WHEN WINNING MEANS LOSING
"Our culture bombards us with messages that winning is everything," Daugherty says. "But many people don't seem to realize that youth sports are different from professional sports. Pro sports are about winning games and making money. Youth sports are about having fun, improving skills, developing character and learning to make a lifetime commitment to physical activity."
Kids who feel pressured to win are at risk for dropping out, says ASEP's school sports specialist David McCann. "The two main reasons kids play sports is to have fun and to be with their friends," McCann says. "Winning is way down on their list." Most kids would rather be active participants on a losing team, he says, than sit on the bench of a winning one.
IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN
Overemphasis on competition is central to why an estimated four to five percent of the 25 million American kids involved in organized sports drop out each year, says Marty Ewing of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University. This dropout rate jumps to 10 to 14 percent when kids hit middle school, an age she calls "the most critical time in a child's life" to encourage activity. Precisely when budding adolescents need the physical and mental benefits of sports participation, they are at the greatest risk of quitting and becoming sedentary.
"Community programs exist for kids ages six to 13, but opportunities diminish in middle school," Ewing says. "If kids don't make their school team, they often don't have other options."
At this age, too, middle schoolers complain that sports "become too serious and stop being fun," she says. "Girls say coaches put them under too much pressure; boys complain that coaches play favorites. And kids who aren't very good feel discouraged from playing at all."
