When I began my career and first learned about how difficult it is to make it in sports (i.e. succeed to professional athletics), I spent a lot of time talking to parents to help them prepare in advance for their child’s eventual sport retirement transition. The goal back then was to help kids (and their parents) understand sports end relatively early in life for most student athletes, and broadening their identity beyond “athlete” is an important aspect of coping with sport retirement. Today, the odds of making it are still remote, but rather than preparing for sport retirement and looking at what’s after sports, I instead spend increasingly more time encouraging parents to get back to encouraging their kids to simply get outside and play sports! Yes, sport retirement is still an inevitable, and often difficult transition — but in this moment too many kids are becoming sedentary with their lifestyles, spending way too much time doing video games in lieu of playing outside, and experiencing mental health concerns as a result.
Sport participation > video games
Many of us had assumed that as the pandemic came to an end, kids who had spent the last few years doing video games would start leaving the games behind in exchange for doing real things outside (like sports!). Unfortunately, that really hasn’t happened, as we still see far too many kids today logging incredible amounts of time gaming, and this almost always comes at the expense of other more important life activities. Consequently, more kids today are choosing inside activities with little physical value, over outside activities that keep kids physically fit and in shape. It is difficult to see how that is a good trade for any kid.
Sports have always been great for physical development, social experiences with friends, and learning athletic transferable skills that can be used in all areas of life, but perhaps the greatest value of sport participation in this moment is they get kids off video games and more involved in the real world around them. Many parents have told me that when they passively suggest to their kids to go outside, often they are met with resistance, disinterest, and other behaviors indicating to leave them with their video gaming. This trend is not good, and with online gaming communities growing, as well as video games becoming more real-like, you can easily see how this problem is worsening.
Remember, there are only so many hours in a day, and the time that your child has at being a kid is limited. Sport participation checks a lot of boxes, including social, physical, cognitive, and even career when you take into consideration athletic transferable skills learned through sports. Trading those experiences for isolation, minimal in-person social experiences, and a whole lot of nothing as an end result for completing a game, and you can easily see how gaming over sports is a tough argument to make.
Mental health improvement
When it comes to mental health, what you do (and don’t do) each day has a direct impact on how you feel. For kids, chewing up hours, days, and weeks doing video games means that they choose isolation in exchange for hanging out with friends, laughing, problem solving, communicating, making decisions, managing stress, and so much more. When kids miss out on social interactions, they lose out on a critical period of development for their mental health, often leaving them behind other kids who haven’t been as devoted to gaming. For parents who think they are best accommodating their kids by purchasing a refrigerator for their room, along with a big screen tv and gaming chair, you might want to think again. Not seeing and interacting with your kid because he or she is always gaming is not a great scenario, and one that may require you to have a deep conversation about your child’s mental health and how to steer clear of avoidable problems linked to excessive gaming.
Video games can be entertaining, and when kids keep them in proper context by also doing a lot of real-life stuff, they can be a fun part of child and adolescent’s upbringing. Unfortunately, parents who tune out and allow their kids to self-regulate with gaming too often than not find themselves in even trickier situations down the road, especially when trying to unplug from the game and do more stuff outside. Kids who game obsessively often struggle with mental health issues including mood state swings, anxiety, irritability, and sleep issues to name a few.
Final thoughts
Yes, over-investing in sports can leave kids vulnerable to eventual sport retirement struggles, but in this moment you may want to postpone those worries, especially if you have a child consumed by video gaming. Kids not only need to be encouraged to get outside more, they need to be shown examples of sports they can do — even if they are not on a team or league. Kids can shoot hoops, throw a ball, play disc golf (or traditional golf), and countless more outside activities that are both free, and FUN! It is important we sell the value of sports in this moment, for if we miss this generation they, in turn, will have even bigger challenges down the road with the next generation of kids choosing gaming over real-life.
drstankovich.com
