Simon Sinek – PARADIGM Sports

Why do kids play Video Games?

Posted March 21, 2019January 27, 2022 Glen Mulcahy3 CommentsPosted in Athlete, Coach, Early Sport Specialization, Organization Executive, Parents

Earlier this week I received a call from a writer for CBC who wanted to get insight from my interaction with coaches across Canada regarding the impact of Fortnite and other video games on the grassroots level of youth sports.

The subject comes up literally every time I do a presentation or connect with coaches on a call, as it is one of the many screens that kids have turned to in the digital era replacing their former active play time with inactive screen time.

The main reason why it is not only impacting grassroots but all the way up to the professional level is the fact that many athletes are playing video games for hours on end into the early morning hours, in particular when traveling to road games, leading to sleep deprivation which is impacting their performance during “real” games of the sports they play.

Why do Kids Play Video Games?

#1 – Fun

No different that youth sports, kids play video games because they’re fun. It’s not Rocket Science and the video game developers invest Millions of dollars into R&D to develop games so they are fun, whether it be for PC, Mac, Video Game Consoles, Tablets or Smart Phones.

#2 – Social

Also one of driving reasons why kids play Youth Sports, they play video games with their friends or meet new friends either in their communities by going to houses or as many games can be played online, they meet friends from all over the globe.

#3 – Safe

Two reasons why video games are safe;

a. They are safe to fail

There are no adults present like they are in the professionalized youth sports era today, no parents or coaches telling them what to do, no officials enforcing the rules and if they don’t like the preset rules of the games they change them and can play levels that they are comfortable playing.

If you die or the game is over … all kids do is press the reset button and PLAY AGAIN.

It would be a great way to test Carol Dweck’s research in terms of growth mindset, I suspect kids with a fixed mindset always play at a lower level so they can get the desired result vs. those with a growth mindset would also want to play at a higher level to push themselves to get better.

b. They are safe from all forms of harassment

When is the last time you saw a social media post or a news article in print or on TV that gamers have been victims of bullying, cyberbullying, sexual harassment or abuse, hazing?

Compare that to youth sports, it seems like every day I open the paper, check news feeds or social media that I come across yet another article where players, officials and even coaches are victims of one form of abuse.

As ESports continues to evolve and competitions ramp up I suspect this may creep into their sector as it has in youth sports, but the very nature of esports is inclusive, regardless of your nationality, economic status, sexual orientation as long as you can play, you PLAY without the fear of being harassed by adults (coaches, parents) or even teammates.

#4 – Addictive Nature

Video games since the onset have been addictive forms of entertainment, how many of you remember some of the original games

Fast forward to ones developed for Smart Phones?

The developers would not be doing their jobs if they did not make the games addictive so that (a) you purchased the games and (b) kept buying the newest versions of same.

Think of the various EA Sports top-selling games, every year they add to the games so you ante up 50-100.00 to purchase the newest version like Madden, Fifa, NHL and various others.

I would even argue they lead to the very same release of the neurotransmitter Dopamine that Simon Sinek touched on in his infamous rant about the Millenials in the Workplace we shared in our prior post This is the Future. Fortnite, in particular, has kids and even adults playing for hours one end into the wee hours of the morning.

Youth sports also can be addictive, if kids play for the love of the game, they will play for HOURS just like we did as kids.

#5 – Competitive

Many kids will say they play because they love to compete with their friends, which is no different than pick-up games when we grew up, there was nothing better than a close game of shinny, basketball, football, British Bulldog or what have you to get the adrenalin juices flowing.

The difference between kids playing video games and organized youth sports today vs. when I grew up, is the adults have turned youth sports into winning at all costs environment in lieu of playing for the love of the game, the spirit of competition, playing with your friends and FUN.

Youth Sports Organizations could learn “just a wee bit” for the Video Games Business Model and if did so could reverse the negative trends that youth sports are seeing today where 70% of kids are quitting youth sports by the age of 13.

How can Youth Sports Attract, Retain and Grow their membership?

#1 Focus on FUN at all costs, not winning at all costs.

As I have shared for many years with parents, coaches and board members;

Kids play sports is that they are fun, they quit when they’re not.

IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.

# 2 – Recognize the importance of kids playing with their friends

In the most recent survey we shared “Why Kids Play Soccer“, over 2300 kids stated the #2 reason why they played soccer was to play with their friends or meet new ones.

# 3 – Make it Safe to Fail and from all forms of harassment

In the last few weeks there have been so many articles or videos shared in social media or on TV regarding various forms of abuse that kids have bee victims and the level of abuse that officials are seeing is leading to many states in the USA declaring official attrition is a state of emergency as it will jeopardize number of games and programs they can support.

Why is this happening? Because parents think youth sports is a meal ticket to save the costs for a university education via a full ride scholarship or even better, their kids will get a professional contract to play sports.

