Survey: African-American youth more often play sports to chase college, pro dreams

This article shares new insights on the sports experience for youth across racial subgroups, based on a national survey of sports parents by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative and Utah State University’s Families in Sport Lab. The data show sharp differences in access, and in pressures experienced by young athletes.

Should parents talk to coaches who contribute to bad sports experiences?

In this month’s mailbag, the advice comes from Nick Buonocore, founder of The Reformed Sports Parent, whose mission is to restore healthy balance and perspective in youth sports through education and advocacy. Nick played baseball at North Carolina Wesleyan College. He is the father of six and a reformed sports parent and notes, “Living vicariously through your kid’s sports is pretty much the best way to get them to hate playing and resent the hell out of you simultaneously.”

Why Kobe’s last chapter was his best

Let me tell you a story about Kobe Bryant that has not been shared before. It’s one that speaks, I think, to the true character of the man we just lost, all of us, in ways that can only be fully appreciated when a force of enormous creativity, drive and purpose comes to rest – and there is no more inertia, just waves of impact washing over us, each bigger than we anticipated at the start of the day.

Last August, we launched a major public awareness campaign called Don’t Retire, Kid. By we, I mean Project Play, our Aspen Institute initiative that aims to build healthy communities through sports with the help of many organizations that touch the lives of kids.

You may have seen the lead PSA. A 9-year-old boy announces at a press conference that he is “retiring from sports” because the adults have gone haywire. He got into this to have fun with his friends, and … well, you know the rest. Kobe needed to like the spot because he was going to launch the campaign for us, pro bono, on social media and ESPN.

“What do you think?” I asked him, in a room at ESPN’s LA studios.

“It’s OK,” he said, curtly, lips pursing with that familiar intensity.

Of the four languages Kobe spoke, body language was his loudest.

He wasn’t happy, and, having talked with him about the campaign for nearly a year, I knew why – the Mamba wanted a more aggressive script. He didn’t just want to wake up sports parents to the undue pressures they are putting on kids to perform. He wanted to punch them in the nose, these adults, many of whom were surely his fans.

Now, mind you, the script was already pretty direct. The truth it put on the table was uncomfortable, that we’re screwing it up for the next generation and that all of us – leagues, media, tech, athletes, coaches, schools, colleges and policymakers – need to be better stewards of the institution of youth sports. When the average kid quits sports by age 11, as our research shows, we collectively have a systemic problem.

As a trained journalist with a long history of trying to push truth into the jockosphere, I was thrilled that ESPN was prepared to run the spot hundreds, if not thousands, of times in the coming months.

He didn’t just want to wake up sports parents to the undue pressures they are putting on kids to perform. He wanted to punch them in the nose, these adults, many of whom were surely his fans.

Kobe wanted more edge, because to him it was personal. The first time we had lunch about Project Play, two years earlier, he told me about a game in which he was coaching his daughter Gianna’s team. The opposing coach was screaming at his players, berating them for mistakes. This went on the whole game, Kobe’s temper growing. He knew from being coached well that this isn’t coaching well. And he hated to see the girls on that team suffer from the emotional abuse.

During post-game handshakes, Kobe told me, he stopped the coach, looked directly into his eyes and, with the same quiet if intense fury once directed at NBA rivals – he demonstrated this for me – said, If you EVER act like that in another game in which I am coaching, you are going to have to deal with me. And trust me, you don’t want that.

At that moment, I knew Kobe was sincere about our project. I had never heard an athlete talk with such passion about sticking up for kids. Or ask as many sophisticated questions about our work.

“How do you approach the debate around participation trophies?”

“How do you mobilize organizations to change the game?”

“How do you tell your stories?”

Most pro athletes are one-way streets. You ask, they tell. Comes with the territory, a lifetime of being put on a pedestal in which you are treated as the center of the universe and nothing is as interesting as you. Here, in Kobe, I had one of the world’s true sports icons being curious about realms well beyond the arena, committed to learning, unafraid of the unchartered, and offering to give voice to the voiceless.

I didn’t have to sell him on anything. He was just in, eager to deploy his assets – his champion’s credibility, his social network, his advocacy, his international reach – to improve an institution that impacts the lives of youth. We chose Arnold Worldwide, the Boston-based agency that built Don’t Retire, Kid, based on his recommendation and that of his deft marketing chief, Molly Carter. Kobe moderated a panel with children at our Project Play Summit, to help tease out what kids want from a sports experience. For our Healthy Sport Index, he supplied a list of companion sports that basketball players can use to build skills and health (he also suggested meditation, to focus the mind).

Here, in Kobe, I had one of the world’s true sports icons being curious about realms well beyond the arena, committed to learning, unafraid of the unchartered, and offering to give voice to the voiceless.

My favorite athlete as a child was Roberto Clemente, for the style in which he played and his obvious care for others. His 1972 death from a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission left a hole in our hearts but opened up something to be filled as well by citizen-athletes, like Kobe using the modern tools of social change.

