A recent study findings concluded that sport participation amongst youngsters 6-to-12 years of age is down from 45%-to-38%. A quick answer to the question, 'why' would likely point a finger at youth's addiction to the Internet and electronic games. There is little doubt that such youthful fascination with electronics contributes significantly to the growing 'couch-potato-gang' but it's no longer the greatest single factor.
We must consider the old adage, 'follow the money.' Before we do that let's agree that several factors have caused a decline in informal 'sandlot' sports engagement by young kids. Parents feel their children are unsafe outdoors when unsupervised, which leads to staying indoors and grabbing 'Game Boy.' Secondly, there has been a decline in community supported youth sports' offerings due to taxation financing and the rise of parent-driven and supported club/travel teams.
The travel/club teams is a fertile ground for parents not only to be more hands on as coaches but also offers a widely embraced social-engagement of parents as the team travels regionally for weekend tournaments. These parents will spend huge sums of money for equipment, uniforms, hotels, gas and Foods. Suddenly, the travel/club team becomes unaffordable for many families.
These teams may have most of the better players in a given community but NOT always. Parents are now willing to shell out big bucks to hire trainers, personal instructors and send their kids to expensive sports' camps and elite Showcases. Why the willingness to spend large amounts of money?
Make the team and get a college scholarship.
Is the State Of Youth Sports better today? I'm not sure. I do believe it's excluding some kids.
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