The reality is less than 1% of kids will play collegiately with a scholarship, most of which are partials and less than 0.1% will play professionally.

In the last few weeks Kirsty Duncan, minister of Sport for Canada, has started the ball rolling to create a harmonized code of conduct with the Coaching Association of Canada as well as recently announced that there will be a 3rd party independent reporting organization and toll-free support line for any athletes that have been victims of any form of harassment.

The big unknown is how long this will take to be in place AND if the much needed cultural shift that needs to happen in youth sports will follow.

# 4 – Promote the benefits of Free PLAY.

Gone are the days where kids will play outside for hours on end as Generation X did (those born before 1984) BUT we must find a happy medium where kids have the opportunity to develop the very same addiction we had for being active and being outside so we don’t lose another generation like Simon Sinek eluded how we let the Milennials down.

There was nothing better for me and all the global experts that I have had the opportunity to talk to than going outside and playing pickup games, climbing trees, swinging into lakes, racing our bikes and so on without any adult supervision (no coaches, parents, officials)

A great example is an initiative that a coach started in Oklahama called “Unorganized Baseball” highlighted in the video below;

What does the kid say … playing baseball with my friends, I like this more

Should I tell your dad you said that?

YES.

Why?

Because the rules of unorganized baseball are there are NO RULES other than parents need to be quiet, coaches can’t coach, the kids pick sides and form their own teams, they make their own rules and enforce them. No GROWN-UPS involved.

Hmmmm .. sounds like the good old days doesn’t it?

Kids just want to play … play with their friends in their local communities, not travel and have to play sports year round (early specialization), travel, aren’t concerned about trophies or medals (participation trophies) and have FUN.

THIS IS WHY VIDEO GAMES ARE THRIVING.

# 5 – Provide a quality sports experience

The focus of youth sports should not be winning at all costs, the focus should be a positive experience where kids learn not only the skills of the game, but the skills of life.

I know there is a lot of work being done at the academia level and sports organizations to define what is quality sport, and the best one I have come across to date is one drafted by Sport Canada;

Quality sport is led by Qualified Coaches, is delivered in a Safe and Ethical manner, is administered by Sport organizations who are aiming to achieve Organizational Excellence, is Inclusive and Accessible and is Developmentally Appropriate.

Hmmm … Qualified Coaches, Safe and Ethical, Organizational Excellence, Inclusive and Accessible and Developmentally Appropriate?

If youth sports organizations would follow suit and check all the boxes, in lieu of suffering the rates they have been experiencing the last 2 decades, they could buck the trends and attract, retain and GROW their memberships. One of the biggest shortfalls in youth sports is there is no measurement to ensure that kids DEVELOP, merely rely on outcoms (game scores, goals and assists) but ask any kid what quality sport is and they are tested beginning, mid and end of season to show how much they IMPROVED, not how many wins the team got.

Ironically, as I was putting the finishing touches to this post I read in one of our online local papers that a new esports tournament stadium is going to open in Richmond (lower mainland of Vancouver) BC as one of the principals stated “We know there is a community of gamers here in the Greater Vancouver area…we’ve done our market research, so we are pretty confident,” he said.

Rendering what the new stadium will look like

Hmmm … Market Research? What a concept.

The very reason why Video Games and eSports have evolved into multi-billion industries is that they do their research, focus groups, surveys, testing so they can develop games with all the features that their customers want and focus on continuous improvement so they not only attract, but they retain and grow their customer base year after year.

Video Games now are a $180 Billion Industry Worldwide so they know a “wee bit” about attracting, retaining and growing their membership year over year.

Youth sports have to stop running their models as not for profits and understand that they are in the business of developing youth into adults.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids …. where it belongs.

A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body

Posted July 16, 2018January 27, 2022 Glen MulcahyLeave a commentPosted in Athlete, Coach, Organization Executive, Parents

I would be remiss in not starting today’s post with “Vive le France” for the great run to win this year’s World Cup with a combined score against Croatia for most goals in a World Cup Final (4-2) since 1966.

The final game was filled with what one would expect in the final game which included France’s young 19 year teen phenom Kylian Mbappe scoring, the first time that a teen did so since Pele in 1958.

The buzz amongst all the people I talked to over the weeks leading to the final, have you seen the young player on France ?? He runs faster dribbling the ball then most players do without?

Being that Pele was arguably the greatest footballer EVER (who can ever forget goals he scored flipping upside down backwards) Kylian is the up and coming global superstar and suspect France will be a top seed 4 years from now in the next world Cup as a result.

One thing that both Pele and Kylian and all the other amazing players in this and every World Cup is they LOVE to play the game, the spirit of the competition, no different than every 2 years when we witness in the awe the world’s greatest athletes in the Olympic Games (vs. previously when summer and winter games were hosted in the same year).

