As I have been involved in sports my entire life, I am passionate about kids getting the same social, physical and life skills they can get from youth sports as I did. Over the last 2 decades in particular there have been numerous trends that are impacting what I loved most about “playing a game,” one in particular is the erosion of providing a safe to fail environment.
Bobby Orr stated that the main reason for his development as a player was due to all the repetitions playing pond hockey in Parry Sound with no coaches or officials present. Bobby’s dad, Doug, never coached Bobby, he merely would give him the following words before every ice time “Bobby, just go out there, HAVE FUN, and see what happens.” Numerous of other elite athletes of various sports cite similar examples of the benefits of their unorganized pickup games. Michael Jordan loved the game so much he incorporated a love for the game clause in all of his contracts so he could play pick up basketball whenever he wanted.
In 4 of the last 5 years Canada’s World Junior team has not won a medal in the annual tournament that they have dominated in the past. When coaches were interviewed after the fact they stated that is was partly due to the lack of creativity and skill in comparison to the other teams. Too often I have seen coaches focusing in on set plays, systems, strategies and criticizing players when they have made mistakes in games but also in practices.
This is totally against the research that has shown today’s generation of kids (AKA Millenials, Gen Y or Z) don’t respond to negative criticism and is one of the reasons why they are quitting.
What we should be doing in lieu is encouraging kids to make mistakes in practices, even in game play, as it is a fundamental need in order for them to develop their core skills of any respective sports. When criticized often enough by both parents and coaches, they actually play in fear and are not willing to be creative or develop the skills to become the best they can be.
Thanks to Carol Dweck’s great work in the high performance mindset, we must encourage mistakes and praise effort with positive reinforcement in doing so for kids to enjoy sports again but develop physical literacy, fundamental movement skills that will benefit them later in life.
The hot topic now is lack of physical literacy that kids have when they are graduating from high school, many kids today do not have core fundamental skills of running, jumping, kicking, one and two handed striking or falling and getting up that will benefit them later in life.
One of the biggest drivers that is leading to Parents and Coaches pushing kids to the point they are putting up the white flag and quitting all sports is those that are chasing NCAA full ride scholarships or the opportunity to play professionally. The reality is only a very small % (less than 2%) of today’s youth playing any sport will reach elite status (playing beyond high school, receiving a NCAA scholarships or reaching Professional level of their respective sports), but they should have the opportunity to develop competence, confidence and motivation to be active for life to reverse the negative trends that have come to fruition.
Let’s work together to keep them in the game as long as possible.
Don’t be a Kid’s Last Coach
