We seem to be losing sight of this more and more every day.
“We know most aren’t going to make a living playing sports.
For this reason, the most important aspect of sports, especially at the youth levels are on the back end, not the front end.
How can we leverage sports to help them in life when the jersey is hung up?
That’s the game.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
I’m not saying that winning is unimportant and nor do I believe in participation trophies, either.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with competitive environments, either, because as we know, when the kids get into the real world, they will be exposed to the dog-eat-dog world that we know today.
On top of it, I know that despite not playing professionally, competitive athletics provide opportunities for kids from an educational standpoint (despite 10-18 travel ball costing more than some of the most expensive degrees.)
Where I am going with this is that if we lose sight of the very fact that most of these kids are not going to make a living playing sports, we lose out on the opportunity to leverage sports for their long-term benefit.
It doesn’t take somebody wrapped up in the thick of the youth sporting world to see and understand the toxicity and politics associated with the landscape our kids are playing in today. In many ways, it is a zero-sum game.
People get so wrapped up in children’s sports today and they forget the fact that these are underdeveloped (mentally and physically) children.
The negative implications of tying their identities to an often toxic sport culture has statistically shown itself over the last couple of decades.
More and more kids are walking away from sports earlier and earlier, if they’re even choosing to immerse themselves in sports at all.
13. THIRTEEN. By age 13, 70% of young athletes will drop out of organized sports.
As awful as that sounds, can you blame them? I mean can you?
We’ve demonized recreational athletics and called kids “losers” if they don’t play travel and then those kids who are looking to get on a travel team can’t even get on one that is reflective of their abilities because the rosters are already full with the kids who have been in the circuit since a single digit age.
High level travel ball.. Rec ball.. no ball at all.
Do you know where the vast majority of them end up?
NOT playing sports professionally.
This fact must guide how we approach the game as coaches and mentors because if we don’t leverage sports to their long-term benefit, the very sports that were “our greatest teachers” will continue to see less and less participation.
