2&2 Slider To Leyritz
Well-known member
There is occasional discussion of things like this on the Parenting thread, but figured Wake sports are irrelevant enough to put a thread on the sports board without it dropping too far off. Just general discussion of youth sports for non-recruited athletes (unless they are your own kids, in which feel free to talk about them).
The concept of participation in youth sports declining has been a topic of discussion lately, with MLB creating its "Don't Retire, Kid" campaign which they have been pumping during the LLWS.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickdi...eyre-begging-kids-not-to-retire/#6fc677005b4c
Not with specific respect to baseball, but in general youth participation in sports are allegedly on the decline. Not surprising in today's divisive political climate, this article tries to pin the cause on financial hurdles:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uneven...lass-and-poor-kids-are-ditching-youth-sports/
I think the article is pretty poor in its reasoning, but some issues it raises, and fails to raise, are worth discussing.
First, it says that the focus on obtaining college scholarships drives parents to dump excessive money into their kids' sports. However, it says that 1 in 5 parents with kids playing sports believe their kids will get a scholarship, and then it says that 1 in 10 kids playing sports will get a scholarship. So, only 20% of parents believe their kids will get a scholarship, and half of them are correct. So: (a) their faith is not totally misguided, and (b) that doesn't account for the other 80% who are just having fun with it. So other than another attempt at class warfare, their overall logic doesn't hold water. The drive for college is not what is causing kids to drop out.
Second, while parents can certainly dump a fortune into their kids' sports to try to artificially create a more competitive environment, there are still plenty of low-cost rec leagues. I've got two kids who both play soccer, basketball, and baseball, and rec league fees for each season are less than $100 per kid per league. That's not dirt-cheap, but its also not a lot when you consider the number of practices and games involved, as well as the uniform costs. That is probably 25+ combined practices and games for less than $100; that is really low cost compared to other forms of entertainment. And most rec leagues require little, if any, equipment.
Third, the article completely ignores the draw of video games and other electronics. And I know the usual response of Gen Xers and Millennials is "we had plenty of video games and still played real sports", but there is a big fucking difference. I wasn't enticed to miss practice for Madden '93 or Echo the Fucking Dolphin, because the games weren't that good. It is tough to get a 10 year old to stop playing Fortnite "with" his friends to go outside. The games are simply that much better and more fun than they used to be. Kids who have grown up with games like that don't see a ton of difference in playing Fortnight or actually playing basketball, they are deeply involved in the game either way. I'm not saying video games are bad, but they have to be viewed from a different psychological perspective with today's kids than we would have viewed Space Invaders or Super Mario Bros.
Fourth, I'm not sure how much the stats incorporate girls' sports that only came about a few years ago, peaked, and then dropped off. This article talks about the decline in general, but uses 2011 as its high-water mark. https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...-costs-bad-coaches-study-finds/?noredirect=on
I have nothing to base this on, but girls' youth sports got a huge push in the early 2000s, which has seemed to back off over the last few years. So around 2011 there would have been a number of leagues/teams created to service girls that simply did not exist before. So are girls not getting into those sports as much any more and that is causing the overall decline from that point because those leagues surged the numbers then folded?
Here are some numbers on girls' participation https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcoo...icipation-in-high-school-sports/#112a9d19640c
I get the sense that around middle school for girls a lot drop out: those who stick with it competitively generally play through high school but the ones who drop it don't play less competitive rec.
Just some general discussion points for anyone who is interested in the subject. I spend almost every day either coaching or watching some sort of youth sports, so have heard a variety of viewpoints.
The concept of participation in youth sports declining has been a topic of discussion lately, with MLB creating its "Don't Retire, Kid" campaign which they have been pumping during the LLWS.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickdi...eyre-begging-kids-not-to-retire/#6fc677005b4c
Not with specific respect to baseball, but in general youth participation in sports are allegedly on the decline. Not surprising in today's divisive political climate, this article tries to pin the cause on financial hurdles:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uneven...lass-and-poor-kids-are-ditching-youth-sports/
I think the article is pretty poor in its reasoning, but some issues it raises, and fails to raise, are worth discussing.
First, it says that the focus on obtaining college scholarships drives parents to dump excessive money into their kids' sports. However, it says that 1 in 5 parents with kids playing sports believe their kids will get a scholarship, and then it says that 1 in 10 kids playing sports will get a scholarship. So, only 20% of parents believe their kids will get a scholarship, and half of them are correct. So: (a) their faith is not totally misguided, and (b) that doesn't account for the other 80% who are just having fun with it. So other than another attempt at class warfare, their overall logic doesn't hold water. The drive for college is not what is causing kids to drop out.
Second, while parents can certainly dump a fortune into their kids' sports to try to artificially create a more competitive environment, there are still plenty of low-cost rec leagues. I've got two kids who both play soccer, basketball, and baseball, and rec league fees for each season are less than $100 per kid per league. That's not dirt-cheap, but its also not a lot when you consider the number of practices and games involved, as well as the uniform costs. That is probably 25+ combined practices and games for less than $100; that is really low cost compared to other forms of entertainment. And most rec leagues require little, if any, equipment.
Third, the article completely ignores the draw of video games and other electronics. And I know the usual response of Gen Xers and Millennials is "we had plenty of video games and still played real sports", but there is a big fucking difference. I wasn't enticed to miss practice for Madden '93 or Echo the Fucking Dolphin, because the games weren't that good. It is tough to get a 10 year old to stop playing Fortnite "with" his friends to go outside. The games are simply that much better and more fun than they used to be. Kids who have grown up with games like that don't see a ton of difference in playing Fortnight or actually playing basketball, they are deeply involved in the game either way. I'm not saying video games are bad, but they have to be viewed from a different psychological perspective with today's kids than we would have viewed Space Invaders or Super Mario Bros.
Fourth, I'm not sure how much the stats incorporate girls' sports that only came about a few years ago, peaked, and then dropped off. This article talks about the decline in general, but uses 2011 as its high-water mark. https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...-costs-bad-coaches-study-finds/?noredirect=on
I have nothing to base this on, but girls' youth sports got a huge push in the early 2000s, which has seemed to back off over the last few years. So around 2011 there would have been a number of leagues/teams created to service girls that simply did not exist before. So are girls not getting into those sports as much any more and that is causing the overall decline from that point because those leagues surged the numbers then folded?
Here are some numbers on girls' participation https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcoo...icipation-in-high-school-sports/#112a9d19640c
I get the sense that around middle school for girls a lot drop out: those who stick with it competitively generally play through high school but the ones who drop it don't play less competitive rec.
Just some general discussion points for anyone who is interested in the subject. I spend almost every day either coaching or watching some sort of youth sports, so have heard a variety of viewpoints.