The development of athletes leading to the professional level was not the norm at the turn of the twentieth century. Sports for youth were created to provide an opportunity for kids to enhance participation in and development of skills related to that particular sport.

Youth Are Not Miniature Adults

The program model may be at least partly to blame for the crises facing modern youth sports. Each youth organization that created a watered-down version of the professional adult model included organizing the sport during the same season as the adult league, scoring the same, and including league play, tournaments and championships. Sure, the size of the field and equipment, length of the season, and number of contests may have been reduced, but it still looks like the definition of a miniature adult paradigm, not a youth-focused program design. If we considered youth as miniature adults for program design, therefore, there is little wonder why we face the current issues in youth sport.

There are many existing issues in youth sport, such as the use of talent identification models, maximizing participation in one sport in an effort to achieve expert proficiency (based largely on the controversial 10,000-hour rule) and its subsequent early sport specialization, and burnout, dropout, or apathy to participate. It appears that the basis for these issues lies in the misuse of the original structure of youth sports.

The original youth sports model most likely did not intend for the current bastardized version to promulgate. Nonetheless, the original model does not prevent it from happening either. Unless the original youth sports model is challenged and improved, it appears that we can expect the issues to not only continue but to reach a critical tipping point in the not too distant future that will force us to reconsider how youth sports are offered to our kids.

Let’s Do What Is Best for Kids

We should, therefore, consider what is best for the kids, not as a watered-down version of what adults identify with, but as the means to positive youth development we all believe is one of the primary benefits of youth sport participation. Unfortunately, the positive benefits do not occur on their own – they need to be taught and reinforced by parents, teachers, and qualified coaches for benefit to be realized.

Motor skill competence, conflict resolution, and teamwork, for example do not happen on their own. We all have seen examples of players with sport-specific skill that is limited by their lack of overall motor skill competence. We have also seen teams with star players that should, on paper, be unbeatable yet they never learn to function as a team. To see what might be possible for our youth a quick review of positive youth development is helpful.

Youth sport and physical activity participation are multi-factorial and include access to and opportunity for participation in a wide variety of sports and activities; attention to positive physical, social, and psychological development of youth; and the influence of social and cultural norms for how we value rewards, winning, and participation in lifelong sport and physical activity. Positive youth development emphasizes that positive youth development occurs when “opportunities to develop competencies through interactions with important others in family, peer, school, and community settings” are purposefully implemented.⁸

Successful programs include social, psychological, and physical assets, such as motor skill competence, self-determined motivation toward sport and physical activity, and support from significant adults and peers.⁷ If these assets are not properly developed, children and youth may drop out, no longer have fun, and resist continued participation in sport and physical activity of any kind, which is exactly what we are seeing in youth sport.

Youth Sports the Right Way

What is the purpose of your youth sports program? Hopefully it is to purposefully develop physical, psychological, and social assets for all youth. Within many current long-term sports development programs the concept of physical literacy is being used to describe a person that moves with poise, economy, and confidence in a wide variety of physically challenging situations.¹

Consistent with the intended tenets of physical literacy, however, positive youth development pays attention to these assets for all youth in a variety of settings, on a variety of surfaces, and physical capacities (balance, coordination, flexibility, agility, control, precision, strength, power, endurance, and the ability to move at different speeds and distances) as appropriate to each individual’s endowment, with the intended outcome “to value and take responsibility for maintaining purposeful physical pursuits/activities throughout the life course.”⁹ How many youth sports programs can claim to instill this value in all participants?

To end the current issues and controversies in youth sports, adults need to step up to the proverbial plate and insist that there is not only a level playing field for all participants to develop physical literacy, but also to develop all physical, psychological, and social assets leading to success in athletics and in life. Check the vision, mission, and purpose statement for the youth league in which you, your family, extended family, and friends participate. Is physical literacy and positive youth development included? How is it implemented and measured?

Perhaps the current youth sports system needs an overhaul, especially at the younger developmental stages, in order to ensure proper physical and psychosocial development of all kids, thereby creating a new youth sports paradigm.

References:

1. Balyi, I. and Hamilton, A. (2004). Long-term athlete development: trainability in childhood and adolescence windows of opportunity, optimal trainability. National Coaching Institute British Columbia & Advanced Training and Performance Ltd.

2. Little League Baseball (2013). History of Little League. Accessed January 31, 2014.

3. Major League Baseball (2013). The Commissionership: A Historical Perspective. Accessed January 31, 2014.

4. Pop Warner Football (2013). History of Pop Warner. Accessed January 31, 2014.

5. Pro Football Hall of Fame (2013). History: Birth of pro football. Accessed January 31, 2014.

6. Vaeyens, R, Lenoir, M, Williams, A., and Philappaerts, R. (2008). “Talent identification and development programmes in sport: current models and future directions.” Sports Medicine. 38(9): 703-714.

