Slightly OT: Playing multiple sports

Since a common theme in this thread is sports forcing kids to specialize at a young age I thought I'd share something I found interesting.

I never played hockey until I was 37 years old at which time my then 5 year old son started playing. Both of my kids, G10 and now G8, have always played multiple sports (baseball, soccer, basketball) but hockey was new to us all. After the first year of my son's hockey I decided to get a little more involved and volunteer as a coach. What I have experienced thus far through USA Hockey has been very impressive.

USA Hockey is basically the governing body for all youth hockey. They require all coaches to be certified to varying degrees. Through this certification process one of the themes that was stressed over and over was the emphasis on kids playing multiple sports. They flat out don't want their players specializing (at least at the youngest of ages) in hockey only. In fact I remember a college coach in one of the training videos (I forget which coach and the exact quote) saying that he wouldn't even look at recruiting a player unless they lettered/played at least one other sport at a high level.

I found that approach not only very sensical, but also very refreshing. Not that it doesn't exist in other sports, but I've never seen another sport with such an organized top down mentality of cross training.

Many sports you need to start building skill and fundamentals at a young age to be uber successful. Others, like football, you can pick up much later in life and still make it to the highest levels. The point is, let kids be kids and know that cross training will be beneficial in the long run. If your kid doesn't have the natural ability and 99% of us don't, then no amount of overtraining is going to get them that scholarship or paycheck.