razz
5-10-16, 5:25pm
DD1 and I have had a number of discussions about the kids and sports and the challenges involved. This CBC article http://www.cbc.ca/sports/sports-participation-canada-kids-1.3573955 has taken a fair view of the situation, I think.
Do we spend too many hours and resources on the limited too few, too early and neglect that sports are supposed to be fun and not so competitive and expensive as to turn kids away from sports?
By about age 13, many youngsters have already stepped away from an active life style. And it can't simply be chalked up to laziness, video games or "kids these days."
In fact, adults should get much of the blame. Most kids quit because they think they're not good enough — a by-product, experts say, of the hyper-competitive environment that lords over most youth sports.
"Just because a kid at age 10 isn't on a scholarship track doesn't mean there shouldn't be a place for them in the game," says John O'Sullivan, founder of the Changing the Game Project, a Portland, Ore.-based organization trying to put the "play" back in "play ball."
Obsessed with the best
Nearly three quarters of Canadians — 73 per cent — agree, saying that children's sports have become too focused on winning at the exclusion of fun and fair play, according to the study.
And yet, our continued obsession with rooting out the "best" players at an early age is having a devastating effect, O'Sullivan says.
"The problem is we are trying to select out the 'talent' far, far too young, by starting highly tiered teams with cuts. We're saying these eight-year-olds are on the top team, so they get the best coaching and best facilities, and these other kids go down this house league track. "
O'Sullivan says this makes little sense, even if your only goal is to develop the top athletes.
Karri Dawson is director of the True Sport Foundation, a national charitable organization dedicated to advancing sport in Canada and a partner on the study with Vital Signs.
She says parents should look at athletes on Canada's Olympic teams.
"Chances are they were multi-sport athletes," she says. "They played hockey in the winter, soccer in the summer and they participated in different sports at school. They cross-trained, and they exercised all kinds of different muscles and abilities that one day made them gifted at a particular sport."
Rising costs
Even if children are able to navigate the ultra-competitive landscape of youth sports, and even if they actually have the skills to compete at the highest level, it still may not be enough.
The Vital Signs/True Sport Foundation study finds that the rising cost of sports is also a barrier for many families. The most recent data shows that six out of 10 children from low-income households are active in sports, compared with 8.5 out of 10 from families with incomes over $80,000...
Sounds straightforward. And, indeed, the key to keeping more Canadian kids active, say the authors behind the report, could be keeping things simple.
"It doesn't have to be the big hockey league or big, institutionalized sport," says Rose. "It can be as simple as a pick-up game of hockey or soccer in the park in the summer."
To do that, though, we may need to drop our obsession with being the best, says O'Sullivan.
"We're so scared that we aren't going to keep up that we're doing all this stuff that goes against everything we know about how to make sports better."
Do we spend too many hours and resources on the limited too few, too early and neglect that sports are supposed to be fun and not so competitive and expensive as to turn kids away from sports?
By about age 13, many youngsters have already stepped away from an active life style. And it can't simply be chalked up to laziness, video games or "kids these days."
In fact, adults should get much of the blame. Most kids quit because they think they're not good enough — a by-product, experts say, of the hyper-competitive environment that lords over most youth sports.
"Just because a kid at age 10 isn't on a scholarship track doesn't mean there shouldn't be a place for them in the game," says John O'Sullivan, founder of the Changing the Game Project, a Portland, Ore.-based organization trying to put the "play" back in "play ball."
Obsessed with the best
Nearly three quarters of Canadians — 73 per cent — agree, saying that children's sports have become too focused on winning at the exclusion of fun and fair play, according to the study.
And yet, our continued obsession with rooting out the "best" players at an early age is having a devastating effect, O'Sullivan says.
"The problem is we are trying to select out the 'talent' far, far too young, by starting highly tiered teams with cuts. We're saying these eight-year-olds are on the top team, so they get the best coaching and best facilities, and these other kids go down this house league track. "
O'Sullivan says this makes little sense, even if your only goal is to develop the top athletes.
Karri Dawson is director of the True Sport Foundation, a national charitable organization dedicated to advancing sport in Canada and a partner on the study with Vital Signs.
She says parents should look at athletes on Canada's Olympic teams.
"Chances are they were multi-sport athletes," she says. "They played hockey in the winter, soccer in the summer and they participated in different sports at school. They cross-trained, and they exercised all kinds of different muscles and abilities that one day made them gifted at a particular sport."
Rising costs
Even if children are able to navigate the ultra-competitive landscape of youth sports, and even if they actually have the skills to compete at the highest level, it still may not be enough.
The Vital Signs/True Sport Foundation study finds that the rising cost of sports is also a barrier for many families. The most recent data shows that six out of 10 children from low-income households are active in sports, compared with 8.5 out of 10 from families with incomes over $80,000...
Sounds straightforward. And, indeed, the key to keeping more Canadian kids active, say the authors behind the report, could be keeping things simple.
"It doesn't have to be the big hockey league or big, institutionalized sport," says Rose. "It can be as simple as a pick-up game of hockey or soccer in the park in the summer."
To do that, though, we may need to drop our obsession with being the best, says O'Sullivan.
"We're so scared that we aren't going to keep up that we're doing all this stuff that goes against everything we know about how to make sports better."