Jack of all trades, or master of one?

There are so many options for kids playing sports today, and one of those options is to play a single sport year-round. If your kid likes basketball, there are fall leagues and spring leagues and summer leagues you can sign him/her up for. If baseball is your thing, you can play in the spring, summer and fall, and then do winter training indoors until it's time to go back outside again.

My kids play a different sport every season, but that model isn't for everybody. Some kids only love one sport, or, for whatever reason, only want to play one sport. Hey, whatever works. 

The main thing that matters is parents need to be sure that it's the player who's making the decision to specialize in a single sport, and not a coach or a club team that is pushing for a year-round commitment too soon. I remember years ago, friends of my wife and I telling us they'd been encouraged by their daughter's gymnastics club to have their daughter give up all other sports and start dedicating her time to gymnastics only. She was, I think, 6 or 7 years old at the time. Our friends declined.

So, while understanding that some kids are just going to be one-sport kids, for the majority, it's probably better to play multiple sports over the course of a year. It helps with conditioning, of course, but also exercises different muscles, and helps avert boredom. And sometimes, lessons learned playing one sport can even help in another. My friend Jim, who coaches high school and youth lacrosse, believes kids should play more than one sport for as long as they can. Multi-sport athletes are "well-rounded,'' Jim said, and that's a good thing.

But the most important benefit to playing multiple sports often is the simplest one: For some folks, doing the same thing all the time, all year-round, can eventually start to feel like more of a job than fun. Never forget -- sports are supposed to be fun.

"The biggest thing is, if they play different sports, you avoid the kids 'burning out,''' Jim said. "You keep them fresh by changing it up.''

Try not to take it too far, though. Multiple sports in a year is one thing; multiple sports in a season is something completely different. Sometimes, it can't be helped -- like, if your kid plays travel soccer, there's usually has a spring season as well as a fall season. That means if a travel soccer player also wants to play a "spring sport,'' like baseball or lacrosse, mom and dad are going to be in for a crazy spring.