2009 World team member Long Jumper Brianna Glenn, Erikka and Lauren
The Olympic Training Center Cafeteria Chula Vista ,CA
Youth Sports is suppose to be about the children having fun,learning new skills,meeting new friends and for some, even traveling to new places. Over the past 3 weeks I have been to 3 qualifying meets and have seen most of the top perfoming athletes in So Cal from Bantams to Young Women and Men. As I watched over 24 hours of competion. I saw kids jumping for joy, and crying in defeat and some rather neutral and deeply thoughtful about their performances.
I just kept asking myself are they having fun?? The answer was a resounding YES!! and NO!!! Depends on the child and his experiences on the track win or lose.
I asked many kids as they walked off the track and in the stands,” Did You have fun today?” Overwhelmingly they said yes. Some times they had a little caveat “Yes ,but…” I believe the sport of track and field builds a unique kind self reliance that can be developed in other sports and positive experiences, but track and field constantly brings out the choice to develop this trait every race run, every time they compete on the track.
The ability for the child to use their own physical and mental resources to produce their best times,best jumps,best throws and even if it’s not medal worthy that day, they come back for more next week in hopes of besting the previous weeks marks. Winning is fun, but being in the hunt of a win is fun too. It is the reason youth track and field is one of the most participated youth sports in America.The ability to train and see the efforts of the training during meets over the course of the track season. It teaches the beginning methods of choosing a goal and learning about levels of commitment to attain the chosen goal. Track and Field helps them learn how to empower themselves though a lot of different metho (techniques,coaches,hard work to name a few) to reach the chosen goals. It helpsthe young athletes learn how important the process is to the outcome. How to be ever conscious of choices and consequences..Go to practice learn to use blocks. Skip practice, miss the opportunity for that week.
As my family and “Our Collective Track Family” continues the journey to the Championships I am convinced that Track and Field , just like milk has something for EVERYBODY. Ask your child what he has learned from his expereince in track and field you just might be surprise at the answer.
Great points, great article. I think I will do just that.
Travel Safe, Monique Jones, Midwest Track Mom;)
My wife and I decided to take on our 3 neices in addition to our 3 children and 1 child from a previous relationship. This means we have 7 children in the house. We are a pretty active and young family. Growing up, I was raised in a religion that disallowed participation in sports all together. I really want my kids to enjoy participating in sports and this year we found the local AAU track and field team. I love this sport! It’s easy to load everyone up into the van to go to practice. All the kids can participate, it’s hard to lose the equipment necessary to participate (they might surprise me one day!), it’s easy to practice at home and foster good work habits as a family, it’s a great way for all members of a big family to build comraderie and reach towards a common goal which is extremely necessary for a big family to succeed! This may not be your kids thing, but usually there is a niche within track and field that one of your children will appreciate enough to enjoy participation. For us track has been a god send. We have grown so much together as a family and you can tell each child has grown individually.