ArticleSports health
Prevalence and Consequences of Sport Specialization Among Little League Baseball Players.
Article in Sports health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Early Sport Specialization in a Pediatric Population: A Rapid Review of Injury, Function, Performance, and Psychological Outcomes.Clinics and practice · 2025Review
- Injury Risk Factors Related to Sport Specialization in High School Basketball: A Prospective Study.Journal of athletic training · 2024Article
- Youth Sport Specialization: Current Concepts and Clinical Guides.HSS journal : the musculoskeletal journal of Hospital for Special Surgery · 2024Review
- Throwing Injuries and Prevention Strategies in Youth Baseball.HSS journal : the musculoskeletal journal of Hospital for Special Surgery · 2024Article
- Comparison of Methods for Testing Mismatch Repair Status in Endometrial Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Injury Prevalence among Young Elite Baseball Players.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Early Sport Specialization and Long-term Throwing Arm Health in College Baseball Players.Sports healthArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBaseball is one of the most popular boy's youth sports, and there has been a rise in the rates of certain overuse injuries among players. Specialization has been identified as a risk factor for overuse injury in high school athlete populations, but there is little understanding of the prevalence or consequences of sport specialization in Little League baseball players. HYPOTHESIS: Sport specialization will be highly prevalent among Little League baseball players and specialization will be associated with worse throwing arm health. STUDY
designCross-sectional study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 3.
methodsA total of 246 Little League baseball players (male; N = 241; age, 9.5 ± 1.6 years) between 7 and 12 years old completed an anonymous, online questionnaire with their parent's assistance. The questionnaire consisted of participant demographics and baseball participation information, including sport specialization status and the Youth Throwing Score (YTS), a valid and reliable patient-reported outcome measure for youth baseball players.
resultsOnly 29 (11.8%) players met the criteria for high specialization. Approximately one-third of all players (n = 77; 31.3%) reported participating in baseball year-round or receiving private coaching outside of their league (n = 81; 32.9%). Highly specialized athletes demonstrated worse scores on the YTS on average compared with low-specialization athletes (mean [SE]: 56.9 [1.6] vs 61.1 [1.2];
conclusionWhile the prevalence of high sport specialization was low among Little League baseball players, other behaviors associated with specialization such as year-round play and the receiving of private coaching were more common. Highly specialized Little League players demonstrated worse throwing arm health compared with low-specialization players. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Little League players and their parents may represent a potential target audience for dissemination campaigns regarding sport specialization.
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