Are kids losing interest in sports....

When I was a kid, we would play football, baseball or basketball at the park every single day. We had nintendos but we used those on the crappy rainy/cold days when no one wanted to be outside.

I drive by the local park by my house now and it's almost always empty except for the people letting their dogs crap all over it and not cleaning it up. Maybe that's why no one plays there I dunno.

With the proliferation of computers at home (i had one but teh intarwebs sucked back then, if anyone knows how cool it was to have a 4 line bbs you'll remember what I am talking about.) and all the new gadgets kids pretty much have too much to choose from. I wouldn't say it's a disinterest in sports as much as it is their love of stuff that's "easier". I think that's where the problem lies.

Our kids today want stuff handed to them. Too much entitlement going on and most of it starts with the parents who themselves feel entitled and have no accountability for their own actions. Kid started a fight at school? It was the other kids fault, or my kid was playing GTA 4 so that must be to blame. It couldn't possibly be that they're just crappy parents and should be banned from using their reproductive organs.

I'm 21 and I agree 100% with all these posts. I consider myself a very small minority of people in high school who didn't ever try a sip of alcohol or any drug. I do think it is the parenting and that might not be easy for kids to choose. I was fortunate enough to live in a very nice suburban town where NOBODY should be acting "ghetto" because every family can afford to live here. As I was exposed to all this stuff, I found myself turning back to sports rather than drugs. When I couldn't get enough people to play basketball or toss a football, I'd go on a run. Technology has made lives for teens ALOT easier and parenting hasn't helped control teens interest either. I also think that the teenagers are to blame. Maybe they are too young to understand what is going on, maybe not; but I know if I sit in front of the TV for longer than an hour (not watching sporting event) than I feel like I lost time I can never get back. It's almost as if kids don't think that hard work pays off.... that really makes me mad. (Sorry I know I'm all over the place with my thoughts) Thats just how I feel though.

My son is just starting organized sports and in our town, you have to sign up months in advance for baseball, football, basketball, lacross, soccer to make sure you have a spot. Numbers are so up that they are turning kids away.

650 boys in football form age 6 to 14 in our town.....only keeping 120 on freshman and only 85 on sophomores at the local high school in our town. Wish I had that problem at the high schools I coached at.

Number is not a problem in our town

I coached in a rural community where about 80% of the boys played football, there were 300 students in the school. Sports was a priority to the parents and the kids. Most of the kids came from two parent house holds and many of the kids came from upper middle class farmers. I think where you live can be a big part of it. In our area the towns and cities that have rich parents have high schools that are very successful in school and sports. On the flip side I worked in another rural community that 75% of the kids were on free and reduced lunch. The average grade these parents made it through was 4th grade in Mexico. In that school, a school with about 100 more kids than the other school, about 50 kids went out for football in the two levels. Both communities the kids worked. The first community the kids worked driving tractor and back hoes for their dads. The second community the kids worked along with their families in the fields. My point is that the affluent communities can afford to prioritize athletics in the kids lives.

To the post that started this whole thread I agree with many of your points: video games, poor parenting and the decline of society. I think education is also to blame for much of this. I choose my words wisely here to try not to offend many on this site. I think in the lower levels of many low socio economic areas and many middle class areas that boys are not taught to the their strengths. One form of evidense is the lack of boys going on to college. Girls on average outnumber boys in college 1.5 to 1 and less numbers of boys are finishing college than in past decades. A drastic change from 20 years ago. I believe it goes back to how we teach boys in school. Many are disciplined and tagged as ADD when they are just being boys. Boys 30 years ago got into a fight in school, a natural part of being a boy, and they are disciplined by a call to their parents. Boys in a fight these days are sent home for a number of days. Teachers at the lower levels are mainly women that have a hard time understanding the needs of boys and can not control them. Not all but some. I believe boys are now turned off by the education process because to succeed you need to share and all of the touchy feely teaching techniques pushed to these teachers to raise test scores. Before girls were wrongly labeled that they were not good at certain subjects and now boys are being labeled as ADD and ADHD or just a pain in the butt. A higher percentage of boys become disenfranchised with education and give up or shut down. I agree with the lack of fathers in the home and now all mothers are working but education was always a standard where being a boy regardless of home life they had a chance to succeed. I think it has now become harder for boys. I have two girls and a boy. There is a huge difference in their development. The girls are much more mature and much more into crafts, communication and sharing. The boy is into tackling, breaking things and jumping off of stuff. Will he do well in a classroom? No way. Many of us can probably remember our schooling and how recess and PE were our favorite times of the day. The test scores in many states dictate how kids are taught and they have to substitute PE time and recess time for shadow classes to keep up with the other kids. How do you think that affects these boys enjoyment of school let alone their self-esteem. Percentage wise the kids in these classes are largely boys and they not only are deemed behind but are also tagged as behavior problems. Look into special education. The largely hispanic school I worked at had 400 kids in the 6-8 middle school and 65 kids were in special education, a huge percentage. Of those 65 kids 42 were boys. Why? One because they were too hard to handle for teachers in the classroom and the teachers could not be the problem so the kids are tested and most were found to be ADD so they would be pulled out of regular classes for parts of their day. Too many boys and girls were identified than need be. I won't get into special ed because that is another subject. Special ed is a wonderful program for those kids that truly need it. Not for those kids that are hard to handle. My point is that education is dropping the ball with the males in our society. Parents are the main problem but lets try to make the difference where we as educators can. These boys that are not succeeding in school are also the fathers of the next generation. Scary. Look into the prison population, mostly men. How many dropped out of high school 85-90%. 50% of Hispanic males will drop out of high school. We in education and schools are not doing enough. We can complain about the borders and this and that but that is not my point. My point is that education is not doing enough to motivate boys of any and all races, especially the boys from low socio-economic areas. How does this pertain to this thread? They aren't going to put out when their whole education process has labeled them unfairly with a standard some boys can not meet. Okay I nutted up in this post and for that I apologize but it just pisses me off. Treat them like boys, let them get dirty, wrestle, be goofy and then you be firm but fair. You ask them all in first grade how many want to play football or soccer or whatever sport and most to all will raise their hand. The biggest problem is parents but education, I feel, needs to bare some of the blame. Okay done.

