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Keeping Kids in the Game, by Timothy Schneider, Publisher, SportsTravel
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| Los
Angeles, CA – March 2015 / Newsmaker Alert / Last
month, we reported on several takeaways from a new study titled, “Sport
for All, Play for Life: A Playbook to Get Every Kid in the Game.” Released
by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, the study offers a plan for re-imagining
youth sports at a time when participation in sports is declining among
children ages 6 to 12.
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help organizations explore and act on the report, the Aspen Institute recently
hosted the 2015 Project Play Summit, bringing together more than 300 representatives
from sports organizations and community recreation groups as well as leaders
in the technology, education, public health and business sectors. The summit
made it clear that getting children involved in sports is only the first
step in a process that needs to place a higher priority on providing children
with a positive experience once they are convinced to participate. This
month, we look at the four additional strategies proposed by Project Play
to help youth become physically active through sports:
Reintroduce free play. There are several barriers to informal play, including pressure on parents to create super-achieving kids and budget cuts for public school physical education programs. According to research from the University of Colorado, children who spend more time in less-structured activities are better able to set their own goals and take action on them. Design for development. Activities should be tailored to each child’s mental, emotional and physical stages of development. Adults should recognize that each child develops differently and one size does not fit all. Children should be able to participate in sports at a level consistent with their abilities and interests. Train all coaches. Of the 6.5 million youth coaches, less than one in five are trained in how to effectively communicate with kids and only one in three say they have been trained in sports skills or tactics. Not having enough trained coaches is problematic because a study has found that 26 percent of children quit their sport within a year when playing for an untrained coach compared with only 5 percent who quit when playing for a trained coach. Emphasize prevention. More than 87 percent of parents surveyed worry about risk of injury, with concussion risk cited as the most worrisome. In fact, a quarter of all parents have considered keeping their children from playing a sport because of those fears. Although awareness is being raised—President Obama hosted the first White House summit on sports-related youth concussions in 2014— the conversation should shift to prevention strategies. Project Play recommends the creation of a tool that compares injury and physical activity rates across sports or a system to track sports-related concussions to help inform decisions made about rules, coaching techniques and equipment. To access the full Project Play report, visit YouthReport.ProjectPlay.us. Trends in youth sports and their effect on the sports-event industry will be among the topics discussed at TEAMS ‘15, November 9–12 in Las Vegas. For more details, please call 877-577-3700 or visit TEAMSconference.com. This current issue of SportsTravel can be viewed in digital format online by clicking here. ### SportsTravel, the sports world’s event magazine, is published by Los Angeles-based Schneider Publishing Company, which also publishes Association News. Founded in 1997, SportsTravel was the first magazine to identify and serve the sports-related travel and event industry. Schneider Publishing organizes the TEAMS Conference & Expo, the world’s largest gathering of sports-event organizers, which will be held November 9–12 in Las Vegas. In addition, Schneider Publishing organizes the Meetings Quest trade-show series for corporate and association meeting planners. The travel markets served by Schneider Publishing generate 106 million hotel room nights annually. For more information, visit SchneiderPublishing.com or call toll-free 877-577-3700 or 310-577-3700 if dialing from outside the United States. SportsTravel,
Association
News, TEAMS and Event Doctor are registered trademarks
and Meetings Quest is a trademark of Schneider Publishing.
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