Why Kids Play Sports (and why they quit)
(Second in a series).
“Youth sports are about building better kids, not building better athletes,” says Dr. Bruce Svare, Director of the National Institute for Sports Reform and author of the book Reforming Sports Before the Clock Runs Out: One Man’s Journey through our Runaway Sports Culture. But the continuing emphasis on early specialization and the “professionalization” of young athletes increasingly causes us to miss this point.
Regular season high school games are broadcast on national television, and prized high school recruits announce their college plans on ESPN. Parents spend years of weekends shuttling kids from one practice or game to another, often changing clothes and equipment en route with barely enough time to gulp down a sandwich and a drink. Niece’s birthday party? Can’t make it, we have a game at that time. Mother’s day dinner? Sorry, the traditional soccer tournament is that weekend and we’ll be out of town. Induction into the National Honor Society? Sorry, Timmy can’t attend the ceremony, he’s got a standing appointment with his personal trainer - we waited two years to get into his program and can’t risk getting kicked out!
Not that long ago, sports was an extension of the educational experience. The sports culture of a generation ago was defined by high schools, summer leagues, community recreation programs, sandlots, pick-up games, and a distinct beginning and end to a specific season. But sports has become a serious business in the last two decades, and there is more pressure building to maintain the cash cow. The explosion of media outlets has created an insatiable appetite for programming. And while the professional leagues and college athletic programs have billions of dollars thrown at them by major media outlets for the broadcast rights to their events, many small cable channels are also looking to fill schedules. And much like inexpensive reality TV shows, high schools and youth sports programs are all too eager to help fill the schedule, for a small slice of the huge pie. For example, in 2009, ESPN and ABC paid Little League $4.7 million for the rights to broadcast not only the Little League World Series games, but the regional finals.
Youth sports are becoming less about what’s good for the kids and more about what the adults want. Seasons don’t end because kids are told they need to start specializing in a sport if they hope to be successful. Personal trainers and private instructors are hired for 10 year olds. But most kids want to play several different sports, and specializing at age 11 or 12 has very little to do with whether a child will play on a high school team, let alone at the college or pro level. What we’ve created is overcommitted kids, exasperated coaches, and really tired parents.
In survey after survey of kids who play sports, two themes emerge loudly and clearly: kids play sports to have fun, and kids would rather play on a losing team than sit on the bench on a winning team. That’s not to say that “fun” eliminates any seriousness or competitiveness for kids who play sports. In his 2006 report Sports, Youth, and Character: A Critical Survey, Robert K. Fullwinder, from the Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy at the University of Maryland, states that “…young people may be more serious about their games, and less “childish” - less in need of fun, amusement, or work disguised as play - than critics of youth sports believe. The challenge for youth sports organizations…is to find the middle ground between the two extremes. At one extreme, adults can forget that youth sports is for the enjoyment of the youthful participants. At the other extreme adults can render “enjoyment” into a notion that excludes the serious approach to sports favored by many boys and girls.”
Why kids stop playing sports is a complex issue, and has as much to do with the kids themselves as with their youth sports experiences. The primary reason that most children cite for quitting sports is “it’s not fun anymore.” But the definition of fun is subjective and complex. Sports can cease to be fun because a child develops other interests and would rather spend time on them. Other children may find their physical maturity peaking, and that they are less skilled than teammates, so they leave for some other activity. And of course, some leave because of a series of negative experiences that have taken the “fun” out of participating.
The challenge facing youth sports organizations is to create an atmosphere that’s fun, competitive, serious, enjoyable, repectful, supportive, and cooperative! Not an easy task, but certainly one worth the effort. Creating such organizations takes the commitment and participation of everyone, from administrators and coaches to parents and players. Fun and competitiveness need not be mutually exclusive, and we’ll highlight organizations that are successfully combining the two in future posts.
Next: The Role of Adults in Youth Sports
