Psychology Of Sports

The thinking that young children should only play or master one position is not in the child’s best interests –it is also outdated thinking. This also applies to high school and college players as well. First, for the young athlete the idea that they should master one position does not take into account changes in their overall development. It also deprives them of seeing the field from another perspective and getting a better overall view of the game, as well as perhaps finding a position they might like. All you have to do is look at the professional ranks to see players who have changed positions. The best example of course is baseball where changing positions is very common. Most youth won’t go on to play pro sports, might as well let them play where they can and enjoy themselves. For the advanced athlete the more positions he/she can play the more valuable they are to the team. Simple as that.

Youth Sport Directed Syndrome

There have been so many changes in the field of youth sport that not only would it be hard to list them it seems impossible to determine the long range effects of these changes. But the short range effects do not look to good.
Today the youth of our nation is so over-coached and directed by adults one has to wonder how our children can think at all.

Gone are the playgrounds and parks where kids worked out their differences between themselves. Gone are the pick-up games where children refereed their own games and decided if a ball was fair or foul and made their own lineups. Can you imagine?

Given the current state of youth-directed sport I cannot imagine how we ever chose up sides and played so many sports and games without adult assistance or direction.

What is perplexing about the whole thing is that for the most part it is the baby-boomer generation who played so freely and creatively who ushered in the “youth sport adult directed syndrome” we have today.

How did we get here?  The exodus to the suburbs surely had something to do with it. I think the economic affluence of this generation also had something to  do with it. Children of today have so many more things than the baby-boomer generation. Perhaps it can be blamed on technology.  Let’s face it you do not have to go to far today to be connected to another human being. If you are  reading this then you are connected, or at least have the capacity to be connected.

How does the mindset of a free thinking generation create a generation that appears to be less active, less productive in creating new and different games to play? I am not sure. 

Highlands Ranch, a 9-year-old boy has special tutors in baseball, basketball and football and a certified athletic trainer who videotapes his workouts. In Bradenton, Fla., a Broomfield teenager practices basketball five hours a day at a sports factory that produces pro and Olympic stars.In Littleton, two dozen youngsters start the school day with a 90-minute soccer class, part of the experimental curriculum at Jefferson County’s first charter school.In Thornton, a mother downloads the computerized results of a novel test that has measured her daughter’s potential in 43 sports. And in Monument, a father writes a $2,500 check to a company that will scour the nation for a college scholarship for his daughter.Welcome to the high-tech, hypercompetitive world of children’s sports, a bustling subculture where time-starved parents chauffeur their booked-up children from one activity to another, spend thousands of dollars a year chasing often elusive dreams and sacrifice their own social lives for child’s play.

The Above is From The Rocky Mountain News– From The Year 2000.

Not much has changed from seven years ago in fact things have probably ramped up a bit.  I have been to so many places that give private baseball lessons, watched thousands of kids getting lessons, been told by hundreds of parents that their kids are taking lessons, that if I had a dollar for all of these my fortune with rival Bloomberg’s.  Actually I am a proponent of kids taking lessons for a number of reasons which I will address in another posting.

Along with the lessons high school sports has also been a growing industry. I like to call it an introduction to professional sports at the high school level.  You have kids coming home from practices and games at midnight.  I have found this is not a good time for a kid to do his homework, or study. But it is what it is-and once again it is what we have created.  It is bigger than what I can control and effect so I try and navigate it. 

It is no mistake that kids drop out of sports at age 13 and from what I see and read obesity is on the rise.  Now there are many more reasons for this drop-out rate and the scale going up other than the ones listed above.  But make no mistake about it, when you need to take lessons, try out for highly competitive school teams and pay huge sums to play on travel teams that go to Australia it can be daunting for parents and kids alike. And the  funny part about it, it is that after you pay you are not guaranteed that your child will play.

We need to have a strong two tiered system. There is nothing the matter with having serious competitive teams in youth sport, it is just at what age and when. However, we need places where kids can play well into their teens without having to be on a team. Schools need to stay open in the evenings and offer this for the kids. Towns need to have strong intra-mural programs that cater to the recreational athlete and we need to make our playgrounds places for kids to meet and play games.  This is just the beginning of an overhaul that is needed in the system.

I frequently get asked about how highly competitive youth sport has become and the negative implications it has for our children. I have a lot to say about youth sport and there will be a few posts to follow.

To start, last I looked we live in a very competitive society where second place is not good enough. It extends from Candy Land, to the board room and to the presidency as it looks like Hilary Clinton is soon going to find out. You would think that it would be good enough just to have run for office and gotten this far? Not so. Same is true for Candy Land as the goal is to get to King Candy first–not second, not third and not fourth (I know my Candy Land colors).  Candy Land is a game recommended for three year olds.

Do I agree with this? Not relevant. It is the society in which we all live and it appears that it is not going to change any time soon. So I suggest that we prepare our children to function, exist and thrive in this environment. It is afterall the one we created.