Youth sports in America have been increasingly shifting to a corporate model of sports. Youth sports are becoming similar to the Military-Industrial Complex President Eisenhower warned us about in his 1960 presidential farewell speech: a Youth Sports-Industrial Complex. It has become more about the money spent and the participation status rather than the joy and ample benefits of playing sports.
Although this profit/corporate model of sports is troublesome to this old man, one of my greatest fears is a problem of volume exceeding capacity in youth sports. This problem is not exclusive to the Youth Sports-Industrial Complex problem mentioned. It’s intertwined and embedded deeply with youth sports because parents who invest this kind of money in their kids’ youth sports activities, more often than not, expect a solid, guaranteed return on their investment. These expectations, whether consciously or unconsciously, lead to increased pressure on the capacities of young athletes.
Volume exceeding capacity is the enemy of youth sports. It happens when the adults responsible for the young athletes’ well-being, even the most well-meaning of adults, push a child beyond one or more of the three vital areas of capacity: physical capacity, mental capacity, and emotional capacity
Physical Capacity
At the basic level, physical capacity is whether or not the athlete can perform the task at hand. It also means the duration of this performance and whether it’s going in a positive or negative direction.
My favorite example is teaching and hitting in baseball. Swinging a bat and hitting a ball are violent, physical actions. It is a simple movement, but it requires coordination among many muscles and the eyes to be performed well and consistently. In batting practice, exceeding the capacity of these muscle groups leads to a lack of progress or even a slide backward. The muscles get tired, the swing fundamentals change, and the batter who keeps swinging after they reach this point slides backward instead of moving forward. My rule of thumb is 5 swings and rest for preteens, 7 swings and rest for high school hitters, and 12-15 swings for college and above. Keep the session to practicing good swings, resting, and then repeating. Coaches, you will find your hitters gain more from each batting practice session and show faster gains.
Mental Capacity
Mental capacity is the amount of information, new or old, that young athletes can process without becoming overwhelmed. As coaches or parents, we often make the mistake of thinking information travels by osmosis between our heads and our players’ heads. It does not. We must teach and reteach, and then reteach again, until the players successfully learn. The KISS Method (Keep It Simple Stupid) is never a bad philosophy no matter what level your athletes are at. Do not overwhelm with a 30-page playbook for beginner flag football when a handful of running and a few passing plays, when executed, are plenty.
Emotional Capacity
Emotional capacity is often neglected or rarely considered. But, in truth, it is just as important as the other two. The emotional part of athletic development is often the core driver of whether kids keep playing sports. “Fun” while playing means they have a positive emotional attachment to playing. Meltdowns, refusing to play or practice, falling apart at school the morning after a late, weeknight game are several signs the players simply do not have the emotional capacity to navigate the pressures or the failures inherent in sports.
In all three capacities listed above, the individual developmental timeline of each player needs to be taken into account. Every kid is different, so as a coach or parent, learn where each kid’s level of capacities is. From there, know when to back off and know when and how hard to push.
If you are not monitoring and accounting for physical, mental, and emotional limits in your youth sports programs, you should start immediately. This is not easy. It involves paying attention. It involves patience. It involves self-reflection. It involves discipline. It involves doing the right thing even when the negative voices are screaming. It involves creating a buffer zone where the athletes feel protected and comfortable enough to keep trying.
Every kid is different. Every kid develops at a different rate that influences their physical, mental, and emotional development. It’s basic brain science at work and harkens back to the adage, “Knowledge is power”.
With youth sports, we too often forget the main purpose that we are out there. We are there to teach the game and cultivate players who enjoy playing the game. We are not there to win today’s game at any and all costs. Winning is the last box to check, and success can truly only be attained if you develop athletes properly and understand the limits of their physical, mental, and emotional capacities of the kids under your responsibility.
Honestly, I’m a proponent of challenges in the process of improvement in any facet of life, but overwhelming a young athlete and introducing struggles with a bar set too high is NO FUN.
No fun leads to no enjoyment.
No enjoyment leads to no love for the game.
No love for the game eventually leads to walking away from the game.
Side note: After we finished our city recreation machine pitch league this summer, several parents asked me how to determine if their kid was ready to try out for a travel baseball team. My first thought was to scream out, “WAIT AT LEAST FIVE YEARS!” since I’m not a huge believer in traveling baseball before ten years old. I didn’t scream that; instead, I gave them the following simple test to prove they might be ready for an increase in competition and expectation.
If the kid can consistently throw and catch a baseball from at least 10-15 yards away without dropping or chasing the ball around the field, they might be ready to consider playing on a traveling team. If a young player can’t catch or throw a ball, they will struggle from the gate with 2/3 of the game of baseball, and your experience might not be worth the investment or stress.
THE COACH HAYS 