As a kid, I would spend hours on end outdoors playing sports either by myself or getting the neighborhood kids together. I loved emulating my favorite players by shooting hoops in the driveway or throwing a baseball at a target I created against the fence. Just getting together with the other kids that lived around me, we would have a blast playing football, street hockey, basketball, or any other sport. Yes, it was fun to win, but it was always more about playing together and having fun than anything else.
Are youth sports too competitive? This is definitely subject to debate, but it seems that the approach to youth sports has changed over the last 20 years. The rise of club sports, travel teams, personal trainers, and increased off-season workouts has led to a more competitive shift. Let’s take a look at some of the effects of being too fixated on winning at all cost.
Club Sports have Changed the Game
A club sport is a group or organization that is founded for the purpose of promoting an individual sport. Club sports have become big business and have begun to replace many of the former city or school based leagues.
Often times, club sports come with a win at all cost mentality. Club teams generally try to find the best players at various age levels to compete in national tournaments for exposure. Coaches and club organizations benefit from funding through apparel companies and private boosters.
Coaches in city leagues or educational systems tend to make minimum wage, club staff can make lucrative salaries. Many scandals have come from coaches of club sports being paid large amounts of money under the table to steer players to certain universities or agents.
Parents spend thousands of dollars a year for their child to participate in club sports. I understand the benefits of showing that you can play with the best of the best for your age group to show recruiters, but does that really need to come at such an early age?
Recruiters are going to find talent wherever they are. I’ve seen club sports that start as young as second grade.
Lots of kids are dropping out of youth sports or aren’t even wanting to start to begin with. As a kid, I used to dream of someday playing on the high school varsity team.
I’d go to the games and the atmosphere, like the band, the jerseys, the cheerleaders, and the crowds, were exciting.
Now a days, kids have experienced all this kind of stuff before high school through things like club sports. Kids are more focused on playing in Lebron James’ camp halfway across the country at age 13, rather than waiting for their big varsity moment.
If they don’t make the club team, than what’s the point or if they’ve already had those highlight moments at a young age they lose interest.
Making the Decision to Play Club Sports
If you and your child decide that club sports are the way to go, because they present a more challenging experience than that’s great. Have a thorough discussion with your child prior to getting involved with a club sport, to review the pros and cons to make an informed decision.
I’d recommend finding a coach that is aligned with your belief system on what is or isn’t too much for your kid. Do they support your child doing other sports or just that specific sport? If you are paying for your child to play, than you should be giving a “try-out” to the coach just as much as the coach is for your child to make the team.
See if they have the best interests of your child at heart, talk to some of the other parents to get a feel for whether their kids have fun playing for that club team. Find out what the coach expects. Club sports can still provide many of the same benefits of other youth sports.
I just think that there is a time and a place for club sports and hope parents can be more educated on what is going to be best for their child.
Negative Effects of Sports Specialization
Typically, when a kid gets involved in a club sport, that sport is the only sport that youth is participating in. With the investment the parents are making financially, it’s almost as if they have to play just that sport. When I was a kid, sports lasted the duration of their playing season and that was pretty much it.
Today a sport can run year round from camps, clinics, workout programs, etc. Coaches should continue to encourage multiple sports and be able to overlook players who aren’t attending all their year long programs. Some interesting research suggested that many professional athletes played 2 or more sports through high school.
If a child chooses to specialize, hopefully they decide to do so late in their high school career, and even then take some time away from that sport throughout the year.
Some Negative Effects of Sport Specialization include:
- Burnout
- More likely to stop playing sports
- Increase injury rate
- May actually decrease performance in the sport, since participating in multiple sports helps strengthen different parts of the body
Who’s really benefiting, the kids or professionals?
If the kids sole purpose is to have fun when it comes to playing youth sports, than who is really benefiting from an overly competitive win at all cost mentality. It surely can’t be the kids.
Coaches Benefiting
As a youth sports coach, I’ve experienced the challenges that come from trying to make a living coaching youth sports. Coaches within the education system don’t make much money, in fact it may not even be minimum wage.
Usually a head coach at the high school level makes the most money which is typically a stipend on top of their teaching salary maybe around $5000. A coach easily puts in 20 hours per week conducting practices, scouting, watching film, meeting with coaches, booster clubs, and planning.
