Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts on the current state of youth sports! Creating the best possible sports environment for our kids is a group effort and openly communicating about the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between is a crucial first step to getting everyone on the same page.
I found the answers to be very honest and aspirational, but at the same time most parents also shared similar concerns about how much the youth sports landscape has changed (for the worse) in recent years, and the things they would like to see done differently.
I will likely dedicate full blogs and or Zoom seminars to each of these topics where I'll have more time and space to share my thoughts on your responses, but here are the 3 most common themes that emerged:
First, almost all parents wanted the same thing out of their child's youth sports experience. They wanted their child:
- To have fun
- Be active
- Be with friends
- Learn important life skills
Hardly any responses mentioned "playing at the next level" or "making the High School team." This was extremely encouraging to read.
In the past, and remember I've been coaching youth baseball full-time in the area for 20 years now so have been present for every change in parent attitude over the past 2 decades, a lot of parents' sole goal for their kids were "to make the High School Team" or "to make the All-Star Team" or "to get a college scholarship."
This attitude was so pervasive and toxic that long-term family friendships were strained based on who made the High School team or not, Little League board members would resign their position in protest over their son not making the All-Star Team, and adults even resorted to openly speaking negatively about other players as a way to boost their own child's opportunities.
I'm absolutely thrilled to hear that the collective attitude has shifted and that more and more parents have development-based life goals for their children and youth sports, and aren't viewing Little League as simply a steppingstone to the "next level" or as a vehicle for personal accolades.
The first step in building community culture, or as you'll see in a minute, changing community culture, is making sure all parties are sharing the same set of goals and values. I'm optimistic!
Next, almost every parent said one major aspect of local youth sports that they didn't like and wish they could change was overly competitive coaches and/or coaches and parents who scream at the players or umpires/refs during practices and games creating a win-first, stressful, and sometimes flat-out miserable environment at the field.
We've all seen the coach who treats the 6th inning in Minors like Game 7 of the World Series, and I just heard of a youth rec basketball coach who had to forfeit a game for intentionally breaking the playing-time requirements in order to get an advantage in the 4th quarter of a close game.
These situations are heartbreaking because it's always the kids who suffer but, in theory at least, this type of behavior should be a relatively easy fix. Leagues need to continue to invest more and more time and resources into training coaches and adults to act like, well, adults and not ruin the experience for kids by losing perspective about what coaching youth sports is really about.
Unfortunately, it appears that for many parents there is a significant disconnect between the way they want their child to be treated / what benefits they want from youth sports participation and what they feel like they are actually getting after signing up for local baseball, soccer, football, or basketball leagues. Of course, not all coaches are screamers and not all teams are hyper-competitive and miserable as a result, but the general sense I got from the responses was that there is definitely too much intensity and yelling going on, and that a single "bad" coach can ruin a child's experience and turn them off from sports permanently.
Conversely, a coach who creates a fun and supportive environment has a tremendous positive impact on his player's experiences and development!
Being a youth sports coach is an enormous responsibility AND an incredible opportunity to shape young lives for the better, and the more training and resources that leagues put into developing high quality coaches, and not just from a technical instruction standpoint, the better the experience will be for the kids.
The good news is I feel like this problem is being addressed with many local rec leagues more committed than ever to trying to foster the type of positive and developmental-focused culture that the vast majority of parents want. We simply need to continue to educate coaches and provide them with tools that will allow them to accomplish that goal so that we get more developmental-focused coaches in the dugouts and on the sidelines and fewer win-at-all-costs screamers. Volunteers are the lifeblood of every rec league so we NEED parents to step up and coach; many folks just need more training on how to create a fun and rewarding atmosphere for every kid on their team and my belief is that anyone who volunteers will be willing to learn how to improve as a coach as long as they are given the chance to.
Finally, and this surprised me, there was an overwhelming dislike of club/travel baseball teams and many parents cited their existence (and expense) as a cause for anxiety for them and their child, as well as a further cause of the hyper-competitive youth sports culture that is taking hold not just here, but all across the country, in all sports, and at younger and younger ages.
I was surprised to hear so many negative comments about local travel baseball because there are SOOOOO many of those teams right now; travel ball participation is at an all-time high. But from the responses I received, very few parents were actually happy with their experiences on these teams with several parents who have participated on club teams even saying that they shouldn't be allowed to exist until kids are out of Little League (or later!). Many parents who responded to the survey named specific baseball clubs that they felt were poorly run, or whose primary goal was for the owner to make as much money as possible, or that had poor coaching, or that were simply "too much baseball," or that were a combination of all 4 of those things. While I read several responses that said something like, "We played PVYBL and it was great!" or "We had a great experience at our Little League last season!" responses saying, "we played club baseball this Fall and it was awesome" were noticeably missing.
I know there are families who did have a quality club experience in the Fall, but from the responses I got, the prevailing sentiment about people's club baseball experiences were overwhelming negative.
There's good news on this front too: I've been thinking about club/travel ball a lot over the past few years as that space has spiraled completely out of control all across America (there are now 5U travel teams that practice 5 days a week, tournaments where kids play as many as 6 or 7 games in a 36-48 hour period, and "National Rankings" for players and teams as young 8, for example) and I will have A LOT to share on this topic sometime soon that I hope will be helpful to you as you make a decision about whether or not to enter that world, or decide to get out.
Thanks again for all your responses! In addition to being "in the trenches," I am constantly absorbing as much quality information as I can about youth sports (reading research papers, listening to youth development experts on podcasts, attending conferences and webinars, etc) in order to provide as much guidance and advice as I can for our community, and your thoughts, concerns, aspirations, inspirational stories, and horror stories are crucial data for me as I continue to be as valuable a resource for you all as possible.
Lots more to come...PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!