Children in sports

Now your little darling is in at least 4 sports. He or She is in a winter sport and a summer sport, 2 spring sports and a fall sport and you wonder why they are so tired. Most of us believe that if we keep our kids busy that they will become well rounded athletes and that they will stay out of trouble. Whereas the latter may be true, the part about becoming a well-rounded athlete is just not true.
I truly believe that sports can and does play an important role in a child’s development. They learn team work, how to work hard, how to put team before self, they learn selfless play, they learn that for a team to succeed they must do their part, they also learn how to interact with all people whether they like them or not. They learn how to focus on the common goal and put emotion aside. I believe that every child should play some sort of a sport or be part of some team.
The problem that I see is that we have our kids in way too many things. In the winter Junior is playing basketball. In the spring Junior is playing soccer or playing baseball or both. In the summer Junior is part of the swim team and volleyball. In the fall Junior is on the cheerleading squad or playing football. What is wrong with this picture? What are we teaching our children? Don’t you know that because they are in so many activities they are more prone to injury and burnout? I believe the only thing we are teaching our children is that busyness is more important than achievement.
Ok so that last statement I made is a loaded one because I have a lot of parents that truly believe that their darling needs to be in all those activities. So let me further explain. Have you heard of the saying, “Jack of all trades master of none”? Well that’s what we would be developing if Junior stayed in all those activities. The average middle school child is in at least three different sports (this is a study done by me 2 years ago. My population group was both 7th and 8th graders from three different middle schools and I asked their parents about Junior’s participation in sports. My population sample totaled 386 families) and by the time they get to high school they are just burnt out. Most of them don’t even think about going out for a sport.
If you really want to see your son or daughters thrive in the area of sports, have them only go out for one or two sports. Why? Because then they can become the very best at what they do. They won’t find themselves overly stretched. They will give their bodies time to develop and keep from lots of injuries. It will allow them to concentrate on other parts of their life such as school work (education) and social development. I know that in my household my kids are only allowed to do two sports and each sport complements each other. I do this because I want their very best efforts on the field of play. They get it and it shows. Try it with your kid and see what happens.