This is in addition to a 40 hour per week full time teaching job or job outside of education. Compare this to the million dollar salaries of some collegiate or professional level coaches and it’s easy to understand why coaches want to win. A lot of coaches have a mindset of working up the ladder to possibly someday be able to work at the highest level.
In order to be noticed for higher paying jobs, success is typically measured by wins and losses. Nobody is going around interviewing former players to find out how successful that coach made them in life, instead it’s how many state championships were won.
I don’t’ fault coaches that want to better themselves and be the best they can be while doing it with integrity. It just becomes a tough line to walk.
Parents Benefiting
Parents should want what’s best for their kids. When full ride scholarships, which could cover hundreds of thousands of dollars of their child’s education are being administered, or with the potential to make millions playing professionally, it’s understandable how playing into that competitive mindset can happen with parents.
Parents are easily influenced by looking at things like club sports as an investment for their kid’s future, and get caught up in pressuring their kids to focus on one sport as a way to be monetarily rewarded.
Everyone Else Benefits
Apparel companies are cashing in on tournaments affiliated with their names to build their brand. Agents are cashing in on making promises or paying cash to families to sway kids to their way of thinking whether it’s legal or not. Drug dealers are cashing in on performance enhancing substances that kids are cheated into thinking they need.
Kids Lose
It’s the kids that truly lose when youth sports become all about winning. The kids are the ones that are physically hurt when a coach plays them for their own advantage, even though they’re injured.
The kids are the ones who’s self-esteem is hurt when they are screamed at for missing a play or their parents belittle them in front of everyone. It’s the kids that suffer emotionally when they are forced to sit so the better players can play the entire game in a youth sports league.
What makes youth sports fun?
There aren’t many kids that will tell you that they play youth sports because it helps them to maintain a healthy weight. Most kids would respond by saying they play to have fun.
This goes against the grain of the win at all cost mentality that is commonly occurring with youth sports. So, what do kids actually mean by having fun?
Playing time– First off, they are actually playing the game. I don’t think that any kid wants to sit on the sideline to watch the sport that they actually want to participate in. I wrote a post on how to handle being benched on your high school team, which can help teach many valuable lessons, but I still don’t think many kids would say they are really enjoying sitting on the bench, even if the team is winning.
Making Friends-Many youth sports are team sports which allows for kids to be able to establish friendships. Lots of long lasting friendships come from participating in sports. Many of the friends we have share our interests, so it becomes easy to make friends while playing a sport together that everyone enjoys.
Being Encouraged– When kids have coaches that make the youth sports experience positive, by helping them feel good about themselves, it makes it fun for the kids. Coaches and parents can celebrate when kids have little successes or when kids learn how to improve their skills. Having the support of family, friends, and loved ones at games is enjoyable for kids.
Something that Challenges Kids- Youth sports provide a platform for kids to be challenged through competition and working towards mastering sport skills. Nobody likes to be bored, especially kids, and having something that can mentally and physically challenge kids, without setting them up for failure, is fun.
Quick Tips for Parents and Coaches to make Youth Sports Fun
Adults, coaches, and youth sports organizations help maintain a culture that promotes the wellbeing of the youth participants. As parents, we can take a step back and look at our expectations for our kids when it comes to youth sports. Check out my post: 10 ways parents can bring fun back to youth sports.
Coaches can continue to increase their awareness through education and focus on the “each child wins” mentality over the win-loss record mentality.
Here are a few quick tips:
- Emphasize Fun
- Get everyone in the game
- Keep a positive attitude
- Use positive reinforcement
- Demonstrate good sportsmanship- See my post on sportsmanship.
- Encourage multiple sport participation
- Create a Team culture
- Teach skills
- Parents make it a good car ride home
- Ask your kids if they’re having fun
- Be a good listener
- Be a Cheer leader- See my post here
Let’s think back to our childhood days when we got lost in the sports we loved, when we experienced pure joy.
We want our kids to experience that through youth sports, and they can, but it’s up to us to keep the joy in youth sports. Let’s be the catalysts for promoting everything that’s right about youth sports, so our kids will keep coming back to reap the benefits.
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