The current state of youth sports in America is having a negative impact on young athletes. It’s been reported that 70% of all young athletes in America quit playing sports by the time they turn 13.
When kids quit sports at this rate, they lose out on all of the important aspects that sports provide. Sports allow children to stay in shape, build social skills with teammates and have the opportunity to learn something new every day.
The main culprit behind the huge decrease in athletic participation is that we are now professionalizing youth sports in the U.S. The professionalization of youth sports is what happens when we treat children like professional athletes, such as pushing them to physically and mentally train like the pros.
Another part of this professionalization is treating youth sports as pre-professional training leagues that are there to produce professional athletes.
The sports industry in America has been growing quickly and is now valued at around $40 billion, according to the New York Times. With that amount of money on the table, everyone is trying to get their piece of the pot.
For me, there are three main impacts on young athletes that come out of the professionalization of youth sports, and result in kids quitting: increased pressure from parents, the current cost to play youth sports and injuries.
Under Pressure
Pressure from parents makes the biggest impact on youth athletes. The professionalization of youth sports has caused parental attitudes to go from being supportive to pushing children to be as successful as possible in sports.
When you first think about going from positive support to pushing kids to be the best in their sports, it may not appear to be a bad thing. When I refer to pushing kids, I mean pushing kids to their limits so people like their parents and coaches can benefit from that child’s success.
As someone who played youth soccer their whole life and also officiated it for the past six years, I’ve seen what it’s like for kids to be pushed hard during games. No matter the age or level of play, I have seen parents try to act as another coach and cause much discomfort to the young athlete out on the field. This leads players on the field to become stressed out to the point where they struggle to do well in a game, or they become completely distracted from the game and bark back at mom or dad.
Parental pressure has gotten to the point where most of these kids who quit sports around 13 years old are experiencing what medical experts call “burnout.” Burnout is mainly caused when someone is tired of doing or experiencing something over and over again. When parents become too involved with their child’s success, the rate of frustration for that child increases, as well as their desire to quit the sport.
If we continue to let parents put too much pressure on our young athletes, we will begin to enter a world where, instead of the support that these children deserve, it will be replaced with high standards that cause children to miss out on the other values that youth sports aim to provide.
The Disproportionate Cost
The next biggest problem facing young athletes is the disproportionate cost to play competitive youth sports. Now, it is true that recreational sports provided by a local organization or park district are substantially cheaper, and many people still participate in recreational sports, but for those who want to build their skills and try to take their game to the next level, they must be a part of travel teams to get there.
Playing for a travel team allows a child to be given proper training by a certified coach rather than a volunteer. It also allows a child to test their abilities at the state, regional and national levels. This sounds enticing to parents and children, but all of these perks come at a big cost.
For most families, they only see the entrance fee to be on the team and then accept the offer. What most people don’t realize is that the entrance fee to be on the team doesn’t include all the other costs that a travel team will bill for later.
Jersey, tournaments and sometimes travel fees are just some of the extra expenses that families must pay to keep their child up-to-date and on the team. With costs like these, it’s hard for athletes to continue to play travel sports for a long time. This means wealthier children get more chances since they have the money to do so.
One of the best examples of the pay-to-play system failing our youth is in the U.S. soccer system. The U.S. has struggled to put together a men’s soccer team that can compete at the highest level. One of the biggest reasons is that the best players in America might not be from wealthy families that can afford the resources necessary to be seen by scouts and elite travel teams.
Since highly skilled, but financially disadvantaged players can’t afford to be on the best teams, they fail to be seen in America. In countries outside of the U.S., their systems offer an opportunity to all kids, no matter how wealthy they are, which evidently helps them produce more talent rather than making a quick profit off a kid.
It’s not just an issue for soccer. The pay-to-play model has hindered children from being able to participate in any competitive sports team within America.
If we want to make a serious dent in the rising number of athletes quitting, then getting rid of the pay-to-play model would be a huge start in allowing kids from all financial backgrounds to not worry about paying lots of money just to play a sport competitively.
Injuries
The final reason why our young athletes are quitting their sports has been a problem for a very long time. The risk of getting injured and the increase of injuries in youth sports has hugely impacted the number of kids who play sports in America today.
Pushing kids to their limits and having them focus too much on sports causes their muscles to exert themselves to the point where they are most vulnerable to these types of injuries.
On top of injuries like ACL and MCL tears, concussions are a big concern when it comes to the health and safety of children on the field. Many parents fear the setbacks that concussions cause for children, as their brains are still in a developmental phase of life.
For reasons like this, some parents do not want to put their child’s health at risk and are pulling them out of sports after they sustain these injuries.
What is most appalling is that we have developed ways for pro athletes to be better protected in contact sports. The NFL has recently introduced guardian caps that help reduce a player’s chance of receiving a concussion and more intense brain damage, such as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
With methods in place already, why are we not seeing the administrative youth bodies try to implement this technology in their leagues? Investments might be expensive for these leagues, but the health of youth athletes is more important than how much a team or league makes during the season, because without any athletes, these teams can’t run in the first place.
But until we begin to invest more into areas of player safety, we are left with parents and players wanting to quit sports due to the physical and mental impacts that happen due to teams and leagues wanting to make a profit instead.
What Now
The professionalization of youth sports in America has brought positives to those who choose to participate in sports. A pathway to getting college scholarships or reaching the pros has never been clearer in America.
The downside, though, is that the professionalization of youth sports only benefits a small percentage of athletes who can survive parental involvement, can pay their share of playing fees and manage to stay healthy. Without those three key ingredients, 70% of youth athletes are choosing to quit sports by the time they turn 13.
For the 30% that continue to play in youth systems, I congratulate them on making it through a majority of their journey towards their goals. Because without their love for the sport, we would not have a competitive environment for young athletes once they reached their high school years.
Unfortunately, the system that we are putting our children through is very flawed and doesn’t focus on those who might otherwise enjoy a sporting career through their teenage years. If we don’t fix the pressure, cost and injuries that our youth athletes face, then youth sports in America could continue down a dark path of uncertainty.
But for now, we can only watch on and hope that the professionalization of youth sports will work out these challenges and create a new era where we see a larger number of athletes come out of all our youth pipelines.
