Variety in Sports Builds Better Motor Skills in Kids - AI Podcast

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Health, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Story at-a-glance

Children who participate in multiple sports develop significantly better motor skills than those who specialize in just one sport or remain inactive
Research shows children in multisport programs outperformed single-sport participants by up to 14.5% in coordination, balance and movement tests
Unstructured outdoor play for 30 to 60 minutes daily particularly benefits girls, improving their coordination by 8.4% to 14.5% compared to less active peers
Early movement patterns establish a foundation that influences physical abilities into adolescence, with coordination advantages persisting over time
Parents should prioritize variety over intensity, avoid year-round specialization in one sport and choose programs that teach fundamental movement skills

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen
0:06.1	summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. No reading required.
0:10.8	Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:15.0	How much does mixing two or three sports today shape your child's coordination years from now
0:20.6	and can just half an hour
0:22.7	of outdoor play after school move that needle even further. Hello, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's
0:28.9	cellular wisdom. I'm Ethan Foster, here with contributor Alara Sky, and today we're unpacking research
0:35.6	that overturns the idea that early specialization or a crammed activity schedule is the best way to help your child move with confidence.
0:44.0	The evidence will cover comes from two peer-reviewed studies featured on Mercola.com.
0:49.4	Both compared children in multi-sport programs with those focused on a single activity, or who were mostly
0:55.6	inactive outside standard physical education classes. Across the board, variety and daily free play,
1:02.6	outperformed repetition, delivering stronger motor coordination, better balance, and more
1:08.5	reliable movement skills. Let's dive into the first study, published in the Journal of Sports Science.
1:15.0	Researchers followed 627 Finnish children, beginning when they were ages 3 to 8 and testing
1:20.4	them again three years later, around age 11.
1:23.6	They measured running, hopping, throwing, and dynamic balance.
1:27.5	Kids involved in two or more organized sports posted 10.1% higher jumping scores and up to 14.5
1:34.4	percent stronger overall coordination than children who didn't participate in sports at all.
1:40.8	Children in only one sport still improved, but the gains were noticeably smaller, especially
1:45.8	for jumping and running-based tasks.
1:48.2	That trend makes sense when you remember that different sports stress different movement
1:52.0	patterns.
	...

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