When we approach the task of how to best help kids gain the self-confidence and focus needed to be happy and successful in life, there may be an activity right in front of you that is being under-valued or overlooked: youth sports. To the untrained eye, youth sports might be seen as something where kids run around for awhile, with very little value beyond that. Upon closer inspection, however, we begin to see an experience filled with fun, friendships, team-building, opportunities to experience both winning and losing, and moments of human growth that can happen with a single catch, tackle, or goal. Youth sports provide countless opportunities for “teachable moments,” as well as ways for kids to improve their mental health, but this only occurs when adults tune in and help capitalize on those moments.
The real highlights of youth sports
Sure, it’s always great to see the better players on a team play their best and help the team win, but what about all the other kids who start each sport season barely being able to throw or kick a ball? These kids, through no fault of their own, often arrive to their youth sports team with little to no previous experience, and some may even be there simply because their parents signed them up without asking. Being a part of a youth sport team is challenging enough, but the less experienced kids have to contend with a number of mental health and human development hurdles as well, including social interactions with new friends, learning a sport for the first time, and performing sport skills well enough to avoid embarrassment and humiliation. Youth sports often serve as the backdrop for kids to work through their personal insecurities, and for those who do they often look back fondly on their previous sports teams and the relationships and experiences that helped them grow physically and emotionally.
If you have spent any time around youth sports, then you can probably think of a story or two that unexpectedly warmed your heart — the kid who never got a hit then suddenly does, or the kid who used to pick dandelions but now just made the throw to win the game! These spontaneous, unplanned moments are the real value of youth sports, as that one, magical moment for a kid can be the spark to many of the following life-changing experiences:
- Confidence and self-esteem. Helping your team win and receiving appreciation from teammates is a great way to feel better about yourself, and confidence is directly related to performance (in sports and life).
- Acceptance within a group. For many kids gaining acceptance from teammates is the first time they have ever felt part of a group, allowing for the development of social skills and communication/conflict resolution experiences.
- Appreciation of resiliency. When a kid gets that first hit or goal, it is often the first success experienced after many practices before that moment where things did not go very well. Kids can gain an early appreciation of hard work and resiliency by witnessing their own efforts in overcoming a previous shortcoming when they find success on the field.
- Appreciation of work ethic. Kids can also learn that hard work is not limited to sport success; the same mindset and motivation used to improve athletic abilities can be applied to all life experiences — including school!
- Smart future life choices to stay healthy and eligible. Kids who experience success in sports often gain an appreciation of the choices they made along the way as they witnessed self-improvement, including making healthy social, nutritional, and academic choices.
All of these positive changes contribute to a kid’s personality, including level of optimism, ability to focus and complete projects, motivational strategies, and stress coping and resiliency. So yes, something as seemingly simple as a kid scoring a goal in soccer can be the moment when he or she begins to replace “I can’t” with “I can,” and from there the potential for an entirely different life experience unfolds. Perhaps that sounds dramatic, but I can tell you firsthand many, many young people have told me directly the impact and influence specific moments in youth sports had on their lives.
Final thoughts
While we typically view youth sports through a rather simplistic lens, we might want to look more closely for those special moments where kids do something they have never done before — and then capitalize on those times with praise, cheers, and high-5’s! For it is in those very moments where memories are made, and often new and exciting directions in life follow once a kid begins to see that he or she really can do it. While making it far in sports is unlikely for most kids, every kid has the chance to improve personal confidence and self-esteem by working hard in youth sports
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