For the second half of this rather long chapter, our authors begin with a discussion of the difference between adult organized and peer play. Within adult organized sports the actions of the players are regulated. There is a strong emphasis on order. Kids wait to be told what to do by the adults, and spontaneous behavior is equal to “horsing around.” The kids get to make very few decisions and carry out the decisions of adults. The athletes are closely supervised and the kids may stop playing if the coach is not around. In peer play games, the players rely on informal rules to regulate the game. Kids make consensual decisions and there are few rules. Instead of focusing on winning, the kids’ focus is on action, personal involvement, keeping the game close, and reaffirming friendships. The peer games are often voluntary, flexible, and based in consensus. What youth sports or activities best fit within these descriptions? Are there adult sports that act as peer play? (Hint: The adult activities that I can think of are often strongly associated with California.)
Moreover, when looking at youth sports, we are often told that youth sports build character, but is this true? This is tough to say, however, researchers have attempted to measure sports affect on “life skills.” Life skills are conceptualized as psycho-social abilities that enable individuals to deal effectively deal with the demand and challenges of everyday life. Specifically, researchers have examined how sport participation may assist kids develop responsibility, self-confidence, leadership skills, self-esteem, and the ability to make decisions. Alternatively, researchers have examined youth sports to see if they may hamper the child’s social development. Sadly, we do not have many conclusive studies, because many of the studies do not test for causation, but correlation. We may find that young athletes are more likely to have x characteristic, but it is difficult to know if that characteristic was present prior to sport participation or if that characteristic developed during sport participation. (Note: I recently set up a study to see if an after school program actually improved self-esteem, self-efficacy, and so on, but the after school program backed out of the study due to the intensive work that was needed to actually test for causation.)
While there aren’t as many studies done as we would like, researchers have found evidence to support the notion that developing sport competencies and skills positively influences a child’s self-evaluation and their social esteem among their peers. Research has consistently shown that young sports participants score higher on a variety of test that measure mental health. Moreover, we can think of our own experiences in high school where the most “popular” guys on campus are often athletes. Interestingly, this doesn’t carry over to university, even at the big sport schools.
Despite the benefits of organized youth sports, young athletes face many issues during their participation as well. First, adult intrusions into the sports can be a problem. This is most obvious when it comes to adult violence at games or practices. Second, some parents and coaches may be living out their own sport dreams through the young athletes. Adults may see the youth’s accomplishment as their own, which may encourage the parents to place pressure on the kids to perform. Moreover, while kids used to switch sports with the seasons, today, we see more kids being pushed to specialize within a single sport. College coaches are recruiting from middle-schools, which may put tremendous pressure on our young athletes. Traveling teams or club teams may place a great deal of pressure young athletes (and financial pressure on families). Traveling teams are attractive because the traveling teams often offer better coaching, players play on well-kept facilities, there is year-round training, and there are opportunities for elite competition. However, within this world there is often little regard for anything but winning. Within these leagues, the youth often must abandon other sports, and travel with their team year round. The family must be re-center themselves around youth sports and some families relocate or send their children off to sport academies. Interestingly, my university is not far from Cooperstown. It is amazing how many families come out here for youth baseball games during the summer. It is an amazing part of our summer economy, but it is an enormous cost to the baseball families and the local residents. Baseball rentals can easily cost over 1K per week, which is a significant cost for the families (and it plays a role in raises housing costs for locals in the area who do not make much money, the median household income in Oneonta, NY is about 40K. Sadly, the baseball families and my students from Long Island play a significant role in making rural NY too expensive for most of the locals.)
Youth may also have their education disrupted in favor of their sport. When young athletes must practice for eight hours a day or travel on a regular basis it may interfere with their ability to go to school. Some families turn to tutors or sports academies. However, in my research on skateboarders, I saw many of the young (working class) skaters simply drop out of school in order to pursue a career in skateboarding. Athletic careers do not last forever and many will never make it big, so a lack of an education may hinder the life chances of the athlete as he/she ages. Injury is another significant risk in youth sports. Heavy participation and over-training result in a greater likelihood of being injured. As our book points out, some doctors are seeing younger and younger athletes coming in for serious surgeries. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr9cWRXjOF4 PLEASE MAKE SURE TO WATCH THIS WHOLE VIDEO ).
In addition, in some youth sport worlds, wining is everything. The young athletes’ win-lose records may define them. Adults and one’s peers may shower winners with prestige and honor, while the losers suffer disdain and ridicule ( back when the Simpsons were funny there was an episode where Bart and Lisa play hockey that perfectly describes this situation https://youtu.be/3SS_q5NbK5o?t=1m5s ).
The question is how do we encourage young people to be active, but avoid overburdening them with pressure? Childhood has changed for contemporary youth; kids are spending a great deal of time indoors, watching TV, playing video games, and clicking around on the Internet. The indoor childhood has become more common in the past 10 years. There have been declines in spontaneous outdoor activities such as bike riding, swimming, and touch football. The indoor docile lifestyle of contemporary youth, is contributing to an increase in childhood obesity. How do we combat this? How do we encourage sport for young people while not placing too much pressure on them and assist them in avoiding unnecessary injuries? How do we combat a growing number of hyper involved parents, sport academies, and other organizations that profit from the current system? How do we retain the best aspects of youth sport and avoid the worst?
For the second half of the chapter, I want you all simply to respond to the chapter, the required video, and/or some of the questions above. There are portions of the chapter that I didn’t cover in this “intro,” such as Sports Academies (I mentioned them but I didn’t go into detail), Youth Olympic Games, etc., you should consider commenting on these sections.
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