by ANDREA LEGGETT
Youth sports have seen children, families, and communities through many life-changing world events since their inception in the US. The Great Depression, several wars, natural disasters, national tragedies like 9/11, and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many industries are seeing recovery and a slow return to normal, but youth sports participation continues to decline. Changing family dynamics, new financial struggles, and mounting academic challenges that were all exposed by the pandemic are all contributing factors to this decline, but kids’ interest in youth sports was declining even before 2020.
Why is this something to be concerned about?
Sports have never just been about winning, as any coach or parent will tell you. Here are four ways sports have supported families–and what we can do to bring kids back.
Play
When school attendance became mandatory and kids were pulled away from farms and factories, communities weren’t sure how to handle play. Adults forget how important play is–remember all those days riding bikes through our neighborhoods, running through the woods, impromptu games of football, falling off of the jungle gyms?
Children of all ages have a developmental need to play. It’s how they learn to problem solve, communicate, think creatively, and so much more. In our modern world, schedules are tighter, parents are working longer, and school is becoming more competitive. The hours of free play time that we had as kids might not be available to our kids now.
Youth sports provide the amount of physical activity recommended for kids and give them the opportunity to build relationships while learning new skills–and being silly! Valuable developmental skills are practiced under the guidance of trusted adults and with kids they might not otherwise get to socialize with.
COMMUNITY
Families of athletes spend a lot of time together. All day tournaments, traveling to competitions, practices several days a week–you get to know each other pretty well.
Youth sports provide the chance for communities to come together, which is especially critical in our post-pandemic world. We spent many months away from each other to keep everyone safe, and now we’re playing catch up for that valuable time.
Teams become a family of their own, celebrating individual wins as well as team wins and making close friendships with each other–sometimes families that would never have met each other otherwise.
INCLUSIVITY
Everyone deserves the chance to celebrate their bodies and master new athletic skills. Youth sports are a way for children of all abilities to join a team, play with their peers, and develop important skills.
Events like the Special Olympics provide role models for all of our children, regardless of their ability, and celebrate incredible athletic achievements by folks who may otherwise have been left out of programs.
Personal development
Kids learn so much through youth sports, whether they’re on teams or played individually. They learn how to win and lose gracefully, how to cooperate and work with others, how to be disciplined, and so much about how to take care of their bodies.
We might not think as much about this, but coaches get personal development benefits, too. Adults working with kids learn things like how to be flexible thinkers and how to communicate better. We get to practice skills and access parts of ourselves that we may not often use in adulthood. Most adults would agree that supporting kids makes them a better person.
So with all of these positive things sports do for kids and families, how do we get them to come back?
We should focus on supporting these four pillars, building our teams and organizations around them so families can see the benefits.
Focus on building relationships between coaches, parents, and athletes.
Train coaches in learning how to support kids off the field.
Become an active presence in our local communities.
Make it about more than just winning.
Check out our other articles for more ideas around this.