This is a ridiculous thread. Absolutely ridiculous.

Whining about everything from technology to gay rights.

Yes kids have more choices. Every one of my players has a cell phone, an xbox, an ipod, a computer, etc and they still play hell numbers are way up in every sport...

Kids don't play sports "because they want to be noticed." They play sports because they enjoy it.

You know you're old when you start making giant rants about how kids today are no good with their gay rights, baggy pants, slang words, and technology. I hope to god if I ever get to that point someone puts me out of my misery.

One of the reasons kids don't get together and play ball (at least here in suburbs) is because we as parents don't know our neighbors. We live in an upper middle class community, 2 years ago there was a family of meth dealers across from the kids park. Dad-45, Mom 40, 2 kids 19,21. I look on a web site with convicted sex offenders - 2 in a 5 mile radius, 5 in 10 miles. I talk to the local cop and without going into specifics, he tells me most of the calls he makes are domestic abuse involving alcohol & drugs (at least 3 a night). I wont let my kids go to the park unsupervised. There is a group of 8-10 that play whiffle ball or kick ball in the back yard but space is limited. I coach and teach at a urban type school and its 10x worse. I would have a hard time letting my kids even walk outside.

I have a few observations on this topic. I think participation is down in urban areas to do the nature of those areas. I work in an inner-city elem. school. All the kids I teach, PE, for the most part love sports all want to play in HS. But they are faced with many more obstacles to over come to make it to the HS level and play. Some do play, some get caught up in their enviroments and don't. As far as them being out side and playing and all that I think you also have to realize when I was a kid, I am 34, and when some of the others on here were you had someone at home with you during the summer and so did most of the kids in the nehiborhood. I also worked at the local Boys and Girls club in the summer and I can tell you the number of kids in supervised programs in the summer is way up from when I was a kid. When you look at single parent households and they options they have of 1. Leave the kids home alone or 2. Send them to a summer program most take option 2. Those that are home alone are prob. told not to go out much or at all due to a lack of supervision. So it's different from meeting a bunch of your friends at the park and playing all day, now lots of these kids are somewhere other than home during the day. Also factor in the money part of it and alot of inner-city sports programs just can't compete. It's getting harder and harder to be a kid in these areas, that is why I think you see a decline in activity.

As far as other more well off areas I think you are seeing kids chose at an earlier age to concentrate on one sport. Also in alot of those areas kids are playing so many sports year round that they might simply need a break to relax. We were freaking out the other day at our summer work out as the "summer league" baseball team was at school getting ready for a game, and the basketball team was getting ready for a team camp. Year round seasons are starting to take a tool on participation. It's very rare for us to have a traditional 3 sport player any more.

i think numbers are down do to burn out. I know we had this at a school where I coached at 10 years ago.

the town had a huge youth sports program. They called themselves the boosters. they even had a week long 4th of july celebration for fund the boosters. very powerful organization.

they had tackle football in 3rd grade. 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8. They also had a very successful traveling basketball teams at those same levels which would start play in oct and be done at the end of feb. two practices a week and then tournys on the weekend. 50 to 60 games in this time frame.

high school basketball team and football team sucked. we found out that kids were burned out by the time they got to high school.
in fact we had to institute a rule for basketball and football at the middle school. too many kids were loafing it at on the school team in order to save themselves for the traveling and booster teams. So we made a rule if you were involved in those activties you could not be in middle school sports.
what this did was give kids who were cut from the booster teams a chance to play middle school sports.

