In my travels, I stay in a lot of hotels and speak in many venues from convention centers to hotel ballrooms. No matter the season, I can count on there being a team of kids staying in the hotel. I don’t mean professional teams; I mean kids’ teams from baseball and softball, gymnastics, volleyball, and of course the number one sport, soccer. Pick an age group and there’s a team tournament being held somewhere. I don’t mean local community events; I mean that the kids participate in travel teams, which means the entire family travels.

I recently saw a segment on youth sports on a national sports show. One of the scenes that stood out to me was a parent using profanities toward the umpire or referee. I used to be a football official and took my share of abuse. No one used profanities at games, but that was 20 years ago and things are much different today. Kids with some talent who show an interest in a sport can get moved along rapidly to higher levels of competition. It seems that failure is not an option once they get there.

What does this focus on competition at early ages do to kids? Is it healthy? Does it create champions? Hard to say for sure, but there may be another way, one that leads to lifetime participation in sports and activity. We’ll take a look on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet