TPM #289: Start with WHY.
Using this time of year to slow down and explore the WHY behind youth sport.
This is the time of the year in the western world where we look back on 2024 and forward to 2025. Highlights and challenges of the year.
What are we looking forward to in 2025? Things we want to accomplish or continue to develop?
This is a great time to quickly review the WHY behind our participation in youth sport. As parents and coaches, understanding the WHY can help with clarity, purpose and accomplishment.
Unfortunately, we live in a drive through/phone app age where we too often act first and think later. It is of our own creation of course, where we want more, quicker. We, and our kids get inundated with ideas and thoughts. Some experts estimate that humans have around 70,000 thoughts a day.
Scientists have measured the amount of data that enter the brain and found that an average person living today processes as much as 74 GB in information a day (that is as much as watching 16 movies), through TV, computers, cell phones, tablets, billboards, and many other gadgets. Every year it is about 5% more than the previous year. Only 500 years ago, 74 GB of information would be what a highly educated person consumed in a lifetime, through books and stories.
When we consider what we are exposed to, it makes sense to slow down and think through the WHY of what we do.
Slowing down and doing so is more of challenge today than ever before, but so worth it.
When it comes to youth sport, WHY do we participate? WHY Do we want our kids involved? WHY do we spend so much time and money in this pursuit?
In 2009, Author Simon Sinek published START WITH WHY. The concepts apply to many aspects of life, primarily focused on business and productivity but also to many of the decisions we face every day. I thought it would be fun to apply this to youth sport.
According to Sinek:
WHY is the thing that inspires us and inspires those around us. Finding your WHY is critical before we jump into HOW.
At a recent gathering over the holidays, I got talking with another baseball parent who’s son is off to university to play ball. The topic came up of where he chose to go to school play ball (he chose a Canadian university). The young athlete made this choice with his family despite a lot of pressure from his local organization to go the USA college route. (A topic for an upcoming 2025 article). What he chose is not relevant here as much as WHY he chose what he did.
Dad told me that our young athlete (who I know for a fact is very, very skilled and been training hard to be so since he was 10 years old) felt quite strongly that the last 2 years of playing became less and less fun due to the pressure for playing time and exposure to the promised land of USA recruitment.
The fun was getting squeezed out for our young athlete, so the family explored options to go to college and play ball locally.
It was so refreshing to hear about a family who stopped to ask WHY ?
WHY was he playing?
WHY Was he training?
WHY is this not fun anymore?
When it stopped being fun, then tensions rise. Nothing good happens when this happens.
Unfortunately, we are guilty of getting caught up in the pursuit of something to lose sight of the WHY. I witness this more and more in youth sport.
So many talk about “having fun” as the key pursuit of WHY in youth sport, but there are other reasons, many of which we have documented over the years here in The Physical Movement.
Some examples of WHYs to get us thinking this way:
From ages 4-8, the WHY behind youth sport is discovery, building confidence and physical literacy. Finding something that our young one enjoys. It is the perfect age to try new things. When I see 7 and under or 8u AAA teams in whatever sport, I really think we have lost our way. This is an age to discover new activities, new friends, new confidence, new ways to move.
From ages 9-13, solid WHY’s also include discovery but perhaps discovery a little deeper into activities they like. Competition can be introduced and provides lots of life skills when framed the right way. I am not sold on the benefits of AAA until 11 or 12 for those who qualify*, but for those with the interest and skillset this could be a solid outlet in pursuing the WHY.
*Those who qualify is a smaller number than most parents realize.
From ages 14 and up, this is where trying new things takes a back seat in a lot of youth sport (Unfortunately) and many leave organized sport. It becomes too big a commitment at the competitive level, too expensive and getting harder and harder to find recreational opportunities at this age group. WHY should be driven by activities that build self esteem and physical and mental health. If any activity infringes or becomes destructive at this age to those components, let’s find something that does boost rather than destroy.
It breaks my heart to see so many kids leave youth sport as they turn into teenagers. It is well documented that sport participation among youth has steadily declined in the past decade. A recent study found that motivation as well as sport experience had the strongest relationships with drop-outs.
I would venture to say that leaving youth sport has many in tune with questioning WHY. I would also say that connecting with the WHY will keep choices in line with values, goals and outcomes desired with being part of the journey. If we take the time to process them!
Have a Happy New Year and let’s connect again in 2025!