we also found that booster kids got injured or had over use injuries.

when we found some parents who were in the booster org but were not liking the time requirements we asked them to track the time devoted to booster. well we found that between practice and weekend tournys kids were spending around 20 hrs per week on youth sports. 20 hours is the max a d 1 a footbll program can use its players. so youth sports in this town were way out of control.

we also found that those who were in the inhouse(nontraveling) program which focused on fundaments(becaue these kids were cut from the traveling team) and played just games amongst each other were teh kids who ended up being the kids who were most productive at the high school level.



the booster were also made sure high school coaches got hired or fired becaue of their support or not support for the boosters.

they have finally got the high school program turned around but it took a very powerful AD coming to town and a new football coach who basically told the boosters this was the way he was running his program and if the boosters wanted to be on board that was fine if not that was fine to.

the coach started a fundamentals camp on saturday mornings for kids grades 3 through 8 who were not part of the booster program and it was run by the varsity coaches and varsity players.

the booster kids actually had practice and games during the middle of the week and on saturday morning.

I am just talking from this situation but I think kids have too much on their plate and this is the problem. I know kids who get dropped off at day care at 6 am and then get picked up at 6 pm. The lifestyle choices Americans make are the reason for most of this countries problems. I see many kids being what I call trophy kids. They get that trophy and it makes mom and dad so pround and the parents can then show the trophy kid off. Also part of this countries problem is helicopter parents. they fly in, solve their childrens probelms and then fly out of their childrens lives.

A bigger issue we should be looking at (and that has been discussed here on this site) is how many GREAT H.S athletes are no longer on the team sport path...but rather enjoy "X" sports. Things can be learned from that exodus. (Not the least of which is that studies are showing that "x" sports are turning out a helluva lot more fit adults than football/baseball/basketball...)

This discussion is not new....

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners,
contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love
chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the
servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Socrates circa 380 BC

I don't think the internet, cell phones, or xbox will cause the fall of civilization.

dam kids with their rap music and vidia games

I agree with most of you guys and just wanted to get others opionions. I don't dislike anyones answer or perspective, it seems to me that yes this has been a generational issue probably since time began, it is my assumption that kids do burn out,parents too. I think for myself it goes back to Why do I coach,and what do I get from it? Am I an aggrivated coach? Am I harboring something inside that is wrong in how I see the game? I would guess in some respects the answer would be yes,in others just simply a willingness to do all I can so at least one kid will appreciate what he has been gifted with and help change society in a more productive way. As for the questions, I love the game, I love to coach, and I love the kids that do show up for their chance to shine and be noticed. It is said that if a coach isn't talking,yelling,or on your case, he isn't paying attention anyways. I beleive it is that if a coach is getting in your ear, he likes what your becoming and is pushing to get you better, so that in the end you can see yourself as the best you can become.

IMO, this has been a topic of discussion for the last 50-60 years in this country. Each generation believes that the one ahead of them is lazier and less competent than they were. I've been listening to various generations within my family make the same argument for a long time. However, I do believe that technology has has an effect in several ways:

1. Society is becoming more urbanized; jobs revolve around technology and those jobs are generally found in urban areas.

2. Because of urbanization, children don't have to be as physically active. People live and work closer together. Children no longer need to walk or ride a bike a few miles during their day. Their lives revolve around a small block area.

3. Because of technology and urbanization, children generally no longer have to spend their summers farming, ranching or doing more physically intensive jobs. Hell, my fiance's family owns a ranch and a farm; technology has allowed them to operate these businesses with limited labor.


Kids have access to sedentary entertainment, there's no way around it. However, it is our jobs as coaches to make our sports more appealing than myspace or facebook.

Yes, Kids are no different than they were 50 years ago, but their environment IS.

In Socrates' time and in most of our life times, children experienced challenges are were expected to "figure it out." Today, there is a reset button on anything and more opportunities for "do overs." I even had a kid in an Honors class ask me when the retake test was! Kids are not expected to overcome opsticles are there are always easier ways around them. Parents are only a cell phone call away.

A short story: A boy was caught with a girl at school receiving a "favor" of a sexual nature. Both were suspended. The boy's grandmother came in to appeal the suspension because "he wasn't actually DOING anything, just standing there" while she did what she did.

I know that one story does not generalize a whole population, but I do believe that children, not only boys, are being sheltered from dealing with challenges, and from accepting responsibility for mistakes.

There is a book on this topic called "A Nation of Wimps," I don't remember the author's name, but this trend is being noticed by others besides football coaches.

And yes, it is our responsibility to find a way to overcome this social problem. I completely agree, and I think that is one of the strengths of our nation: we have always found a way to overcome the challenges presented to us. I just hope that future generations can do the same, or else those civilizations, like that of Socrates, crumbles eventually.