Are We Not Embarrassed That So Many Kids Quit Sports?

It's a very simple job.

Set up an activity for children and make sure they enjoy it.

Why is that so difficult to master?  What is so complicated in that equation?

Kids quit sports before they reach 13-years-old.  It's a fact.  Various studies show the number to be between 40% and 75%.

We are trying to help Syrian refugees resettle in another country and find ways to power our transportation that will not kill our planet.   Who are we trying to fool?  We can't manage to do something as simple help our children have fun, yet we think we can stop our polar ice-caps from melting.

The job is very simple.

1. We set up a sport or activity.

2. We let the kids enjoy it and want to come back.

3. Go back to step 1.

Our children quitting activities is a major failure for adults that we don't seem to acknowledge or own up to.  I think the most difficult part is that most adults probably don't even realize what's happening.

We like to blame their departure on technology, video games, jobs, etc.  The real answer is sad, and not so complicated.

And who do we talk to when kids quit?  Their parents.

If kids were given the option to quit school at 13 years old and told us that was their wish, we would order a royal inquiry into the competence of their teacher(s) and the system they work in.

Once we admit, on a systemic level, what the problem is, the solution will be very clear.

The sport or activity must be about the player/child.  People ridiculed Ontario Soccer for their implementation of LTPD at the grassroots level in 2012, but
they were the only ones with the courage to do it and see it through.  A lot of work is going on to give the game back to the kids, and keep them in the game.

The overall statistics for kids quitting sports are still at an embarrassing level and not having fun is still the main reason.  And who do we talk to when kids quit?  Their parents.

Until Bobby Lennox toured Ontario to conduct the OSA's Grassroots Survey, nobody ever sat down with kids, en masse, and asked what they thought.  Without parents in the room.  Before this, on a wide scale, nobody thought or bothered to ask the kids .

Why did that take so long?  Maybe were were embarrassed to admit that we already knew the answers.

Some related articles

https://footblogball.wordpress.com/2015/10/16/are-adult-created-norms-contributing-to-the-design-of-a-system-that-no-longer-meets-the-needs-of-the-child-in-sport/

http://changingthegameproject.com/why-kids-quit-sports/

http://www.infocomcanada.com/afterthewhistle/hockeybook/chaptertwo.htm

https://experiencelife.com/article/putting-kids-and-fun-back-into-kids-sports/