Did you know that Soccer Canada has seen their number of players between the ages of 6-17 yrs. old decline by almost 100,000 (yes 100,000) the last 10 years?
This reflects the trend in Youth sports where 70% of kids are quitting by the age of 13 and the 10 year decline led BC Soccer to conduct a player retention survey in 2018 to find out why kids play soccer, but why this was different than past surveys or research done it was first time by ANY sport organization I am aware of that asked their clients (the players) not only why they play but why will they stop playing BEFORE they potentially do so and have them review their current program offerings.
Kudo’s to BC Soccer for doing so, in lieu of what majority of sports crossing their fingers that attrition rates they are experiencing are a short term “glitch” and not reaching out to their core stakeholders, or if they do, conduct exit interviews AFTER they quit, they took the proactive approach to reach out to their “clients” BEFORE they quit …. Prevention is 99% of the CURE.
This is also the first time I have seen any sports organization recognize that players are their CLIENTS, and as any business owner knows, it costs 10X more to attract new customers than it does to retain existing customers.
For me it really simple, ensure that kids love the sport more at the end of the season than they did at the beginning and focus on their core motivation for being involved to begin with and in lieu of negative trends we experience in youth sports the reverse will hold true, organizations will not only attract new players but they will GROW and buck the trends.
The survey was sent out to approximately 14,000 thousand players of which 2381 responded (rounded to 2400 for purposes of reference) in 2018 and this past week (Feb. 19th, 2019) BC Soccer shared the results which they forwarded to all their affiliated Soccer Provincial Sport Organizations (PSO’s) across Canada.
Here is the recap of the findings with our feedback;
SURVEY SAYS …..
- FUN*
*Enjoyment was the actual heading in the survey but the majority of responses included the word FUN
As I have been sharing for years, kids play sports because they’re fun, they quit when they’re not. It’s NOT Rocket Science.
We shared this great video clip of 4-year-old hockey player that was mic’d up this week on all our social media pages (as did many others across the globe)… do you think he had fun? Will he continue to have fun down the road? Only if the association he plays for recognizes that fun is the #1 reason why kids play sports.
- Friends
Kids also play sports to be with their friends or meet new ones, most of my best friends came from the sports I played in my youth, including the MC and Best Man at my wedding. Sadly I lost my best friend in 2013, but I still have many vivid memories of all the various sports we played, some organized (Football, Rugby) but moreso unorganized, skiing, golf, raquetball, tennis, biking, swimming, adult rec pickup hockey, street hockey, tackle football without pads, camping, fishing and so on.
- Exercise
Thankfully kids do want to get exercise and stay in shape in lieu of replacing their former active play time with inactive screen time so if the experience is a positive one, kids will PLAY sports.
- Skill Development
As Amanda Visek’s study highlighted when she surveyed soccer players at George Washington University and highlighted 81 characteristics why sports were fun, the #1 reason why they were is when kids had an opportunity to try their best (working on their skills)
- Competition
Although competition was one of the top 5 reasons kids played soccer that responded to this survey, Of the 119 (14% of 2381), Only 5% (17) stated winning or scoring. This would be comparable to #4 of the top 6 reasons why sports were fun in the GWU study, playing well as a team. Never in the 10+ years and 100’s of kids I asked why they played sports on teams I coached did I ever have a kid say winning. Kids LOVE to compete, but only when it is a positive experience and the most fun any kid has is when there are no adults there to spoil the experience.
Think back when you were a kid, what did you love most, organized sports with parents in the stands, coaches and officials or pickup games with your buddies with no adults present? How competitive were the latter?
This is no different than any of the other studies I have come across including Amanda’s where winning was not in the top 10 or in GWU’s survey, ranked 48th of 81 reasons why sports were fun.
Truthfully, the results of the retention survey don’t surprise me as I have surveyed hundreds of kids over the years on teams of various sports I coached and received similar answers.
Hopefully, all local soccer organizations not only in BC but across Canada will use the reasons why kids play to be the focus point when they are developing program offerings.
In our next post, I will share the results to the latter two queries that BC Soccer reached out to their clients (the players) for answers on so they could be proactive, not reactive.
This should not only assist all of their affiliate PSO’s and Soccer Canada address their declining numbers so they can attract, retain and ultimately GROW but also other sports organizations do the same; (1) Why Kids (May) Quit Soccer – The top 5 reasons kids would be less likely to come back next season and (2) Fair or Poor Rankings in terms of their program offering so the could address and do something about for future seasons.
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