Before We Specialized, We Just Played: The Joy of Playing Different Sports
Updated: Sep 10
Written by Linda Herron
Women Sports USA®
When I think about where my life in sports began, I think about the joy of playing different sports before I ever considered college recruiting or choosing one to pursue. I think about learning to catch a ball with my father when I was five. I think about playing alongside my twin sister and discovering how much I loved to compete. There was so much ahead of us that we couldn’t have understood yet. What we understood was that we wanted to play.
Softball became my first organized sport in sixth grade. Field hockey would later take me to the University of Rhode Island, where I played at the Division I level and served as captain during my junior and senior years. But when I was that little girl learning to catch, I wasn’t planning any of it. I was learning what it felt like to try, miss, try again, and finally get it.
Looking back, I’m grateful that my experience in sports had room to grow. Each game gave me something to learn, and I didn’t have to know where it would lead before I began.
There Was More Than One Way to Be an Athlete
Field hockey holds an important place in my life, but it has never been the whole story. I played softball in school and on a traveling slow-pitch team. Later came road races: 5k, 10k, half marathons, and a marathon, and years of bodybuilding. My interests and circumstances changed, and I kept finding ways to challenge myself.
I didn’t approach those experiences as a carefully designed plan. I wanted to compete. I enjoyed being part of a team, working toward a common goal, and discovering what I could do. Sometimes that meant learning a different game. Sometimes it meant being a beginner again after I had already become comfortable somewhere else.
That is one of the things I appreciate most about having played different sports. You can arrive with confidence and still have plenty to learn. You have to listen, pay attention, and accept that being good at one thing doesn’t mean everything will come easily. There is value in that experience well beyond the field. For more on what girls can gain from exploring different activities, read The Multi-Sport Advantage: Why Playing More Than One Sport Can Help Girls Grow.
What Playing Different Sports Gave Me
On the softball field, I had to be ready when the ball came my way. In field hockey, I had to see what was developing while moving with my teammates. Running asked me to manage my own effort and keep going when there was no teammate beside me to take the next turn. Each experience required something different from me.
The lessons also overlapped. I learned to recover from mistakes, take direction, and keep contributing when I was frustrated. I learned that preparation mattered and that other people were counting on me. Those lessons became familiar because I encountered them in different settings, with different coaches and teammates.
Years later, working in finance, I would tell people, “Keep your head up and let’s catch the next ball.” That language came naturally to me. I knew what it felt like to make an error and still have a game to finish. Dwelling on the last play didn’t prepare me for the next one, and the same was true when something went wrong at work.
I couldn’t have explained any of that as a child. I was playing. The understanding came later.
Let Girls Discover What They Enjoy
I wonder how often we ask children to explain their future before they have had much time to experience the present. What is your best sport? Which team are you trying to make? How far do you want to go? Those questions can come from people who care deeply and want to help. Still, I think there should be room for a child to say, “I don’t know yet. I want to try.”
A girl might join a team because her friend is playing and discover that she loves the sport. She might try another activity and decide it isn’t for her. She might enjoy several sports without wanting any of them to become the center of her life. I believe those are all worthwhile things for her to learn about herself.
My own path makes me appreciate that freedom. Field hockey became a major commitment, but softball mattered to me, too. The experiences didn’t have to compete for meaning. I could care about more than one game, learn from different people, and carry it all forward.
For the adults supporting girls, a useful question may be as simple as, “What did you enjoy today?” Then we have to give them time to answer. We may hear about a good play, a new friend, something funny that happened at practice, or a skill they finally figured out. Their answers tell us what is making the experience meaningful to them. Listening to those answers is part of keeping girls in the game—and creating sports experiences they want to return to.
We Can Take Sports Seriously and Still Enjoy Them
I was competitive then, and I am competitive now. I wanted to win. I cared about getting better, earning my place, and helping my team succeed. Remembering the joy of playing doesn’t require me to soften that part of my story.
Some of the enjoyment came from the effort itself. It felt good to improve at something difficult. It mattered to know that my teammates could depend on me. A demanding practice could leave me tired and satisfied because we had accomplished something together.
What I hope we preserve for girls is the chance to develop that connection on their own. A child who wants to pursue one sport deeply deserves support. So does the child who wants to play a different sport next season. I want us to pay attention to the girl making those choices—what interests her, what she hopes to learn, and whether she still looks forward to showing up.
The Game Can Change Throughout a Life
One of the lasting gifts of my sports experience is that I have had different ways to stay connected to being an athlete. After college field hockey ended, there were other teams to join and other challenges to pursue. Over the years, what I could do and what I wanted to do changed. My appreciation for movement, effort, and competition stayed with me. That connection is at the heart of The Lifelong Athlete: Why Movement Matters at Every Age, which explores how our relationship with activity can evolve throughout our lives.
That matters to the way I think about girls’ sports today. We are helping children have experiences they may carry for decades. The confidence to try something unfamiliar, the ability to work with others, and the willingness to return after a disappointing day can become part of how they approach their lives.
When I picture that five-year-old learning to catch with her father, I’m glad she didn’t need to understand its full significance. She had time to learn. She had games ahead of her, teammates she hadn’t met, and abilities she hadn’t discovered.
That is what I want us to make room for: girls who get to explore, compete, make mistakes, and discover what they love. Before they have to tell us how far they want to go, let’s give them the chance to enjoy being out there.
Here’s to giving girls room to play, discover what they love, and carry that joy into the rest of their lives.
Dream. Believe. Achieve.
Note: Images do not depict Linda Herron or events from her life.
Linda Herron is the Founder of Women Sports USA®, a former Division I field hockey athlete, coach, author, and longtime advocate for preserving women’s sports history. Through storytelling, she celebrates the athletes, coaches, officials, and trailblazers who helped change the game.
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