True-Sport-Report

• Youth tend to drop out of sport when they lose interest or
the sport is no longer fun, when the coach is unfair or a
poor teacher, or when other nonsport activities become a
priority. The Sport in America Report found that not having
fun is the primary reason for quitting, followed by finding
another activity, not being as good as teammates, and
wanting to focus on schoolwork. In addition, as children
age, winning becomes more important, and children do
not want to play a sport if they are not likely to succeed.
• Girls drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys; the main
reasons are that they find something else to do, their
friends quit, they become shy about their bodies, or they
want additional free time. In addition, girls often lack the
self-confidence that boys have regarding sport, and girls
fear embarrassment and the emotional consequences of
failure at sport. Girls from economically disadvantaged
backgrounds generally have limited access to sport and
physical activity. As publicly funded programs have
been eliminated and the economic crisis persists, limited
access is a problem for at least half the families in the
United States.
• Surprisingly, winning is not the most important motivator
for starting to play sport. However, society continuously
rewards winning and competitiveness, two values that
both children and adults ranked at the bottom in the Sport
in America survey.
The Importance of Developmental Awareness
and Avoiding Early Specialization and Burnout
• Because children’s cognition, perceptions, behaviors, and
motor skills progress at different rates, it is important that
young children are not pressured to compete at levels
beyond their developmental capability. Children who
have lower skill and developmental levels should not be
shut out of sport. Research shows that children and youth
do not need to be competent in a sport to benefit psychologically.
Because most youth do not develop a mature
understanding of competition until age 12—the age when
social skills and self-esteem development are critical—the
quantity of play can be just as important as the quality of
play in children.
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