Don’t Play More Than 5 Months of Basketball (Or Any Sport) A Year
Guest Column
By Joe Haefner
There’s a lot of misinformation about whether kids should specialize in one sport year-round…or play a variety of sports…and if/when specialization should begin.
We (breakthroughbasketball.com) believe that youth should play a variety of sports and not specialize in basketball until age 14 or older. In fact, we encourage athletes to play multiple sports through high school if possible.
USA Basketball shares our philosophy on this. They partnered with the NBA in 2016 and developed the following guidelines based on how much time of the year should be devoted to playing basketball – based on what’s best for the health and wellness of players.
Maximum Months Per Year in Organized Basketball:
● Ages 7-8: 4 months
● Ages 9-11: 5 months
● Ages 12-14: 7 months
● Grades 9-12: 9-10 months
There are a host of benefits from being a multi-sport athlete. For example, becoming a better overall athlete, having better mental health and less burnout, having fewer injuries, finding a hidden talent for a sport, becoming a life-long athlete … the list goes on and on.
We believe delaying single-sport specialization helps you become a better athlete. Consider these NBA and WNBA stars: Lebron James played football; Kobe Bryant played soccer; Steve Nash played soccer; Michael Jordan played football and baseball; and Sue Bird played soccer, tennis and ran track.
Or, how about Tim Duncan, who started playing basketball at 14 years old and was actually a professional swimmer before finding his path to basketball success!
In addition, in almost every sport, post-puberty is when the majority of skill development occurs. So, make sure you don’t burn them out before it’s time to start rapid improvement. (70% of kids quit sports before age 13.) You’ll be amazed at how many of those athletes who dominate from 8 to 13 years-old get passed by in high school.
I haven’t even put my 7-and-8 -year-old boys in any basketball activities yet. Basketball is a very late developing sport, so I’ve focused on them developing as athletes first.
Over a decade ago, I learned in a Youth Fitness Specialist certification course that getting children in a variety of activities is the best thing for their long-term development. This year, I put my boys in soccer, gymnastics (tumbling), jiu-jitsu & striking, and swimming. We do this recreationally and seasonally. And we mix in some baseball, kickball, and football in the backyard.
While my kids aren’t as skilled as some of the kids on the soccer field, they can run with any of them, even though they are younger than almost all of the kids in their leagues.
You never know what sport an athlete is going to be good at. It’s best not to pigeon-hole them into one sport and instead let them blossom from all the benefits of being a multi-sport athlete.
Joe Haefner is a co-founder of Breakthrough Basketball. He has head coach and assistant coach experience at every level from 3rd grade to high school varsity and has trained high-level Division I players and NBA draft picks.

Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman, and has a long involvement with the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport (now called the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition). We discuss the state of college athletics today, given the pressures of NIL, the transfer portal, sports gambling and huge media contracts. McMillen then provides great perspective on the poor state of physical fitness our young people are experiencing today.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
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More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
Books