Parental Investment in the Youth Sports Journey
How we can spend our time, energy and other resources to bring the most benefit
We want the best for our kids. We are naturally inclined to dedicate resources and make sacrifices in service of giving our offspring the best chance to survive and ultimately thrive. One notable area where parents strive to give their kids the best opportunity is youth sports. Understandably, this is done in the hope that it will pay off sometime in the future. The hoped for return on investment might be direct in the form of future success in sport, such as a professional contract. Alternatively, parents might view youth sport as a route to other opportunities, such as a good education through a sports scholarship and a means to open doors that will improve their future career prospects. Finally, the motivation might be the ancillary benefits of sport in supporting healthy physical, cognitive and social-emotional development, with the ultimate aim of helping their kids to thrive in all aspects of their life. Whatever benefit we are seeking for our kids through sport, there is a need to exercise judgement in where, when and how we invest our energies and resources in the pursuit.
The willingness of parents to invest in their kids’ success is the source of enormous commercial opportunity. Youth sports has become an industry, especially in North America. In the United States alone, the youth sports market is estimated to be worth between 19 and 30 billion dollars annually and it continues to expand year-on-year. Pay-to-play travel leagues, youth sports academies, camps and miscellaneous services are marketed to parents as offering a way to give their child a headstart or a competitive edge on their peers. Those offering these services freqently play on parents’ anxiety that their kids will fall behind it they do not participate.
Given the clear profit motive, it is imperative that parents are discerning in their consumer choices. Choosing wisely in where and how we spend our money can help drive market forces in a way that incentivises providers to serve young athletes’ best interests rather than exploiting kids and ripping off parents.
There are a few good questions that parents can ask themselves to help guide their decisions when considering different services and selecting providers. For example, will this make my kid more capable? Will this experience make them stronger (both figuratively and literally)? Understanding that profit motives drive the desire for repeat business, we should also ask whether the services are delivered in a way that is likely to render them more reliant on external support. What we should be seeking is that providers are equipping kids with tools and knowledge that will ultimately make them better able to cope on their own.
Ultimately the best guide is whether or not the investment will help kids to realise their potential in the long run. In accordance with this, it is important that we are using the appropriate timeframe when assessing the prospective return on investment. By definition, when we are dealing with kids we should be investing for the long-term. Chasing short-term results or quick wins is often to the detriment of a young athlete’s long-term development.
Arguably the most important principle of investing is compounding. Small incremental gains yield large and very significant returns over the long-term. It is important that both parents and young performers understand the principle of compounding, as the immediate return on effort invested may be hard to discern. This applies especially to physical preparation. To experience the real benefits and reap the rewards it is necessary to commit to the process long enough to accrue these gains, which become quite substantial over time.
Consistently doing the right things in the right way over a sustained period of time is the best recipe for long-term success. Our first task is to figure out what the right things might be at that particular stage in the journey (the aforementioned questions will once again be helpful here). All parties then need to commit to doing those things in a consistent fashion. It is likewise important to pay attention to the details and be diligent about how they are done.
Another principle from investing that is highly salient to parental support during the youth sports journey is the law of diminishing returns. Once we go beyond a certain level each additional unit of input yields less and less, such that the extra time and effort we put in brings lower and lower returns. If we push past that we can even get into the realm of negative returns, whereby our contribution becomes counterproductive and produces negative effects.
The principle of diminishing (and negative) returns helps to illustrate how parental involvement and investment can have detrimental effects if it becomes excessive. For instance, if we are too involved this can discourage kids from assuming their proper role and associated responsibilities. Once again, we need to be mindful in where, when and how we invest our time.
The level of direct parental involvement that is appropriate shifts as kids progress in their youth sports journey. Early on it is necessary and appropriate that we have a prominent role. However, once kids reach their teens it becomes more important that they assume greater responsibility and adopt a more active role in making decisions and steering their own course. At this stage it is generally wise to step back and consider delegating our advisor duties to other trusted figures who they look up to. In doing so, we avoid the worst case scenario, whereby our being too invested and too involved becomes the reason that kids disengage or act out in ways that sabotage their own success just to assert some independence.
Finally, when we think of investing resources our minds typically go to money or time; however, our attention is the most highly valued currency. From the recent experience of taking an impromptu sabbatical to look after our son full-time for the past couple of years (he recently started preschool), I can attest that what he craves more than anything is his parent’s attention. With all the distractions in the digital age, this most valued resource is increasingly at a premium and it is beguilingly easy to fritter it away on devices and digital junk food that are custom-designed to hijack our attention. Moreover, the context matters. If kids start to perceive that youth sports is the best or only route to getting our undivided attention then this can put too much weight on the whole endeavour. It is important that we devote just as much of our attention to them at home as in the sporting arena and express that we are equally invested in their schoolwork and supporting them in pursuing their other interests beyond sport.