It’s good that we’re finally taking a good, long look at youth sports. Some of what we’re finding is cause for concern.
When looking back in time it’s fairly easy to see the errors of former ways. We did things, said things, and were allowed to do things that don’t cut it by contemporary standards. Posing in blackface—an act rooted in racism—is one example. What were we thinking?
The list of ‘once ok, not ok today’ seems endless. And, just a few days ago, a group of Canadian researchers added a youth sports item to the list—dodgeball.
The Washington Post reported that a group of Canadian academic researchers is calling for the game to be banned from schools. The academics didn’t make the call based on antipathy. They based it on interviews conducted with middle-school children. In a word, most kids they studied ‘hated’ dodgeball.
Courtesy: Be Yourself
The game is aggressive by intent and violent in action. For one thing, it enables throwers to target certain kids and, then (with accuracy), inflict pain. And when done in concert with other students, a cabal can gang up on students.
Institutionally, the activity is undertaken as legitimate school-time activity. Teachers oversee what schools sanction as ‘physical education.’
Are those contentions an overreach? Perhaps. But not if you look at dodgeball’s origination. With African roots, it wasn’t created as a game and it wasn’t played with a ball. Rocks were thrown at warriors to presumably boost their capacity to engage successfully in battle.
The deconstruction of dodgeball is one example of something that’s relatively new in this country—taking a long, hard look at youth sports. Today, youth sports are under a microscope, and what we often find is that heretofore ‘normal activities’ are seen differently under examination.
Child safety is a primary driver of attention with football and ice hockey (concussion concerns) leading the way. But there’s more to it than that. In The Race to Nowhere in Youth Sports, John O’Sullivan writes about a major issue–one that’s in full view if you’ve been associated recently with a youth sports league. The structure and approach are “created by adults and serves the needs of adults, but rarely kids.”
One manifestation of that problem is youth sports specialization. Kids are now playing one sport year-round. Before specialization, many kids played different sports at different times of the year. Many still do, of course, but specialization is often encouraged. Why? If kids don’t play a sport year-round, so goes the narrative, then they are less likely to make their high school team (and by extension) compete for a college athletic scholarship. While that’s true (because the system is configured that way), the flipside is that specialization has a cost, including increased injury risk.
Other countries don’t approach youth sports the way we do in the U.S.
Grounded in a nationally-adopted youth sports manifesto and funded by money adults spend on legalized gambling, it’s an approach with impact. For evidence, just look at results from the 2018 Winter Olympics. Norway, a Nordic country with fewer than 6,000,000 residents, finished 1st overall in the medals competition (with 39 medals–14 gold, 14 silver, and 11 silver). The U.S. brought home 23 medals, finishing 4th in the overall competition.
Should America follow Norway’s lead? It seems almost unAmerican to ask. But is it?
Perhaps not. Perhaps the U.S. would benefit by looking at what another country is doing while simultaneously looking in the mirror. If we look at what’s familiar through fresh eyes, we might see that
Football is too dangerous for young kids to play.
Despite promulgations by NHL concussion-deniers, ice hockey is the same way.
Dodgeball should be banned from the PE curriculum.
Youth sports specialization has a downside.
Adults’ rules and aspirations shouldn’t define kids’ play.
Even if we don’t take that hard look and change as a result, I’ll bet that we’ll look back someday and wonder, “What were we thinking?”