I learned of his passing shortly before I boarded a flight in Washington D.C, just as I was about to call my youngest child, Kellen, the boy holding a basketball aloft on the cover of my book, Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children. He’s 16 now, a soccer athlete who hasn’t played organized hoops since middle school but like his big brother Cole has always admired Kobe above all athletes. I apologized by text that I couldn’t call, with all the news coming in. He texted me back:


No problem, I have been reflecting on the impact he (Kobe) had on my life. His work ethic, determination, and what he did to give back to society. He was more than a basketball player to me and his legacy will forever live on. Hope you are doing well with this and we can talk later. Love Kellen.

With that, I cried so hard one of the contacts in my eyes fell out. I didn’t know that was possible. We learn something new every day. Including: Money isn’t the only way an athlete can change the world. LeBron represents the gold standard when it comes to athletes deploying dollars for good, and God bless him – we need more like him. Kobe donated in places too, but he also knew his lane. He sought culture change, building on the foundation, established over a long NBA career with just one team, of the personal characteristics he embodied.

He wasn’t perfect. He flashed ego and made errors that altered his life and that of others. A friend of mine likened him to Our Lady Di, flawed but beloved. But the better angels of his nature carried the day.

“Sport is the vehicle through which we change the world,” Kobe said in my interview with him in 2018. “The next generation is going to carry this world forward.”

That he died while traveling by helicopter to a youth basketball game, with his daughter and others he brought along for the ride, is not ironic. It is consistent with what he cared about: fatherhood, imagination, and youth sports as a tool of human development. My heart breaks at the horror he must have felt in those final moments, knowing the life of his child might end right there, at age 13, with no chance to flower further.

I am also sad for everything that lay ahead for Kobe, who at 41 was just getting started on his post-life mission. He was laying the groundwork to push so much good into the world, through his books, podcasts and other projects aimed at children. He had more to give Project Play. As a major donor to the construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, he was granted one free lifetime use of the facility. He offered that to us, for our annual Summit.

We will gather at a different venue in Washington D.C. this October, at a space and date to be announced in the coming weeks. And when we do, he will be appreciated. Not just for his contributions to Don’t Retire, Kid, now up for several international awards. Or the advice he shared with parents on our platforms. But for building a life that helped build that of others. For being an original, in service of the future.

“Dream Big, Live Epic,” he scrawled on one of our Summit boards.

Now it’s up to us to be as impatient as he was with progress.

Tom Farrey (@tomfarrey) is executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program (@AspenInstSports), and a former ESPN journalist. Watch videos and learn about Kobe Bryant’s perspectives on youth sports, as well as other contributions to Project Play, here.

The story was originally posted here.

What should parents do when a child starts disliking sports?

In this month’s mailbag, the advice comes from Asia Mape, co-founder of I Love to Watch You Play – a website and newsletter for parents seeking balance and sanity in youth sports. Asia played college basketball at Coastal Carolina but became burned out from having played so much basketball growing up. She has been a producer for Fox Sports, ESPN, TNT, NFL Network and NBC Sports. She has three daughters who play some combination of club soccer, basketball, volleyball and water polo, and takes them to about eight practices a week and tournaments or games most weekends. She often questions if there’s a better way.

Aspen Institute Mexico creates its own Project Play for kids sports

Dieter Holtz

As a lifetime swimmer, from the starting blocks in Mexico City to the roster of Florida State University men’s swim team, I know firsthand the role sports play in shaping a child’s future — not just academically, but socially, and personally. So, I have spent many years back in my country as a strong advocate for physical activity improvements in the Mexican system.

In November, my colleagues and I presented the Aspen Institute Mexico’s very own “Playbook Mexico.” It’s the culmination of two years of research bringing together kids, parents, trainers, experts in the field, companies, brands, Olympic athletes, NGOs, the academic sector and government officials to identify nine barriers, and their possible solutions, that we face in developing and sustaining youth sport participation. The project was inspired by the framework and methodology of Project Play, which the Sports & Society Program has used to help stakeholders build healthy communities through sports in the US.

The launch event for our report was held at Universidad Anahuac Norte in Mexico City and was made up of a panel of leaders from the Aspen Institute Mexico, the US, contributors from the university’s faculty, as well as past and former Olympic athlete speakers, and a panel of kids. The audience consisted of parents, coaches, education and health professionals, brands such as Nike, media representatives, NGOs, academic experts and government officials.

The interest in our playbook follows the great need for solutions. Mexico, a nation of 126 million with 31.1% of the population below the age of 17, has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. One in three youth, ages 6 to 19, are overweight or obese, and more than half (51%) of the youth between ages 10 and 14 are physically inactive. Sports play a major role in addressing these problems, as the instinct of children is to play – but often in Mexico, they have no place to do so or are discouraged from participating.

