Is Youth Sports Out Of Balance?
Do we as a society and individuals over value high achievement in sports,covet the sports college scholarship more than the education it allows the athletes to have? Have we completely lost the meaning and purpose of sports and sports play? Is the abilty to just have fun impossible for most youth athletes in todays society?
Mark Hyman featured an article on a recently on his blog” Youth Sports Parent“ and I ,like him was struck by the clarity in which this young man describes sports today. Look what high school student Gabriel Weiss, had to say on the matter.
“The games have been played the same since my grandfather’s era, but a different mentality has taken over. The motivation beneath the helmets of football players and other competitive athletes is heavily influenced by scholarships and intense pressure from coaches and parents. The emphasis put on lengthy practices, which begin long before the season, transforms many high school sports into an almost full-time job. Can this high-stakes, pressure-infused way of playing possibly enhance the game, or is this tainting the true meaning of sports?”
Mark Hyman commented on Gabriel’s article with this statment:
“The adults (myself included) may think we’ve disguised our ambitions and expectations for our kids in competitive sports. As Gabriel points out so well, most of us haven’t.”
Dr.Kwame Brown at Kwame M. Brown: Move Therory weighs in:
“I have come to recognize that many of the issues we face today stem from the Human’s penchant for elitism. Those of you that have dealt with me know that I am all about root causes. So let’s delve a little deeper.
“Let’s take an issue that I’ve been working on for the past few years: Youth Inactivity (some misguidedly call it the youth obesity problem). How do we think this all happened? Do we think this just happened because kids are lazy? Sorry, Charlie. That would be way too simple, now wouldn’t it? ”
Here’s what I believed happened:
Overestimating the importance of Lebron James
We began to overvalue high achievement in athletics and the potential riches involved; so much so that we skewed the whole environment of youth sports toward getting a college scholarship and making it to the pros. Don’t believe me? Search on the internet for athletic performance institutes, training camps,programs and training camps. Look at the way they advertise. Sure some are doing it the right way (more and more because of the IYCA), but most are promising improvements in vertical leap or 40 yard dash times.
Why is all this important? Well, the other kids that don’t show promise toward the pros can see that they are left out once they get to high school, and in some areas, junior high school. They weren’t interested in signing 8 month travel contracts for their chosen sport. They just wanted to play. They got left out and became disillusioned”.
While the number of boys and girls (ages 6 to 12) participating in youth sports programs is greater than ever, the drop-out rate by age 13 is growing significantly. nytimes.com, Ken Reed, 02/01/04
Read the entire article here
Until Next Time,
Hi Track Mom,
I agree!
When I coach there is never talk of winning. My personal mission statement as a coach is to “Help parents develop happy, healthy sportsmen.” When we run we don’t do it to win, we do it to race.
Kids want to play because it is fun. If you remove that element then you will lose the kid.
If you compare how pros practice versus amatuers you will see that the pros spend thier time on practicing what they are bad at and at a micro level. Amateurs focus on macro stuff and practice what they are good at.
Children between the ages of 6 and 12 should never be made to think about what they are doing on the track and future success in life via college scholarships.
Have you checked out Notre Dame’s “Play Like A Champion Today” series. It’s great!
I love you blog! Thanks for sharing it!
Bill