Great thread. This subject impacts so many kids.
An observation I have had is the choice of specializing can start first with your kid. What makes them happiest? As we all know, kids perform best at what they do when they own the decision and feel good about what they are choosing to do with their time. Not when it is forced upon them. Often times, as they mature, you will begin noticing their interest towards specializing. They began initiating discussions towards that end. They begin wanting to make more practices in that particular sport. A parent does not need to suggest this route. Kids are smart enough to figure that out on their own. They see and hear examples of specialization constantly. When a decision of specialization then becomes supported by parents, the kid becomes open to managing his off-season time productively with only limited help by the parent.
I support multi-sport and specialization for athletes. Again, it comes down to what your kid wants. For whatever it is worth, here is a tiny view into specialization. For example, if a kid decides to drop baseball in Spring, that time can be replaced with the technical, physical and mental side of the ISWA season. They add experience in the sport by the intense matches of Folkstyle, Freestyle and Greco State Tournaments and those tournaments that precede the state tournament series. Besides the skill acquired in this extra season, they acquire mental fortitude and more “feel for the sport” (mat time). Then, if your child is willing and has the opportunity of training with a purpose in May and June for a national tournament/s at some venue, they gain even more mat time with extra mental preparation. By summer, if a kid chooses not to play football, his time can be replaced by staying off the mat and his time redirected towards, for example, developing the posterior chain muscles from July through October 27th. This removal from the mat helps prevent burn out and gives the kid new refreshing challenges, all of which contributes to the quality of their wrestling. Then, when the season starts, they feel a sense of being refreshed with the added bonus of being stronger.
Burn out can sometimes be addressed by changing the pace of training. I've noticed not too many kids want to be on the mat 12 months of the year. If you have one of these kids, it is unusual. When necessary, help encourage your kid to remove himself/herself from mat training and redirect their focus for a period of time with ancillary work that helps compliment their wrestling ability. Be creative. This is where other sports can come in but they can conflict with the above scenario.
Specializing, in my opinion is just that. You define broad areas of work needing done from technique to mental to strength and then you work backwards in making certain those areas get covered. In this example, one could argue that playing other sports does not afford you the time to cover all of these bases.
Finally, I understand that to make it to the final match in high school requires some degree of mental mastery. Your average 16-18 year old can crack under this type pressure. I have used the word “mental” a number of times in this post to illustrate how a specialized kid arguably has more opportunities to experience and confront the mental side of wrestling more than the kid who does not train year round. The mental side of wrestling can never be underestimated. I am in no way implying that a kid cannot experience this in other sports, they absolutely can; they would just need to make certain their chosen sport, whether individual or team, is honestly putting them in somewhat of a similar environment.
If you listen, kids will reveal their interests in training year round. It is not for everyone and certain kids are better off putting their eggs in multiple baskets or simply enjoying what life puts before them. At the end of the day, it's all about listening and supporting these great kids who have whatever level of interest in this GREAT sport.