Emphasising Agency in the Youth Sports Journey
How we can help aspiring young performers by telling them that it really is up to them
Most readers will have a notion of what we mean by agency, but for clarity let us start with a precise definition. Agency encompasses the sense that we are in control of our actions and the awareness that those actions have predictable consequences, such that we have the power to alter our actions to bring about the outcomes we want. In the context of youth sports, the agent in the arena is the young athlete themselves. That said, the level of choice that kids have over proceedings naturally evolves over time. Early on, parents tend to make many of the decisions as well as taking care of the logistics, but once kids reach early adolescence there is a growing imperative for them to assume their proper role - after all, this is their show. Ultimately this means everybody involved accepting and acknowledging that the young athlete is the master of their own destiny.
The realm within which kids are in a position to exercise agency expands as they mature and become both more inclined and better equipped to exert their independence. However, one fundamental element that is only ever in their power is how much of themselves they invest in their participation. Volition is thus an important extension of agency. It is certainly possible to be present at practice without fully participating or engaging. What parents and coaches should continually emphasise and praise above all are attention and effort.
Part of allowing kids to exercise their agency is to permit them to pursue the activities that interest them. We cannot expect kids to engage with something that holds no interest. Once again, how we apply this will differ according to the stage in the journey. At the outset, their limited experience means that younger kids do not yet have a good grasp of what calls to them. On that basis, it is proper that parents should take more of a lead in helping them to sample of range of different sports. Part of the job of the coach is to reveal what is compelling about the sport and provide the skills so that they can experience it. All the same, it is very to difficult to predict what a given individual might find captivating. Equally, kids’ interests can also be capricious, so part of the negotiation when exploring options during the childhood years is getting them to commit to attending for a full season or similar discrete period of time to provide sufficient opportunity to decide whether or not the particular sport is for them.
Once a young athlete reaches their teens, it becomes more important to allow them to make their own choices in what activities they choose to continue to pursue. If we are too domineering during the formative adolescent phase when a young person is seeking to exert some independence then we risk having them to drop out or disengage as an act of rebellion, even if it is something that they would otherwise have remained interested in pursuing.
Sadly in some cases it is painfully clear when kids are only there because their parents made them. As the old adage goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink, and these kids often exercise their agency by going through the motions or simply not engaging at all. Sometimes this is manifested in petulant and very public displays of disinterest that communicate in no uncertain terms that they are there under protest. In such a scenario clearly no-one is winning.
A less extreme and more common scenario is for kids to take a backseat and allow parents or perhaps the coach to direct operations on their behalf for longer than is appropriate. For a time this can seem like a pretty good arrangement, so long as they do their part by dutifully following commands and applying themselves as directed. However, by abdicating responsibility or simply being accustomed to having others steer the ship for them, they find themselves completely unmoored when confronted with a situation where it is up to them. For instance, these are the young performers who struggle the most with the transition from high school sport to competing at collegiate or university level.
Given that agency involves consciously steering actions towards a desired outcome, it follows that in order to exercise agency the young athlete must determine their own goals and aspirations. Typically, early adolescence marks the time when a young performer should be encouraged to envision what they might want to become and what heights they are striving towards, understanding that they can revise this as they progress on their journey. Even a provisional aspiration will allow them to act with intent as they have an ultimate objective in mind that they can steer their efforts towards.
As well as defining their quest, young athletes should be encouraged to take increasing ownership of the pursuit and all the responsibilities it entails. For parents and coaches alike, this means stepping back when necessary and delegating certain responsibilities. When we do something for a young athlete that they could do for themselves we deny them the opportunity not only to exercise their agency but also to become competent in taking care of themselves.
Agency means that we are responsible for the actions we took in the knowledge of what the likely outcome would be. Ackowledging agency thus requires the athlete to hold themselves accountable not only for their chosen actions but also the consequences that result. After all, if we are aware of the likely consequences when we proceeded with a given set of actions then we cannot be too surprised by the outcome. Accepting credit when things go well is easy; the far more challenging part is taking responsibility for our own contribution when things do not go our way.
Taking a full accounting also means considering the workouts we opted not to do and the times we did not invest full effort. As coaches and parents we should not be shy to point out that they are not entitled to be upset by the results they didn’t get from the work they didn’t do. The further along they progress on their youth sports journey, the more we more we need to help aspiring young performers to make this link between agency and personal accountability.
When I coach what I continually emphasise to each individual is that they always have a choice and the outcome will ultimately be determined by the choices they make day-to-day and even moment-to-moment. What I have learned over two decades working with athletes across the world is that an individual’s level of commitment to pursuing their goals can only be revealed through their actions. For an aspiring young athlete, exercising agency necessarily includes demonstrating their commitment through their actions on a daily basis (especially when nobody is looking). One of the most insidious ways that we handicap outselves is by letting ourselves off the hook and participating in self-deception by accepting the excuses we make to ourselves about why it is okay not to bother on those days when we are not feeling like it. As the grown-ups we can help by commenting (in neutral terms) when we notice that a young athlete has not done what they said they would do.