7. Wiese-Bjornstal,D.M.,& LaVoi, N.M. (2007). “Girls’ physical activity participation: Recommendations for best practices, programs, policies, and future research.” In M.J. Kane & N.M. LaVoi (Eds.), The 2007 Tucker Center Research Report, Developing physically active girls: An evidence-based multidisciplinary approach (pp. 63-90). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

8. Weiss MR, Wiese-Bjornstal DM. (2009). “Promoting positive youth development through physical activity.” President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Research Digest. 10(3):1-8.

9. Whitehead, M. (2001). “The concept of physical literacy.” European Journal of Physical Education, 6, 127-138.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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What Is the Question for Which Testing Provides the Answer?

In youth fitness, we need to first determine the question to see if we are on the right track for the answer. What is fitness? The definition has changed since many of us were in school. Fitness at one time included health-fitness (cardiovascular endurance, muscle endurance, muscle strength, flexibility, and body composition) and skills-fitness (speed, power, agility, balance, and coordination). Those students with age-appropriate health-fitness and skills-fitness performed well on fitness tests (remember the President’s Council fitness tests?). The goal was to have all students be proficient in all fitness attributes.

The modern definition of fitness includes only health-fitness in an effort to be sure our children don’t grow up with the same chronic conditions that plague adults, like obesity, low-back pain, and heart disease. The trouble is there is no longitudinal data to support this approach and who has ever heard a third grader state he or she wants to play, exercise, and participate in sports to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease?

Testing for Physical Literacy

Shouldn’t the goal of youth testing (if testing is at all valid) be to help give kids the skills they need to be physically active for a lifetime? We should focus on developing kids’ motor skill competence and self-efficacy of movement, which are important components of a construct known as physical literacy.1,2 Physical literacy, as defined by Whitehead, is “The motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for maintaining purposeful physical pursuits/activities throughout the life course.”This sounds like a much more worthy purpose than seeing if the results for third graders on the back-saver sit-and-reach (an admittedly invalid test as a measure of low-back flexibility) reduce low-back pain when the students are in their fifties.

Interestingly, the types of skills that lead kids to want to continue to be physically active, exercising and playing sports, are in the skills-fitness category, not the health-fitness category (although the development of muscle strength goes hand-in-hand with the development of proficient motor skills). One other important point to consider is that growth and development for youngsters is non-linear, which means they may progress, then not progress, then progress again. This is especially true during developmental benchmarks such as growth spurts. Imagine a student who has good flexibility, then his legs grow two inches, he gets tested for flexibility, and his arms don’t quite reach the same mark. Has he lost flexibility? Of course not. So testing should be considered an educational tool that is a snapshot of one particular point in time. Testing cannot be used to predict future superstardom, but should be used to educate students on the value of physical fitness, how physical fitness contributes to increased physical literacy, and how students can improve elements of physical fitness.

Testing for Talent Identification?

What about testing for sports talent identification? Early identification of talent sure sounds promising. Just imagine if vertical jump performance in fifth grade led to an automatic NBA or WNBA contract. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. What if the athlete is early to mature and his or her vertical jump maxes out in ninth grade? What if the athlete gets hurt from overuse in eight grade and burns out, choosing never to play basketball again?

And, going back to fitness testing in schools, the President’s Council tests no longer exist as we remember them (the reasoning is a fantastic article in and of itself). Any reference to skills fitness testing is now supposed to happen after school for those participating in the after-school program. Really? This means we are excluding all kids from reaching their potential by selecting only those athletes participating in the after-school program. This is, of course, contrary to the development of physical literacy for all kids and the tenet of education to provide equal opportunity for all students to gain the knowledge, skill, and attitudes to be physically active for a lifetime. What can be done?

Test for Fun and Adherence

We need to engage children and youth in the process, and we certainly don’t need to parade them in front of their classmates to do this. Who better to help develop a meaningful physical fitness program than the kids themselves? It sure beats trying to justify reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease in third graders. A well-designed and implemented physical fitness program that takes into account measuring progress toward physical literacy will have the effect of reducing cardiovascular disease and increasing lifetime physical activity because the kids take ownership of the program, thereby increasing their intrinsic motivation to participate. Likewise, because kids are taking ownership for their physical literacy, they will engage in activities that will improve health-fitness and skills-fitness by incorporating the most important element of youth fitness programming – fun.

References:

1. Stodden, D., & Goodway, J. D., “The Dynamic Association Between Motor Skill Development and Physical Activity.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 78(8), 33-49.

2. Whitehead, M. E., “Physical Literacy: Philosophical considerations in relation to the development of self, universality and propositional knowledge.” Sport Ethics and Philosophy, Vol 1 No. 3, Dec 2007.

Photo 1 by unknown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo 2 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 3 courtesy of CrossFit LA.

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