I recently attended a conference that touched on the reasons why certain children remain interested in youth sports while others never do. The speaker mentioned an elementary school gym teacher who tried to instill interest in athletics to every student. After witnessing the daily games of kick-ball, soccer, and basketball, he noticed that the fast, athletic looking kids were always chosen first leaving their less-skilled classmates feeling dejected and often searching for better recreation options.
The teacher sensed the underlying problem and changed the schedule the following afternoon by implementing a tug-of-war contest between his students. The teacher witnessed the heavier set students striding up to the front of the rope and taking their position as team captains. The teacher achieved a balancing act that seems relatively simple, but it is actually one of the largest problems of today’s youth sports – How to let every kid witness the good feelings and success that comes with either winning or achieving a goal.
To help solve this problem, some program directors are separating youth leagues on competitive levels. Other facilities are stressing the recreational side of the program and deemphasizing the competitive side of the activity by not using scoreboards and even eliminating coaches in certain cases. While we don’t want to ram a win at all costs attitude down our youth’s throat, eliminating the competitive elements may in fact go against the true essence of sports and be less beneficial in the long-term for impacting the lives of the participants.
Undeniably, the true essence of sports is winning and losing: one victorious team and a counterpart that is left wondering what might have been. The objective of all sports is to beat the opposition, and without this stipulation, games would lose their sense of urgency, emotion, and accomplishment. This competitive side of athletics is essential when introducing a sport to juniors as it provides them the opportunities to elevate themselves to higher levels of success while also generating a proficient work ethic.
There have been many concerns over introducing competition to youth at a young age, citing that it promotes poor sportsmanship and produces arrogance among an elite few. I would suggest that this is more or less a product of the coaches and the parents rather than of the kids themselves, who tend to naturally enjoy the game.
Continuing with this theme, the dictionary definition of “sportsmanship” refers to fair play, a striving spirit, and showing grace in losing. According to this definition, the competitive side of athletics would have to remain a central theme of the game to demonstrate what good sportsmanship represents. The way that winning and losing is handled teaches us how to show personal restraint, express humility, and develop friendships, skills that last a lifetime. These characteristics are tied to sports like a cinema score is to an Oscar winning movie; they are always in the backdrop, but become more prominent as time moves along.
Without the competitive side of athletics, some kids may miss out on the opportunity to be positively impacted by their particular sport. With creative programming and coaching, all kids can witness personal success, experience the feelings of satisfaction, and be motivated to work harder in times of defeat. The essence of sport is seeing the thrill of victory in the courageous eyes of a youth while watching the losing participants graciously shake the hands of their opponents, knowing full-well they will be better the next time around. These intangibles are what make sports so nationally appealing and what make them an ideal learning environment for forging friendships, team dynamics, and self-motivation.
At an early age, we want every youth to be able to compete and have fun along the way. However, if they choose to participate, we want them to experience the true sport and all of its rewards. They need to understand the highs, lows, joys, and pitfalls that come with participating in a sport, recognizing the similarities between their success in the game and in their own lives. Otherwise, the youth are not participating in sports; they are merely keeping themselves occupied. Placing kids in different ability groups and running a variety of skills challenges are great programming methods that allow kids to gain confidence from their personal success. Using these creative programming ideas, a director or coach can provide every youth the competition, friendships, memories, and successful ventures that only sports has to offer.
Some of the ideas presented were discussed at the National Alliance of Youth Sports (NAYS) Conference in Indianapolis, IN on September 17-19th. For more information on NAYS phone 561-684-1141 or go to www.nays.org.
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