It reminded me of the Ancient Olympic Motto “ Mens sana in copore sana” = A healthy mind in a healthy body as the world’s best footballers or athletes would not have reached that level if their minds were in harmony with their bodies and vice versa.

This is the very reason why I have shared my concerns regarding the amount of screen time that kids today have, on average 7.5 hours a day getting their dopamine fixes vs. the same rushes of adrenalin being active playing with their friends in the spirit of competition, regardless if organized or free play activities.

One of the things I started enforcing my teams well before it became common practice thanks to awareness campaigns by the Respect Group and others was a ban for all electronics in the dressing rooms, playing fields or team activities.

The first few times I have done so with team’s kids have looked at me like “are you freaking kidding me” This smartphone, iPod or tablet is my fifth appendage and I am not parting with it.

The reason I did so was two-fold;

As smartphones, even iPods, evolved and added video and camera capability that could be easily uploaded to social media platforms, I did not want any players to be victims of harassment. See below for one of the extreme examples of how a coaches rant was shared on social media that lead to his immediate dismissal

Although every player would argue they brought so could listen to music pre-game, practice, more often than not I saw they snap-chatting, texting, posting to Instagram or other social media platforms to the infamous dopamine fix (AKA Simon Sinek infamous rant on the Millenials)

As a compromise, when Bluetooth started evolving we would assign a coach with a blue tooth enabled device to put together the team’s playlist (one rule no swearing) and they would position the speaker in the dressing room so were within 33 feet for music to play. Players of the game also would be given choice of the song before we headed out of the dressing room following game also.

I know many will feel that I am old school as a result, but I don’t even take my phone into the dressing room, field of play (or whatever playing surface), I leave it in my car. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I have seen coaches answer calls, text or email on their smartphones during games.

Why?

Because, I, like the very same players I coach, aspire for practices and games to be electronics free to bring that same love of the game back like all those players in the World Cup showed or any other high level competition like the Olympics. To experience the game the way it is meant to be, without the distractions of electronics. When coaches are texting, answering calls in my eyes it is disrespectful to the game and the players they are coaching, no different than I am speaking at an event and people do the same.

This is why I can say with confidence that the needle is shifting, parents are recognizing they we did in part let the prior Gen Z (Millenials) down in part and more and more parents I talk to are enforcing electronics rules like;

No electronics at the dinner table (this has been a firm rule in our household since the digital era started)

For every hour of screen time, you must have 60 minutes of non-screen time and a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity/day. Incremental activity may include playing a musical instrument, reading, art, drama, preparing for a speech, meditation, hanging out with a friend or friends and the only electronics devices are music while you talk face to face.

Or better yet – play board games … yes, board games.

My wife went to friends on the weekend and they sat outside on her friend’s deck playing a version of reverse gin rummy for 2 hours and shared how much fun it was, how many of you remember playing board games? One of my favorites is RISK, nothing better than a multi-day Risk marathon to rule the world (no I am not competitive at all).

As the cliché goes going back to the Ancient Olympics, Mens sana in corpore sano

Translation: A healthy mind in a healthy body

In the most recent Participaction report for 2018, yet again we received failing or near-failing grades for physical activity standards being met by Canadian Kids under the age of 18, only 35% of kids between the ages of 5-17 are getting 60 minutes a day. Grade D

Other areas that we received D’s; Active Play, Leisure, Active Transportation, Sedentary behaviors. One of the biggest challenges we face today thanks to “the white van” is kids not getting their 2000 steps to and from school.

Where we have seen improvements (albeit slight) is an increase in organized sport participation and increase in physical education active minutes per week.

This means the needle is moving, but must continue to move in the right direction so the health issues that have come to light since the onset of the digital era are reversed.

Another interesting spin to this year’s Participaction Report has they highlighted the correlation between physical activity and the positive impact it will have on brain health.

This after over 40 years of promoting the benefits of physical activity for all the physical health benefits (agility, strength, cardio, physiological) but now has highlighted research how being active leads to brain health.

This coincides with the growing body of research that links physical activity with academic achievements as well as improved behavior, reduced truancy.

Being physically active improves blood flow, O2 capacity, agility, cardio that leads to faster decision making, short and long term memory, improved attention span and a myriad of other benefits for the brain so kids that are active will perform better in school and will also attend school vs. their less active counterparts.

The other HUGE benefit? Being active improves your mental health, improves your concentration, enhances your creativity and also studies show will reduce your cognitive decline.

Although it has taken centuries to come up with the scientific data to support the Ancient Olympic Motto, the proof is in the pudding, being active leads to Mens sana in corpore sana.

Everything in life is good in moderation, but please implement rules on your teams and at home to limit kids screen time so they can develop both a healthy mind and body.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.