Specialisation vs. The Jack Of All Trades: Which One Is Better?

I see many athletes attempting to juggle between being really good at 2 sports (and sometimes even more). This raises the question: is it better to train for many sports, or should an athlete specialize in one? 

In my opinion, an athlete should be doing a bit of both. I certainly believe that if an athlete wants to become world class at any sport, they NEED to specialize to a large degree. There are athletes out there who train day-in and day-out, working their ass off and dedicating all their time to a single sport. And in order to beat this kind of competition, you will need to do the same. 

In saying this, I think all athletes should be pretty good at operating physically. What do I mean by this? Well, all athletes should be good at moving their body in a way non-specific to their sport. A good example of this is a powerlifter. A powerlifter will not see any noticeable gain from doing an hour of cardio a week. Plus, cardio is pretty non-specific to powerlifting. However, in my opinion, if you are an athlete, you should be able to move like one. So even if cardio isn't specific to the sport of powerlifting, I would get powerlifters to perform cardio pretty consistently, just so they move and feel like an athlete.

Similarly, I would always tell a soccer player to lift weights and perform mobility on a consistent basis. Although these things are not specific to the sport of soccer, they contribute to some extent, even if that extent is very minor.

So if you get one thing out of this post, it is that you should aim to master your sport, and you should aim to get pretty good at the trades which benefit your sport, even if they benefit your sport to only a small extent. Of course, these recommendations are only if you want to be word-class at your sport. This is also the reason I tell more amateur athletes to play a variety of sports instead of specializing early into their career. When one is so new to training, they will receive benefits to their sport just by playing other sports and doing other physical training!

~ Prem