Children Dropping Out of Youth Sport

Children have been participating in youth sports now since the 20th century. The creation of Little League in 1938, was one decisive factor in jumpstarting youth sports in this country. Over the years programs have continued to grow, while others continue to sprout up all over the country. As we learned in class on February 14, there are now 47 million children participating in youth sport.

 In the article I found on youth sports, it is said that 80% of these children participating in youth programs drop out by the age 12. One reason they claim, just as we did in class, that children drop out is because sport is losing its "fun factor." The article also makes the point that many of the coaches and instructors that are coaching these teams are not paid and are just doing it for their children. Knowing this many of the coaches do not have proper coaching certificates, therefore may not know how to properly deal with children. We spoke about this in class, eluding to the fact that this makes learning the game not so fun for children, because an emphasis is placed on winning instead of fundamental skills. If these sport programs were able to find coaches who have proper training, that would allow the children to have all the attention and skills that it takes to have sports become fun again. These coaches and instructors also need to know how to give children positive encouragement, far too many times added pressure is placed on these kids, leading to negative experiences in these sports.
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/3885.html

These ideas are evident in Coakley's text, displayed on page 94. Coakley expresses that the 3 main factors children stay involved in sports have to do with: the child's abilities and characteristics, the influence and support of significant others, and the availability of opportunites to play sports.