Where Our Children Play: The Challenge of Youth?Sports
Giacomo Joel Franco
Executive Director @ WOCP | Producer & Director @ Chesapeake Films
Who are we doing this for?
Parents yelling on the sidelines, “Shoot!,” “Pass,!” “What’s wrong with you?”, “C’mon!”, “Kill that kid!”
This was a father to his son at a soccer game a few months ago, after our team tied the other at the buzzer and the boy was running on to the field to high five his teammates.
Dad finished the job with: “Don’t celebrate! You didn’t score.”
Coaches treating kids as if they were disposable. “You are shameful!” “You have to earn it!” “You are such a disappointment.”
They treat games and practices as if they were heading into a World Cup Final. “Spread out!” “Oh c’mon ref, are you blind?,” or “Hey, you trying to cheat our guys?” “Ref you suck!”
Clubs and travel teams having meetings to feverishly focus on winning at all costs, how to up their power in the community, and most of all, ways to make money.
The attitude? “We’ll conquer the world!” or “We’ll take over the town!” and then the obligatory, “We do it for the kids!” — even as they allow and even encourage abusive coaches to run practices undisturbed.
They are the gatekeepers of a system that’s failing.
A system that has put winning ahead of good sportsmanship
A system that has forgotten who we are doing this for … and the very real and traumatic toll it’s taking on these very real children, their families, and communities.
Our goal: To break the code of silence that everything is just fine.
Youth sports used to be about kids: fun, physical health, teamwork, and developing positive life skills.
It is now all about winning, fame, wealth, and glory — often for the adults, including the parents.
It is now often fueled by grandiose delusions for their children, overzealous coaches, and a private training mega-industry selling college athletic scholarships and professional or Olympic fame to parents who have been seduced by the idea of winning.
A quick look at the news confirms it. Famous, wealthy parents are lying and buying their children’s “athletic achievements” to get them into choice colleges.
Have we stopped and asked the kids of today why they play team sports — and looked at some of the stark consequences?
*Children who are pushed to the limits and under incredible pressure to perform, ending up injuring themselves at alarming rates[1] and out of sports by age 13, when over 70% of kids leave all competitions[2].
*Three out of four American families with school-aged children have at least one playing an organized sport — a total of about 45 million kids. By age 15, as many as 80 percent of these youngsters have quit, according to the Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine.[3]
Everything is not fine. What kids truly want!
A system that has forgotten who we are doing this for … and the very real and traumatic toll it’s taking on these very real children, their families, and communities.
While the adults are in a flurry over “winning,” in a 2014 George Washington University study, 9 of 10 kids said “fun” is the main reason they participate. When asked to define fun, they offered up 81 reasons — and ranked “winning” at №48. Young girls gave it the lowest ratings.[4]
When it’s no longer about fun … little egos are shredded, sometimes for life.
We intend to shed new light, perspective and expose the truth to insure that all those involved in youth sports can join hands and work as one to return youth sports to the children, so they can reap the many benefits we know can help them evolve into healthy adults, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Our mission is to expand the conversation; to push the audience to realize what is happening around them. But more, under the guidance of smart and passionate people with a shared vision, an openness to change, and a spirit of collaboration we can create a new culture of innovation.
That starts with knowing who we are doing this for.
OUR KIDS.
[1] Sports injuries accounted for 20 percent of all injury-related emergency department visits for children ages 6–19 — from National Athletic Trainer Association
[2] Whelan Jr., Tim Study: 70 percent of kids stop playing sports by 13 years old, USA Today High School Sports — April 19th, 2017.
[3] Atkinson, Jay, How parents are ruining youth sports — Adults should remember what athletics are really about,” — Boston Globe — May 4th, 2014
[4] The Aspen Institute — “The Play: Ask Kids What They Want”
Mindset Coach @Player Performance Project. Sport photographer with a different lens in youth sport: Founder Active Illustrated & Yellow for Yelling. Podcast “Off the Pitch with Active”.
3 年Hey Joel, for 20min I watched two teams of U10 training. Not once I heard an encouraging comment. Instead, I heard push harder, come on you can do better than that and on it went. A lot of coaches just need an idea of the bigger picture.