The Bigger Long-Term Effect of Sports Participation by Lizl Kotz
A very special thanks to my parents Anita and Calvyn Coetsee for introducing me to sports and encouraging me to play into my 40th decade.
According to research done by Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, approximately 70% of children in the U.S. are dropping out of organized sports before the age of 13. This is particularly alarming for women because studies have shown that girls who play sports are more likely to graduate from college, find a job, and be employed in male-dominated industries.
These statistics have caused me to take a trip down memory lane to the start of my own journey as a tennis player. As an 8-year-old I started taking lessons at our public courts in a small town called Birchleigh, South Africa. Even though the coaches told my parents I had potential, when I told my parents I felt bored of tennis they didn’t press the issue and instead encouraged me to try other sports. I may have tried a few other sports but mostly I remember riding bikes around shoe-less with my buddies. At age 10, I asked my parents if I could take lessons again. This time, I was hooked and mature enough to pursue tennis as a single sport. I rode my bike to the courts every day after school and stayed until dark. I was very driven and successful at a young age yet my parents encouraged balance by not making a big deal about my skill and our family life did not entirely revolve around my sport. My parents supported me, gave me the tools to be successful but there was never an expectation. When I lost, I only had to work through my own disappointment (which was plenty) and not theirs. This combination of internal motivation without external pressure kept me hungry to set goals, work hard and test myself with tournaments.
Parents need to be wary and not be influenced by our short-sighted culture. There is no real long-term value in having a child prodigy at age 8 who burns out by the time they are actually mature enough to receive the many benefits of sports participation. Avoid coaches and teams who only focus on the outcome. Find a coach who is focused on growth and mastery of the sport instead. When focused on the process, performance will improve and the results will follow in time. Be on the lookout for sports academies that are mainly a business and not interested in developing the whole child. I am grateful that the roots of my sports participation as a youth were healthy. Many of my tennis friends who felt stifled by their parents or coach’s expectations could not wait to retire their rackets forever. I am still playing and competing while raising my four children. The life lessons my sport has etched into my soul continue to impact my life.
My top 5 lessons learned from sports:
Discipline is doing what needs to be done even when you don’t feel like doing it.
Nothing worth having comes easy. You have to work for it.
“No one wants to hear why you lost.” Wise words I learned from Mr. John Hall by way of his son Todd Hall. Mr. Hall played baseball, basketball and ran track for Milligan College (Elizabethton, TN) sixty-five years ago.
Win with class, lose with grace. Athletes who lose like losers are often losers in their relationships and personal lives as well.
Accept the things you cannot change because the sooner you move on the sooner you will be ready for the next opportunity.
The benefits of sports participation are not contingent on the level or ability reached. As a parent, I find it frustrating that the sports opportunities for my eight-year-old are plentiful while the opportunities for my teenagers are few and far between unless of course, they are superstars (eye roll). Money is corrupting youth sports in the U.S., it’s a real problem and a topic for another day.