] So you living vicariously through your kid and saying this is what I would have done, doesn't apply anymore. There are so many decisions that need to be made today that will impact your future. And I think that's where parents are trying to lean towards. Is the future not in the moment. It results in making difficult, difficult decisions at a very early age. And so here we are. When we're talking multi sport athlete, you really have to break down into a few different things. And that's what we're going to talk about today, though. Those things are pros and cons of both being a multi sport athlete and being a single sport athlete. And when you talk about them, you have to be really careful, and I need to be really careful to say there is no right or wrong way in this. There is a way that is best for your situation, but there is not a right or a wrong way. There may be benefits on one side or the other, but there is not a right way. The right way is the way that you, as the parents of that child, making a decision with them that best suits them. That's the best thing that you can do. I hear the conversation of when you look at all these pro athletes, they are all multi sport athlete people. And I don't disagree with that. When you look at pros, you a lot of times are going to hear that they were football, baseball, they were soccer, volleyball, they were so on and so forth. But I do have to put a reminder to you on this.
[00:03:00] Your son or daughter is not a pro yet. Looking at it that way would make me believe that you think someday your son or daughter is going to be a pro. And for me, that is a bold statement you better have going back to last episode. You better have some metrics that show your kids are doing things that nobody else around here is doing. And if you can do that, more power to you. I totally get it. But let's slow down that conversation. The pros are in the top, less than 1% of who they are and what they do. And so let let's just be a little bit slower on that. Do I respect it? Do I think it's important? You bet. But they're 1% of athletes who go on to play at the professional level, and they're the very best and get paid the very best to be an athlete. Those are so few and far between that we need to be really careful not to put our athletes into that. So I just wanted to start there. Pointing anywhere else but yourself is probably the wrong thing to do right now. Again, metric based thinking will help in this a lot. So let me point out a few things. When it comes to being a multi sport athlete that I think is good and bad and things to think about. Okay. If you're a multi sport athlete, you have to find time to rest. It's admirable that you play multiple sports and that you're successful at them, but you need to take care of yourself. There needs to be a timeout button. Some people say, well, if I'm not doing an overhead sport, I am pausing. And it's like, nope, you need to let your body rest. And what that rest period looks like is totally up to you. I'm not here to tell you what resting looks like, but I do know that it's important. So please, please, please take time to take care of your body so that you can be the very best at what you do.
[00:04:58] I love that you're working different muscle groups as a multi sport athlete. I love that you could be throwing a baseball and then you could be sprinting on a track, and they're completely different things. It will make your body stronger as a whole. That's a huge win for me. The development of your entire body is really, really important. And when you're a multi sport athlete, you're going to do that naturally without even having to do the extra work that you might have to do in a weight room, which you should do. But on top of that, you're building those muscle groups just by playing the multiple sports that you do. The other thing you are learning and growing with different coaches and players this helps you in the long run, not just as an athlete but as a person. You learning and growing with different coaches and players.
[00:05:54] It forces adversity, it forces you to communicate differently. It forces you to get along with lots of different types of people.
[00:06:02] Those are big for me. I love that. I love that you might not be an expert in one sport, but you might have a lot of knowledge in the other. I love that your coaches will always be more knowledgeable than you. So you going out and doing that, work with them. You are learning different professional styles of teaching and those are things that are lifelong habits for you because you're going to go into different jobs and you're going to have different types of teachers and coaches and so on and so forth. And I just believe that you need to be doing those things at an early age so you know what it feels like. And like I said, the last thing on, on this is metrics will usually be better on a multi sport athlete than just a single sport athlete. And when we're talking metrics, we're talking about the big metrics. When we're talking about sprinting, squatting, just lifting in general, when it comes to jumping and doing all of those actions, your flexibility, your mobility, your scores are probably going to be higher than a single sport athlete. Not all the time. Don't hear that. No, I'm not looking for a fight. I'm just simply saying, again, because we're building different muscles throughout the entire time, most likely those scores are going to be higher. I know as we did it as a baseball team, we could totally tell when you're a multi sport athlete, your scores look so much different than a single sport athlete. But again, that doesn't mean you're the best baseball player. It just means your metrics look really good and those things help when making decisions. So let's move over to the single sport athlete because again, there's such resistance to this and I'm not resistant towards it. If you're a great baseball player, as one of the Facebook posts said, I have a son throwing 98 to 101 miles an hour or something like that. And yep, you keep playing baseball, you keep throwing 101 miles an hour and you are going to be very, very successful at the game. And, and I don't think anybody will argue that there are some kids that are just naturally gifted as a single sport athlete and you should go and do that thing that you're really, really great at and that is good, too.
[00:08:13] Single sport athletes. Here are some things for you to remember. You are using the same body parts over and over and over. I've told my baseball players this time and time again, you have a count on your arm. There's a certain amount of throws that your arm is going to let you do before it breaks down. We need to make sure we're taking care of our body so that the number of ticks is as many as possible. But then part two, when the breakdown occurs, or before the breakdown occurs, you have an understanding that using those pitches wisely matters. If you're just going out there and nonchalantly throwing 80 to 100 pitches every third day, your arm is going to break down on you. I don't want that to happen. We need to be smart about when we're throwing, how long we're throwing for, and our shutdown period, which we'll get to in a second.
