A youth baseball team poses for. team picture without masks.
With the vagaries and challenges of the COVID19 pandemic and its surges currently affecting every aspect of people’s lives, it is an appropriate time to rethink many aspects of our lives. In this blog, I am discussing what I believe is a real need to REEXAMINE youth sports, particularly those that involve expensive seasons and travel. This is not the first time that there have been voiced concerns regarding youth elite sport that involves travel. In fact, Tom Brady stated his concerns about it with these words:
“Youth sports, and what I remember from being in youth sports, everything was really localized. There were no travel teams. My parents always exposed us to different things, different sports. It was basketball when it was basketball season. It was baseball when it was baseball season. I didn’t play football until I was a freshman in high school. A lot of soccer. There were some camps, but I just played in the neighborhood in our street with all the kids we grew up with. It’s just different now, and I’m experiencing it with my own kids with all the organized activities that you put them in. It’s just hard, because all the parents are doing it, it seems, and the competition feels like it starts so early for these kids.” (1)
The sport of Hockey presents difficulties when it comes to social distancing.
In order to define exactly what I mean about REEXAMINING youth sports, it is fitting to provide a perspective on what the current picture was of youth sport before the pandemic hit. For every possible sport in the United States, there appears to have been a basic level of sport offered to help kids learn basic skills and enjoy a modicum of game play as these skills develop. We see these types of sports originating in schools and park and recreation departments, youth serving not-for-profit organizations such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs, and private organizations such as a local gymnastic club. From the beginner level, there is a progression to intermediate and advanced skill development in the formation of teams and leagues and competition. What seems to have accelerated over the past 20 years are highly organized team-based programs for youth, featuring tryouts and high fees, and parents and guardians have gravitated toward these team-based competitive programs with an eye toward the potential that their child will gain easier access to high school and college sports as well as the possibility of becoming an Olympian, a professional sport hero, or a similar achievement. At the very least, the prospect of a scholarship to pay for college expenses is intoxicating, and therefore, it is felt that if their child invests in this sport at an early age and gets involved in travel competition, they will be set for life.
Unfortunately, the rise of the attractiveness of travel-oriented sports has caused the basic physical development of youth to decrease for a number of reasons.
1. Travel-related sport TAKES TIME away from a kid’s ability to just play and examine many physical activities that will develop strength, flexibility, endurance, and aerobic capacity. By participating in a single sport to meet all of the requirements of travel, a participant may not develop some skills essential to being a healthy human.
2. Travel programs are COSTLY. In the newly released 2nd edition of Sport and Violence: A Critical Examination of Sport (2020) (2), Orr and Jamieson note the expense of a simple travel program for ONE sport as over $1000 per season. Often travel programs extend much beyond one season, so that investment can double or quadruple for just one child.
3. Often travel teams compete during many games in a season. In one case, a travel hockey team of 8 and 9 years old had 64 games on their schedule involving a great deal of travel, not to mention an exhaustive number of games for that age group.
4. Travel often involves driving long distances, but also includes flying. Due to the strictures imposed by COVID19, such travel may be restricted, or if continued, the disease may spread. At the very least, travel may need to be restricted to home team competitions and very little travel.
5. Travel often does not mean that a player gets to play more. In one experience, a family traveled 6 hours for a weekend tournament, paid for three nights at a hotel, spent three days eating out, and the player played only 30 SECONDS per game! After that experience, the participant enrolled the following season in a house league that did not travel and played a significant amount of every game, raising his skill level to be eligible to play on a high school sport club.
6. As a result of the intensity and possibility safety concerns with travel sports, many youth drop out very early and discontinue sport due to discouragement and stress.
Considering safety, economic, and developmental factors, it is my opinion that travel programs should be seriously re-evaluated, and many should cease the extent and geographical range of competitions. These programs should be replaced with community-based skill development programs that involve local competitive experiences and home-based skill development that support practices and games.
I know my suggestions may appear draconian in nature; however, the new National Youth Sports Policy, published by United States Health and Human Services supports such re-examination, and as stated within this framework:
“Enjoyment or fun is one of the top motivators for youth sports participation; and lack of enjoyment is one of the most frequent reasons given for dropping out of a sport. Having fun has been associated with intrinsic factors such as being a good sport, trying hard, and learning and improving, as well as external factors such as positive coaching and parenting, game time support, games, practices, team friendships, team rituals, and swag (i.e., team clothing or trophies). For some youth, negative experiences with bullying or hazing can contribute to lack of enjoyment“
References
Brady, T. (2015). The trouble with travel sports. (Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/10/05.
Orr, T. J. & Jamieson, L. M. (2020). Sport and violence: A critical examination of sport. Champaign, IL: Sagamore and Venture.
U. S. department of Health and Human Services. (2019). National Youth Sport Strategy. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 109 pp.
Prepared by Dr. Lynn M. Jamieson, Professor Emerita