What Are We Doing to Youth Sports?

When I was a kid growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I spent the spring/summers playing baseball, the fall playing football, and the winters playing basketball.

During those glory days, we enjoyed a sport for each season and then moved to the next one.

Things are different today, and there is a new, alarming trend in youth sports. The days of having a 10-game season (pick your sport) have passed. 

Instead, it has turned into a 30 to 40 game season with offseason work-outs.

Kids are worried that if they don't focus on just one sport, they won't make the varsity team in high school.

In a recent study by Michigan State University, kids were asked "what they wanted to get out of playing sports" and the highest ranked answers were: having fun, playing with friends, and doing an activity. I was surprised that winning ranked No. 10.

Another youth sports study showed that 75 percent of kids will stop playing sports by the age of 15.

This report tells me that kids haven't changed so much from when I was younger, the adults have changed the system.

We want kids to play a ton of games and to focus on one sport so they can become the next Tim Tebow or LeBron James.

We want to overload them with games and work-outs so they can be the best of the best.

Another item from the MSU study stated that "Seventy-five percent of all parents think their (high school) child is good enough to get a college scholarship based on their athletic ability."

In actuality, less then one percent of high school athletes will earn a college scholarship.

This huge perception problem is one of the reason we have child obesity problem in this country—and why kids are burning out before their 16th birthday?

So my question is, are we (the adults) ruining youth sports?

Are we not letting kids be kids and putting too much pressure on these young men and women to take their games to the next level?

The fact is, most kids will not earn a scholarship and even less will earn a living playing professional sports. It seems to me, kids want to play sports for fun and to bond with their peers, it's the adults who have the unrealistic expectations.

As the NFL says, "get out and play."

Who cares what the sport is, just go out and play!