[00:09:11] Something that I love about single sport athletes. You are learning to hone your craft.
[00:09:17] What a great quality to have for a nine year old to an 18 year old or a 24 year old, whatever spectrum you want to look at. But honing a craft is teaching you what the business world is going to look like if you want to be the very best at what you do. Honing your craft is incredibly important and it's incredibly detailed and it's incredibly encouraging as you watch yourself grow. And I love that for single sport athletes of I'm going to be the best, dot, dot, dot and now go after it and get it. My recommendation with that is don't just play.
[00:09:57] Fall in love with getting better every single day. Fall in love with the process that is going to take you to throw a hundred, hundred miles an hour.
[00:10:07] Fall in love with the process that's going to let you bend a ball into the back of the net on command, anytime, any way the ball is received to you.
[00:10:17] I just think those are things that are incredibly impactful and, and you can't just learn it during games. And again, nothing wrong with playing a lot of games, but you better have the skill work to go along with it. Otherwise you're just playing. Okay? You have to. You have to love practice more than just playing. And if you do, you will see results and those results will be two times as powerful as if you were just playing the game. So I'll get off of it, but fall in love with being a master of your craft. And I think you'll love every bit of that same thing with being a single sport athlete. Rest is critical if you are going to use the same body parts over and over again.
[00:11:01] You need to rest and strengthen your muscles during your offseason. That's right, you heard me. This is the thing I worry about with single sport during your off season. It's not twelve months. It can't be. It just can't. You are not going to perform well twelve months a year and then continuing on from ages nine to 24. You are going to burn out. You have to plan what that offseason is going to look like and you have to stick to it. Does that mean you're not picking up a ball at all? I don't know that. That's not for me to tell you. But what I can tell you is it should look a lot different than in season. That. That is what I am sure of. This probably goes for both types of athletes. Actually, it's not a probably. This goes for both types of athletes. The weight room matters.
[00:11:53] Stop thinking that if you play more games and not take care of your body that you're going to be okay. Because you're not. Your body will eventually fall behind as people who are in the weight room get bigger, stronger and faster. You have to buy into that idea that what you're doing to warm up your body, to cool down your body, and to build your body, break down your body, those things all matter to the grand scheme of the type of athlete you're going to be. You have to be building strength to be optimal. And if you desire to be your very best, you have to be strong. Don't fall short in that. I'm telling you time and time again, I've had athletes at the collegiate level come back to high school and say, I wish I would have taken the weight room more seriously.
[00:12:43] Do it. Take it more seriously now. And if you're not in high school yet, start building your body by body weight, weight items. You do not need to be lifting weights yet, but get your push ups, sit ups, pull ups, running, sprinting, get all of those things done. Get squats done with no weight on, but build your body. You want to know one of my favorite things to see youth kids do? Jump rope. It'll tell you right away. Do they have hand eye coordination? And can they stay active while they're doing it? What a great workout to get in while they're going. But all to say, the weight room matters. Don't skip it. So many kids are fatigued after a long weekend of games and they don't want to go get a lift in. It's the most important thing you can do. Go do that work. Trust me, you will not regret it. You will not regret it one bit. So, with that said, I want. I want to just kind of recap this because I've talked long enough, but there is no right answer from multi sport athletes and single sport athletes that is dependent on you and your goals. Multi sport athletes, your metrics might be a little bit better. Single sport athletes, your playability, your ability to play the game at a high level is probably going to be a little bit better, potentially. Right. And my two examples, Christian McCaffrey, he is a multi sport athlete. You're about to watch him in the super bowl. He could play basketball, he could run track. He could really do anything. But these are things he did in high school. And of course, he plays football. And then you look at a guy like Windham Clark. He was a multi sport athlete, but he decided early in high school that he was going to step away from it and he was going to focus on just golf. I think that worked well for him as he's making a push today to try to win another PGA Tour championship. So. So I think, just so it's clear, it can go both ways. You can have phenomenal athletes that decide to be a single sport athlete, and you can have phenomenal athletes that decide to be a multi sport athlete. But what is best for you? What are you deciding and are you going to put all your work in to make sure that you're being the very best on either side of that coin? Okay. And when you do that, you will be successful. So as much as I wanted to come on today and say you have to do this, I'm actually walking into this conversation and walking out of this conversation telling you that both are great.
[00:15:19] I'm so thankful that you guys play sports. I'm thankful you get to learn from coaches. I'm so thankful that you get the opportunity and have the ability to make a decision like this. But at the end of the day, if you're a multi sport athlete or a single sport athlete, you are bound to be great because of the things you learn on a daily basis.
[00:15:41] And that's what I leave you with. Have a tough conversation of what's best for you and then stick with it. Be the very best you can be. And if you need help along the way, reach out to your coaches, reach out to your mom and dad, and more importantly, reach out to the people you trust the most in your life to be able to speak into these conversations. But please know you should be loved. No matter if you're a multi sport athlete or a single sport athlete, and you will be successful either way. And that's what makes this so much fun. I want to thank you, as always, for engaging in conversations with me. This has been episode number six of unleashed. Thanks so much for watching.
