Anytime I hear people throw youth sports under the bus, it makes me wonder how my life would be worse off had I not been a constant participant in athletics my entire life.
First off, I would like to apologize to every ref, umpire, and line judge that I have disrespected in my 14 years of organized athletics. I have been disrespectful to most of you but I believe accepting that and trying to do better is part of what I have gained sports in general.
Dear parents and youth sport organizers,
As I begin my last year of competitive youth sports I have been reflecting on what sports has meant to my life and how competition has influenced the person I have become. I started playing recreational soccer and started tennis classes at the age of three; and now play tennis 27 hours a week during the school year, and pretty much all day every day during the summer. In 7th grade, I lettered in football, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, track and played pony league baseball on the side. Through all these experiences there are a lot of things I have learned and some things I would like to tell all you parents and coaches out there.
1.) Back in those 4 and 5 year old soccer leagues when the parents thought it was better not to keep score, guess what, my teammates and I, were all keeping score on our own. We were not stupid and no matter how much you try to sugar coat it, we knew who lost and who won. I hated losing and probably looked like an idiot after some games when things didn't go my way, but I feel like I have learned more from those experiences than maybe anything else.
2.) Winning has always been the most important thing to me in my athletics. The big change though, happened when I realized winning was not the most important thing in my life. If winning and losing are taken out of the equation so many of the great lessons of youth sports are lost. I might have never learned about work ethic if I didn't get to enjoy be the leading scorer on my middle school basketball team the winter after dedicating my entire summer to basketball. Teamwork can be lost if the team is not working towards a common goal, which should be winning. And how could I have ever learned the great things about perseverance had I never enjoyed the rewards?
3.) Learning to keep a cool head when things aren't going well is absolutely the most important skill I have gained from sports. If you take out competition, this is lost. I have lost so many games and matches, and had refs make so many bad calls, but I have learned that when you get mad you make bad decisions and only dig yourself into more of a whole. I hope this is the lesson I will carry into the rest of my life. I can't change the past, but I can always change the future. When the line judge overturns me and makes a bad call, the only thing I can control is how I play the next point.
4.) This should be obvious, but crazy parents need to get out of athletics. Everyone has their own stories about this so I probably don't need to tell mine.
5.) Specialization in sports is important, but it needs to be more the child's decision and not the parents. My goal from probably 4th grade through 11th grade was to play college sports. I didn't care which sport I just wanted to play; but I knew I was going to have to cut almost all of my sports in order to focus on just one. My sports scaled down dramatically after 7th grade and I went to just tennis after 8th grade. I feel bad though for the kids who their parents chose for them while they are in 2nd or 3rd grade. First, it's unnecessary because you don't even know at that time how the child's body is going to grow and what sport they will be best at. When I was in 5th grade, I was the tallest kid in my class and I had started puberty earlier on so I was probably the strongest. My two best sports were football and basketball, but it was mostly just because I was bigger than everyone else. By the time I reached 10th grade I was only 6 foot 2 and had not developed the skills needed to play basketball or football as the small guy and not the big guy.
6.) Advice for dealing with winning and losing. As you can tell I really believe the winning and losing aspect is important in order to learn the lessons of youth sports. I think score should be kept from the very beginning, and hopefully coaches and parents can teach kids how to win and lose with grace. A kid can't know how to lose if he never does. Kids must be taught that if they continue to focus on losing the previous game it will affect their performance in the next game, and possibly cause them to lose again. It has been my experience that the focus should always be on winning the next match; so my personal rule is that I give myself 24 hours to analyze and feel bad for myself after a tough loss, but after that, all focus must be put on winning the next match.
There is so much more I could say, but I think these things really hit on the important aspects of the athletic part of my life. I wish I could write more on how I balanced academics, but unfortunately I probably need to be studying.
Sincerely,
Your child's teammate.
I also want to thank my parents for all their support both financially, and emotionally throughout this journey.
What have been your experiences with youth sports?
First off, I would like to apologize to every ref, umpire, and line judge that I have disrespected in my 14 years of organized athletics. I have been disrespectful to most of you but I believe accepting that and trying to do better is part of what I have gained sports in general.
Dear parents and youth sport organizers,
As I begin my last year of competitive youth sports I have been reflecting on what sports has meant to my life and how competition has influenced the person I have become. I started playing recreational soccer and started tennis classes at the age of three; and now play tennis 27 hours a week during the school year, and pretty much all day every day during the summer. In 7th grade, I lettered in football, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, track and played pony league baseball on the side. Through all these experiences there are a lot of things I have learned and some things I would like to tell all you parents and coaches out there.
1.) Back in those 4 and 5 year old soccer leagues when the parents thought it was better not to keep score, guess what, my teammates and I, were all keeping score on our own. We were not stupid and no matter how much you try to sugar coat it, we knew who lost and who won. I hated losing and probably looked like an idiot after some games when things didn't go my way, but I feel like I have learned more from those experiences than maybe anything else.
2.) Winning has always been the most important thing to me in my athletics. The big change though, happened when I realized winning was not the most important thing in my life. If winning and losing are taken out of the equation so many of the great lessons of youth sports are lost. I might have never learned about work ethic if I didn't get to enjoy be the leading scorer on my middle school basketball team the winter after dedicating my entire summer to basketball. Teamwork can be lost if the team is not working towards a common goal, which should be winning. And how could I have ever learned the great things about perseverance had I never enjoyed the rewards?
3.) Learning to keep a cool head when things aren't going well is absolutely the most important skill I have gained from sports. If you take out competition, this is lost. I have lost so many games and matches, and had refs make so many bad calls, but I have learned that when you get mad you make bad decisions and only dig yourself into more of a whole. I hope this is the lesson I will carry into the rest of my life. I can't change the past, but I can always change the future. When the line judge overturns me and makes a bad call, the only thing I can control is how I play the next point.
4.) This should be obvious, but crazy parents need to get out of athletics. Everyone has their own stories about this so I probably don't need to tell mine.
5.) Specialization in sports is important, but it needs to be more the child's decision and not the parents. My goal from probably 4th grade through 11th grade was to play college sports. I didn't care which sport I just wanted to play; but I knew I was going to have to cut almost all of my sports in order to focus on just one. My sports scaled down dramatically after 7th grade and I went to just tennis after 8th grade. I feel bad though for the kids who their parents chose for them while they are in 2nd or 3rd grade. First, it's unnecessary because you don't even know at that time how the child's body is going to grow and what sport they will be best at. When I was in 5th grade, I was the tallest kid in my class and I had started puberty earlier on so I was probably the strongest. My two best sports were football and basketball, but it was mostly just because I was bigger than everyone else. By the time I reached 10th grade I was only 6 foot 2 and had not developed the skills needed to play basketball or football as the small guy and not the big guy.
6.) Advice for dealing with winning and losing. As you can tell I really believe the winning and losing aspect is important in order to learn the lessons of youth sports. I think score should be kept from the very beginning, and hopefully coaches and parents can teach kids how to win and lose with grace. A kid can't know how to lose if he never does. Kids must be taught that if they continue to focus on losing the previous game it will affect their performance in the next game, and possibly cause them to lose again. It has been my experience that the focus should always be on winning the next match; so my personal rule is that I give myself 24 hours to analyze and feel bad for myself after a tough loss, but after that, all focus must be put on winning the next match.
There is so much more I could say, but I think these things really hit on the important aspects of the athletic part of my life. I wish I could write more on how I balanced academics, but unfortunately I probably need to be studying.
Sincerely,
Your child's teammate.
I also want to thank my parents for all their support both financially, and emotionally throughout this journey.
What have been your experiences with youth sports?
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