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Fun & Skill Development v. Winning

Youth Sports Is About Far More than Wins and Losses

I recently received an e-mail from a hockey parent in Vermont that was so powerful, I wanted to share it:  

Hi Hal

An email from a hockey parent and coach puts winning versus having fun in its proper perspective.

Advice to Sports Parents: Stress Fun, Building Skills

With the increasing focus in youth sports on success, a sports psychologist and former elite short track cyclist says parents should emphasize practice to play, leaving their expectations at home on game day, and being motivated by a desire to have fun, not achieve results.

Playing Multiple Sports: A Healthy Advantage for Youth Athletes

The overlap between youth sports seasons is only getting worse and the degree to which kids are specializing at ever-earlier ages in a single sport is a troubling trend in youth sports, says one longtime baseball coach and author.

Wins and Losses: Not True Measure of Sports Success

The way to measure success in sports, argues Wheelock College Director of Athletics Diana Cutaia, is by whether team and individual goals have been achieved and how well athletes respond to adversity, mistakes, and failure.

Sports Parenting: Teaching the Right Values Should Always Come First

A mom of seven says parents of youth athletes need to make sure that their kids' sports promotes values and life lessons consistent with their own.

Adults In Youth Sports: How to Make It Fun for Kids

Adults involved in youth sports are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the quality of a child's sports experience. To create a positive sports environment for youth athletes to ensure they have fun, parents need to ask six key questions.

Youth Sports About Learning Fundamentals and Having Fun

It's unfortunate that so many coaches and parents see each season's won and loss record as the only measure of success, instead of being just a part of having fun and the learning experience. The real journey in youth sports, says youth basketball commissioner and founder of Respect Sports, Frank White, should be that each season's learning builds upon the previous season's fundamentals as athletes strive to achieve enough skills to play at the varsity high school level, or just enough achievement to enjoy playing the game, at even the recreational sports level.

Should I Be Ashamed For Feeling This Way About My Daughter's Sport Team?

If anyone who comes on this site has read anything I’ve written you should pretty much be aware that I’m on a one man crusade to stop coaches from abusing some kids through the practicing of benching, or essentially giving a player on the team either no, or very, very little, meaningful playing time.

Fun Is Still Number One Reason Kids Play Sports

Youth sports may have become more and more about competition and winning, but kids are, in a word, still kids: the number one reason they play sports is still to have fun, and, even at the high school level, most would still rather get playing time on a losing team than sit on the bench of a winner.
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