I was talking with an athlete recently asking why he was giving up the sport he grew up with and played every year since he could pick up a bat and baseball.  He was on the varsity baseball team the previous year and he was giving it up to switch sports.

His answer boiled down to one simple reason…it was not FUN anymore.

I didn’t pepper him with questions about what specifically was going on that didn’t make it fun.  That being said, I think today’s athletes are having a hard time figuring out how to have fun in sports.

Depending on who you ask nowadays, sports are either way too serious or in some cases not serious enough.  The problem is do the kids understand how to have fun?

You think it would be natural and they would know it when they felt it.  But, any more I’m not so sure.

I think having fun in your sport should consist of some of these traits:

  • You have to learn how to compete. Learning to compete is a healthy part of growing up.  I think there is a way to gradually get kids to learn this the older they get.  I’m not so sure it is beneficial to have kids play for a world cup at 8, but learning that not everything is about giving a ribbon for participation is a good thing.
  • It’s always fun to play with your friends. You want to win with your friends and accept losing with them as well.  But, when you put extra effort in to prepare and win a big game, it is extra fun with friends.
  • I think winning is important, but I don’t think you need to feel that winning is everything. If you lose, you can be disappointed, but if you played an exceptional game then take some pride in that.  Accept the fact that you are having fun, the outcome just didn’t happen the way you wanted.  In the 1975 World Series Game 6 (a classic), in extra innings Pete Rose came up to bat and said to Carlton Fisk the Red Sox catcher, “This is some kind of game isn’t it.”  Who says that if you aren’t having fun in that moment?
  • I worry that the specialization of sports is contributing to the lack of fun. Playing on high level travel teams, in tournaments on a weekly or bi-weekly rate, with each tournament seemingly being the most important thing in the world has to wear on the kids.  Doing that all year can start to get boring for kids.  I’m not saying there isn’t a place for it, but how much is too much.
  • I do believe that you should not be having more fun in practice than games. You can have fun in practices, but we play games because we enjoy the sport.  We want to see if we can be as good at that sport as possible with the ultimate outcome of getting a satisfying victory.
  • I always think the goal is to have fun no matter what the age. Depending on the age though some other aspects will start shifting in their value of importance as well.  And that is alright.  Having fun should be the priority for young kids with a little emphasis on winning and competing.  But, as you get older winning and competing should start balancing out with the fun.  For a high school athlete, that person can have fun, get a big win, and be happy because he/she competed hard during that game.  That is like the triple crown for fun.

I get worried that we get too serious too soon with our athletes.  That’s probably why so many athletes quit sports by age 12-13 siting that it isn’t fun anymore.  Let’s try to keep that in mind as we are continuing our youth’s growth into sports.

Picture courtesy of http://i9sa.org.