Many of our guests on the Champions School podcast have a standard and central theme: be a kid! With the growth of social media and the rush many people seem to have through life, we tend to forget the importance of letting kids be kids. Part of being a kid is participating in extracurricular activities, whether it is sports, music, art, etc. It gives kids the opportunity to express themselves, build a sense of community, and potentially figure out what their passions are (or aren’t).
A recent RAND Corporation study tried to better understand sports participation rates for middle and high school-aged youths and barriers and enablers to youth sports participation by surveying parents, school administrators, and community sports program leaders. They found that those surveyed stated sports participation benefits youth in physical health, social and emotional skills, and academics. 77% indicated that youth sports are essential for children’s social development, and 74% felt that youth sports could provide a pathway to success for low-income or at-risk kids.
Putting Pressure on Kids
What stuck out to me was that 81% felt that coaching could make or break a child’s enjoyment of sports. This is a critical factor in letting kids just be kids. Too often, we pressure kids to try and become the next Derek Jeter or Mike Trout. As coaches and parents, if we aren’t paying attention to how we act or the kind of pressure we put on them at such a young age, we can truly impact their love for the game. Often coaches can get too wrapped up in winning rather than the well-being of the kids on the field.
Parents in the survey also strongly agreed that youth sports are becoming too specialized early and have become too competitive. This is indicative of Ronnie Bernick’s point on our last Champions School episode that we are pushing the showcase deal too much and forgetting about teaching kids the fundamentals of sports. Some parents and coaches can be so hyper-focused on getting the kid to the next level that we forget about making sure that kid has fun in the sport. Allowing and encouraging kids to try multiple sports can help too. This can reduce the chances of overspecialization in a particular sport and enable kids to explore to see if there might be something else that they might love.
It all comes down to making sure that we focus on the development of not just the athlete but also the kid. The well-being of the youth athlete is more important than the potential opportunity they might have to play at the next level. If we focus on letting the kids have fun and developing the fundamentals necessary to play the sport they want to achieve, everything else will fall into place.
Equal Access to Youth Sports
The unfortunate part is that not every community has the resources they need to access youth sports. The RAND study found that sports participation gaps exist between youths from lower-income families and those from middle- and higher-income families. Only 52% of parents from lower-income families reported that their students in grades 6-12 participated in sports compared to 66% of middle- and higher-income families. A lot of the lack of access has to do with sports fees increasing in schools but school budgets not increasing, time commitment from parents, and the cost to participate and buy equipment or other additional expenses.
The report found that community-based organizations can help reduce out-of-pocket costs for lower-income families and all families when possible and provide stipends for any necessary personal sports equipment that the school or organization does not supply. Finding ways to offset these costs in underserved urban and rural areas can pay huge dividends down the road.
That is why all of us at Major League University and Project Sandlot are trying to find ways to provide these needed mental skills resources to underserved urban and rural communities across the United States. The heart of Project Sandlot will be to take the Sandlot Fund to provide youth sports opportunities to communities in the most need of it. Major League University is also setting up a 501c3 where we will aim to provide free youth camps focused on mental skills in underserved low-income and urban and rural areas. The goal will be to allow youth in these communities to access resources that help them succeed on the field and provide them with a healthy foundation for success in life.
As coaches and parents, we have the opportunity to impact our kids and future generations positively. We have the opportunity to help them grow and let them find the things they are passionate about. We should never be trying to live through them vicariously but do everything in our power to support them on this crazy journey of life. With that mindset, we can set them up for successful futures in what they love the most.
