Introduction

Greetings and welcome to Biscaldi’s Youth Sports Forum. This Blog will attempt to tackle the issues, both positive and negative, in youth sports today and will hopefully spur changes in how we view youth sports. I have over 25 years of youth coaching experience and in that time, I have seen a tremendous shift in youth sports going from a recreational activity where children played 2 or 3 sports a year with their friends to a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that has led to an explosion of travel teams, elite teams and pay to play teams that have no regulation or oversite.

The blog will delve into topics around youth sports like:

· The state of youth sports today;

· Why youth are dropping out of sports at earlier and earlier ages;

· The need for youth recreation coaches to have training prior to coaching our children;

· The effects of sports specialization on young children;

· The effects of “pay to play” teams on local youth sports recreations leagues;

· The professionalization of youth sports; and much more.

I have over 25 years of youth sports coaching experience along with over 15 years as a board member with our local youth soccer association and it is my hope is that this blog will change the way we look at youth sports and open a dialog between parents and the youth sports organizations that their children join.

The intention of this blog is not to deal with “right and wrong” with individual coaches, but rather to discuss what is happening with youth sports as a whole and what can be done to make our children’s youth sporting experiences even better than they are now. Too often, youth program coaches are only focused on winning and not teaching the children how to play a sport and according to many sources, this is causing approximately 70% of children to drop out of youth sports by the time they reach the age of 13.

This summer I attended a youth sports conference and one of the presenters stated that “the true goal for you youth sports is not to produce “professional” athletes, but a healthy society that is healthy in every way; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually and sports, especially at the youth levels, are a laboratory for life lessons rather than a competitive “stat sheet” that lists wins and losses”. While many people may disagree with that statement, this blog will explore ways that youth sports can be made a laboratory for life lessons along with teaching the youth involved in youth sports the value of competition.

In my 25 years of coaching and being a board member with my local youth soccer organization, I have seen many changes in the area of youth sport that are not necessarily for the better. Some examples of these changes are:

· Parents feeling forced to have children specialize and participate in private training at a young age;

· Starting children in competitive sports and having them specialize in a sport at earlier and earlier ages in addition to forming competitive travel teams that are “Nationally ranked” at as young as 7 and 8 years old; and,

· Cities and municipalities building multi-million-dollar sports complexes, at times driving the city/municipality into debt.

Additionally, during the same time period, the number of children dropping out of organized youth sports by the age of 13 has risen to 70%. Sources state that the children that are dropping out of youth sports state that they due so for the following reasons:

· The pressure to win;

· They are no longer enjoying the sporting experience;

· Excessive criticism and yelling; and,

· Sports becoming work and not play.

And these same sources state studies show that children play sports for the following reasons:

· To have fun (always #1);

· To do something they are good at;

· To improve skills;

· To get exercise;

· To be part of a team; and,

· The excitement of competition.

These are just some of the issues that I will explore going forward and as stated earlier that it is my hope that this blog will stimulate conservation and possibly lead to changes in how youth sports are run.