Promoting physical, mental and social wellness plays a pivotal role in youth sports – this, according to research by North Dakota State University, and published in Routledge Sports Studies.
Brad Strand is a professor in sport management at NDSU. He says research shows that how coaches and parents engage and support youth may be more important than any other aspect of youth sports. And he says that can be tough to come by, because in sports – hard work, competition and winning at all costs can become part of the equation.
"Youth sports, in itself, can foster lots of good things. It can teach emotion regulation, it can teach coping skills, it can teach obviously sports skills, health and relationships. It can do a lot of good things. But unfortunately, sometimes the will to win or the pressure to win, the desire for competition, the having to be first, the practice at all costs, the travel - it's a heavy burden for a lot of kids to carry with them. And what could be a positive experience for kids ends up being more negative in many cases. You know, they sign up to have fun. And when it becomes something other than fun, a lot of kids decide to drop out."
Strand says 70 percent of kids who join youth sports will quit their teams by the time they turn 13.
He says at present, youth sports is currently a $20 billion industry, and in a few years it’s expected to be over $77 billion. Strand says with those kinds of stakes, it can be easy to get caught up in long term payoffs. He says for some families, perspective is lost because most kids do not go on to be star players who go off to school on scholarships, or end up with professional contracts. For most kids, Strand says, youth sports should be a positive experience that leads to a lifetime of being physically active.