Youth sports provides many benefits, such as exercise and time with friends, but athletic endeavors also provide lessons that can be used through an individual's life. I would contend that in the bigger scheme of an individual's life that the value of playing youth sports is much, much bigger. Competitive athletics can teach young adults the life lessons of performing under pressure, overcoming self imposed limits, working as a team, and adapting quickly when situations are not going as planned.
Performing under pressure
In the first game of a newly formed AAU basketball team, the opposing team played full-court pressure defense the whole game. It was relentless in-your-face pressure. The coach knew that AAU team's modus operandi was to apply defensive pressure at all times on every player. In the practices leading up to this tournament he utilized portions of the practice to teach the players how to deal with pressure defenses and would scrimmage with the defense having one or two extra players on the court.
These young athletes experienced the benefits of preparation, a little bit of experiential learning, and some sweat work that enabled them to handle the pressure and be successful. Everyday, whether facing a test, a qualifier, a job interview, or an irate customer, individuals have to deal with pressure and stress. In this game, young athletes experienced the pressure, were prepared for it, and overcame it.
Limits in life are usually self-imposed
A U10 baseball team was having an off-day. It was the bottom of the last inning and they were down by 11 runs. In this situation, most teams go through the motions of completing the game, allowing the other team to get the three outs. Not this team on this day.
Batter after batter found a way to reach base. The first two batters walked. The next batter got hit. Then another player reached base. The other team changed pitchers with the hopes of closing out the game. The result was the same, batters kept reaching base. Walk, hit, and base on error. It didn't matter how; they kept reaching first base and working their way home. When the inning finally closed out after 30 minutes, they almost batted through the line up twice and scored the 12th run of the inning on a hit to right-center field.
The confidence that each player got from facing a limit - in this case a large point deficit with game clock ticking away - and pushing it back to the point of victory is something these athletes will take with them in their non-athletic endeavors.
There is no "I" in team
A local coach who is involved with youth recreational or tournament team runs a preplanned mechanical substitution system that attempts to maximize the amount of players' playtime while keeping them rested with regular breaks and fresh for the end of the game.
When you play at the tournament level of competition, any weak links are quickly exposed and exploited. In basketball tournaments this coach runs a mechanical three minute substitution schedule. Every three minutes, the players on the bench are substituted in for other players in a round robin fashion.
As parents and coaches, you know that this can be very dangerous if you get the wrong mix of players in the game at key moments in key spots. He is able to do this because the coaching staff works with the players to utilize the strength and skills of those athletes in the game at any given moment.
Whether it is school projects, athletic competition, or work project teams, individuals are grouped together to work as a member of a team. Each team member brings an expertise to the group and needs to learn how to maximize the unique knowledge of the other members. The young athletes experienced it first hand.
Adapting quickly to neutralize a bad situation
In this past summer quarterfinal basketball playoff game, a local 7th grade girls basketball team was playing great defense but one of the opponent's players was the main reason the game was close. At half time, the coach sketched out the box-and-one defense. He had never mentioned this to the athletes before and many of the players had never heard of this defense before. He talked them through the motivation, the mechanics, and the player assignments. Throughout the second half they rotated four different players to individually guard her while the rest of the team guarded zones on the floor to stop the other players. The team executed the defense flawlessly and slowed down the player's offensive output in the second half.
After the local team won the game by 3 points, the player's father came up to one of the winning team's players who guarded his daughter and commented on how effective she was at stopping his daughter from scoring. The player responded to him, "It was not me … it was the team who deserved the credit." She realized that her coach and teammates were able for quickly understand the problem at hand and adapt to the competitive threat.
Although it is quite possible that the young athletes in the above stories did not fully appreciate how all these lessons will help them in the future, it is a parent's hope that they enjoyed the experience, gained confidence in their abilities both as athletes and individuals, and learned a little about life along the way.
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