A TROUBLING TREND: WHY ARE FEWER KIDS PLAYING TEAM SPORTS?
There was a fascinating article this past week in the NY Times by Joe Drape, who’s a top flight sports writer and who has been on my WFAN show in the past, and as I recall, he’s a sports parent as well. In any event, he wrote an excellent and unsettling piece about how the number of youngsters playing organized sports continues to decline.
According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association – which the main association of youth and travel team sports in this country -- participation in youth sports has been declining, and has been going down even before Covid-19.
To wit, in 2018, only 38 percent of children ages 6 to 12 played team sports on a regular basis. That’s down from 45 percent in 2008. That’s a substantial drop in the number of kids playing team sports.
And again, that study was done in 2018 – which means that it reflects a drop in participation before Covid hit.
In other words, Icould understand a main decline in youth team sports due to Covid cancelling so many games and practices. But that’s not the main reason why. So what are the reasons why more and more kids are not staying with sports?
I find this a bit both confusing – and alarming.
For starters, there’s a famous study out of Michigan State from some years ago that showed that 74% of all athletes quit playing sports by the time they were 12 or 13. That’s been accepted as the general rule of thumb for years.
But I’m getting the sense that there’s a major shift taking place.
I can point to several factors:
Let’s start with the sports parents. I have a sense that more and more Moms and Dads are beginning to ask themselves whether it’s really worth the time, effort, and expense to put their kids into youth sports, especially travel or club teams. That is, parents may be asking themselves when their kid is 9 or 10 that if he or she really isn’t a superstar in the making, they decide to let their kid drop out.
In other words, for a certain percentage of sports parents, perhaps they aren’t as “hard core” as sports parents were from a generation ago.
Then there’s the kids themselves. Most of us have grown up during an era when the sports that offered the most fun included traditional sports like football, basketball, baseball, and so on. But there’s a new game in town, and it’s the younger generation – the kids – who ‘s driving it – the explosive popularity of egames.
Online video games – which were already popular – became even more popular during Covid because kids could play remotely and compete and play with their friends. Plus the action is fast=paced, and you really don’t need a lot of manual skill or long-term coaching to play the games.
And in many cases, it’s the younger parents who play and compete with their kids. So it’s become a family activity.
The fact that kids can play online with their friends and buddies in terms of electronic game competition with Playstations and Xboxes has made the “social” aspect of egames even more attractive. That is, kids are now playing with other kids without having to be in their physical presence.
What does all of this mean?
Hard to say at this point, but one thing is clear….the landscape of youth sports is changing, and apparently changing rapidly. The callers on this podcast all brought unique and thoughtful perspectives. Take a listen:
https://omny.fm/shows/rick-wolff-the-sports-edge/the-sports-edge-with-rick-wolff-86