THE YOUTH SPORTS LANDSCAPE
Most of the organized youth sports landscape today comprise of school teams or volunteer based community organizations.
Unfortunately, many schools are no longer offering after school sport programs as funding is drying up and teachers, who feel qualified or have time to help, are not as willing to participate any longer. Community organizations also struggle with an ongoing turnover of volunteers and under-qualified coaches.
The end result is that sport programs become burdened with a lack of qualified volunteers and funding to better their sports programs. The result is that these organizations default to becoming TRANSACTIONAL in nature where their primary role consists of capturing player registrations, forming teams, securing a venue, assigning available coaches and creating game schedules. Constant turnover in the organization’s leadership further contributes to short-term thinking and the need to prove their worth. Over the sport season, success is determined by their stats, most notably wins and championship banners. What ensues is a culture of “winning at all costs” and focus shifts primarily to developing elite skilled athletes and earlier player specialized training. Many youth are shuffled to the sidelines as a result of decisions by the organization’s leadership, coach preferences and socioeconomic factors.
Thriving sport organizations, on the other hand, not only deliver on these operational transactions, BUT ALSO incorporate into their sports programs resources, tools and training that emphasize more than just the game skills development of athletes. The mindset from the leadership is more focused on the inherent value of what sports have to offer and how they can also serve to be TRANSFORMATIONAL for ALL youth athletes.
In addition to learning sport specific skills and athleticism, these sport organizations provide youth an environment to develop many transferable life skills such as TEAMWORK, MOTIVATION, COPING, RESILIENCE, LEADERSHIP, GOAL SETTING, COMMITMENT, LEADERSHIP, CONCENTRATION, DETERMINATION, GROWTH and TENACITY.
With more youth sports organizations seemingly slipping into a culture that favours elite athlete skill development, winning records and early sport specialization, advocates for youth sports, as well as parents, are calling for change. Sport organizations are beginning to be sought out and acknowledged for the VALUE they offer youth, not only their physical development, but even more importantly, their mental, social and emotional development and the positive impact this contributes to building better communities.
New sports that are emerging, offering better sports experiences, are garnering more attention as the new generation of parents look for healthier sports alternatives for their children.
