Bo is an excellent model of a sport sampler whose feats defy a common belief that specializing early in a single sport is the best pathway to elite-level success. Growing up, he participated in football, track and field, and baseball, leading to star roles in all three sports at Auburn University in the 1980s. In high school, he was a sprinter, hurdler, jumper, thrower, and decathlete, and he later qualified for the 100-m dash at the NCAA nationals. Despite Bo`s ability to excel at many sports without having specialized at an early age, people still want to know whether early specialization is a better predictor of later athletic success than sampling a multitude of sports that provide exposure to learning a diverse set of motor skills and a lower likelihood of burnout and injury. This special issue of Kinesiology Review is devoted to examining the benefits and downsides of early sport specialization from multidisciplinary perspectives. Scholars in sport history, motor learning, developmental sport psychology, physical growth and motor development, pediatric exercise physiology, sport pedagogy, and sport philosophy reviewed theories, frameworks, empirical research, and case studies that address the pros and cons of early sport specialization versus sport sampling. Authors tackled critical issues related to skill acquisition, biological maturation, self-esteem, injury, burnout, aerobic fitness, muscular strength, lifelong physical activity, and the ethics of children specializing in one domain. Their task was not an easy one, since little direct research (especially longitudinal studies) exists to definitively conclude whether one path or the other is superior for athletic success. Nonetheless, by covering literature in their areas of expertise, the authors bring to light the conditions under which specializing or sampling is the preferable track for youths` optimal performance and well-being.
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