Youth Sports

Written by Jesse

Thursday, 18 June 2009 11:35

No Goal, No Dinner

Harsh, I know. But, this is serious. These kids are eight years old. They’re not getting any younger. If they’re going to earn college scholarships, they need to be playing soccer 24-7. Geez, they get out on the field and goof around like it’s recreation or something!

Ok, this sounds a bit drastic. But, honestly, I don’t think it’s too far from the truth in some homes. We’ve all seen it. Parents coaching from the bleachers and screaming from the sidelines. Have these parents have ever played a sport themselves? At swim meets, they shout “kick harder” at swimmers whose ears are, thankfully, under water. At soccer games they scream “don’t be afraid of the ball” but, had they ever been struck by one of those things, they too would be afraid of the ball. They expect their kids to hit harder in football and jump higher in volleyball and pitch nothing but strikes on the baseball field.

But they don’t expect them to have fun. So, after a few years of getting berated from the sidelines, these same kids are ready to call it quits. The fun is gone. They’re burned out by age 11.

As a parent of athletes and a former athlete myself, I have noticed three major differences between sports when I was young and sports today. One, kids never had repetitive use injuries when I was a kid. Two, kids never burned out on a sport when I was a kid. And three, kids organized their own “pick-up games” when I was a kid.

Recently, I read an interesting book on the topic of kids in sports. The book is entitled “Just Let The Kids Play: How to Stop Other Adults from Ruining Your Child’s Fun and Success in Youth Sports”, and it was written by Bob Bigelow, Tom Moroney and Linda Hall. The authors makes a strong case for keeping very young athletes out of “select” and “club” sports. I tend to agree with them. Our kids are facing so much pressure to excel in academics and all other facets of their lives that it’s taking a toll. Of all things, at least sports should be fun. If your young athlete wants to play on an organized team, find a recreational league that will be fun and will allow you to preserve your family time. Many leagues allow only one practice per week and no late night or Sunday games. Some leagues compete only against other local teams, so no travel is involved. Fun! Cheap! Sane!

But, if the sound of “recreational league” makes you snicker smugly, perhaps it’s time to examine your motives. Are you looking for bragging rights or college scholarships? Repeat after me: sports are for the kids, sports are for recreation, sports are for fitness and learning to be part of a team, sports can provide great benefits to children, and sports can do all of this with one practice per week and one local game on Saturday.

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