Equal opportunity benefits

Experience in sport enlarge(s) the human adventure — James A. Michener

A major motivation for writing this monthly column is that as school and youth sports grow in India, you will not squander the potential to create a sports culture that will offer the greatest good to the greatest number of young people. In poll after poll, Americans express their belief that engaging in sport enhances physical fitness in children while teaching citizenship, commitment, teamwork and other valuable lessons. However, in far too many American communities, the youth sports system overemphasises ‘select’ or ‘travel’ teams (children judged to be the most talented in a particular age group), which effectively eliminates most young people before they can fully explore a sport or realise their talent.

The question I often raise is: “What opportunities do you provide for average-ability children?” The current emphasis in American school and youth sports is on shortlisting athletes for select teams or for the ‘next level’. This screening process requires sorting out athletes who show promise to advance to the next level, and has contributed a 70 percent dropout rate by age 13 to most sports. This heavy dropout percentage of youth as they proceed up the ladder, leads many to conclude that sports progressively become less fun. It is less fun for many because it has quickly become serious ‘business’ for coaches and youth sports organisations who measure success by win-loss records and the number of member-athletes who make it through the screen to participate at the next level.

Such screening processes lead to uniformity in the values promoted in school and youth sports where outcomes are accorded more importance than the actual process of sports, such as effort, progress toward mastery and plain good fun. This emphasis on winning, records and progressing to the next level is and will continue to produce bumper harvests of dropouts from sports year after year. My concern is: Can nothing be done for young people who drop out of sports and games because of excessive competition? Although the popular preference is for youth to achieve self-esteem through academic excellence or community service, the reality is that sports and play induce children of all ages and abilities to seek self-esteem on the playing field or in gymnasiums. Lessons learned on the sports field and in games arenas complement lessons learned at home or in classrooms.

Therefore what we call recreational leagues are necessary for sports to fulfill its promise to our youth, their families and communities. While I played sports at the highest levels in my youth and college days, I have always been impressed by friends and schoolmates who played in recreational and intramural tournaments, and who have memories and experiences that equal mine. They are better people first and good athletes next.

As a coach for many years of elite and recreational teams, I have learned that play at any level promotes positive development of youth. Therefore I am wholly convinced that equal opportunity in school and collegiate sports means enabling each player, to the maximum extent possible, to compete against players of similar or near-equal ability. Experienced players inevitably prefer to play against players of greater or equal ability rather than those with lesser ability. The same is true for beginners who prefer to play against people of equal or near-equal talent and experience.

I am not suggesting that screening and equal opportunity sports are mutually exclusive. I’m proposing that every opportunity should be given to as many children and youth to play and compete against peers of similar ability. However, equal opportunity also means viewing youth sports as a pyramid. The strongest part of a pyramid is the middle and base, not the top. Select teams assume an important role because there are relatively few players at the top — perhaps 20 percent at most. The other 80 percent of young athletes are not select calibre players.

In my day, ‘youth sports’ were typically informal games arranged by us on sandlots and playgrounds. But today, nearly all sports for young people are adult driven and conducted. Thus, without the positive, constructive role of parents who support their children’s desire to ‘play’ and work with the community to straighten out its priorities to ensure equal opportunity for all young people who wish to play, sports will surely fail in its promise to grow and develop young people, connect them with others from different backgrounds, and strengthen families and communities.

There is no doubt that we can do better in my country. Whether we will or not is yet to be determined. But of this I am sure: We win as parents when we provide our children with lifelong memories of victory and defeat, and we win as a nation or community because values learned on the field or in the gym help build good citizens. We win because values imbibed on sports fields and games arenas help shape the next generation — long after the scores of distant games have faded from memory.

(Dr. George Selleck is a San Francisco-based advisor to EduSports, Bangalore)