We knew we had to identify barriers and develop strategies specific to Mexico, just as the Sports & Society Program developed a framework specific to the structure and culture of youth sports in the US. Below is what we came up with, all mapping to a vision of Mexico, where all children have the opportunity to be active through sports.

Barrier 1: Early discouraging experiences
Strategy 1: Let’s build up a good beginning
By asking kids what they want, and letting them play naturally, we can increase the probability of them staying in sports. Before age 10, if kids have positive experiences in an activity, they are more likely to continue it in the long run.

Barrier 2: Limited options, more of the same
Strategy 2: Motivate them to try new alternatives
We tend to stick to a few mainstream sports, or only those easily accessible, but we can be innovative with the space and tools we have in order to let kids try new things, or even make up a new game. This enhances kids’ abilities, prevents boredom, and allows them pick and choose what they’re good at or like the most.

Barrier 3: Lack of adults as healthy models
Strategy 3: Adults as role models
Often, the problem lies in the households where parents aren’t setting a healthy and active example for their kids. There is a strong correlation between parents that are involved in sports and activities and their kids doing the same.

Barrier 4: Insecure and inaccessible environments for children
Strategy 4: Create adequate public spaces for kids and their characteristics
29 out of 32 entities in Mexico point to lack of security as the main concern. It’s paramount that we have accessible and secure spaces to practice activities, and that the infrastructure is adequate for children (i.e. a basketball hoop scaled to kids’ heights vs. 2 meters tall).

Barrier 5: Deficiencies in educational plans and programs
Strategy 5: Make and design a plan
Mexico’s P.E. programs are quite limited in offering only 50 to 60 minutes a week of physical activity for children. Children between the ages of 5 and 12 should be doing 60 minutes of physical activity a day. Technology is a great avenue to develop apps and online platforms that contain games and activities for kids to play. Also, the education sector can restructure their educational plans to include more P.E. time for the kids during school hours.

Barrier 6: Exclusion and discrimination during sports practice
Strategy 6: The games know no differences
Mexico is among the most diverse countries in the world — with different ways of thinking, interests and cultures, all of which can lead to discrimination and exclusion. Unfortunately, kids with a disability or are part of a minority don’t have the same opportunities in school, sports, and socially. We encourage the implementation of more inclusive programs and teaching kids to be more inclusive. The media and parents play a big role in this change as well.

Barrier 7: Deficiencies in human resources
Strategy 7: Strengthen training programs
Trainers and P.E. teachers should instill self-sufficiency and confidence in children. Emotional support and interpersonal communication from such trainers and role models are key tools for kids to be motivated to participate and continue to be involved in sports over the long run. The development of apps, platforms, and social programs to certify more trainers, as well as the introduction of P.E. teachers in schools, is crucial.

Barrier 8: Deficiencies in the use of media
Strategy 8: Effective use and optimization of media
The support of mass media and new technologies in the diffusion of activities, events, and community opinion in sport is extremely important. The more we generate conversations about the importance of physical activity and a healthy lifestyle, as well as sports campaigns directed to kids and adults to educate them about the benefits, the more we can increase participation and combat the obesity epidemic in Mexico.

Barrier 9: Absence of evaluation, monitoring, and research in Mexico
Strategy 9: Strengthen research for the development of solutions 
We need to create a national evaluation system so that all schools can implement tests that are simple, reliable, and safe to create a control and parameter of advancement in the physical capabilities of children.

To surmount these barriers, it is vital that the key players in our society come together to work symbiotically in service of and for the future of our children. We need engagement from: government, schools, public health organizations, sport associations, businesses, parents, the social sector, the media, and technology organizations.

It is Aspen Mexico´s duty to promote this research and to help permeate these solutions throughout Mexico. In the coming years, we want to develop “local guides,” akin to the community-focused State of Play reports produced in the US, that build on our national report and can help leaders in different areas of the country increase childhood activity levels. Leaders in various cities and states have expressed interest in this goal. We also will work with the Sports & Society Program to adapt and distribute existing resources that may be of use here.

Progress will take time and investment. But we are confident that the work put in by all who contributed to the development of the Aspen Institute Mexico’s work will continue in the coming years, for which I am deeply grateful. This will result in significant changes in the lives of our youth and our society.

Our hope is that everyone who reads or hears about our effort will understand how vital it is that we come together and contribute in whatever capacity we can.

So, please, if you want to believe in the vision we share, reach out if you think you might be able to hop on board and help us implement these solutions.

Dieter Holtz is CEO of Upfield and a board member of The Aspen Institute of Mexico, one of 11 countries where the Institute has affiliates. The project manager for Project Play in Mexico is Tatiana Vertiz, who can be reached at tatianav@aspeninstitutemexico.org. Learn more about how Project Play has begun helping other countries build healthier kids and communities here.

The story was originally posted here.

Survey: Low-income kids are 6 times more likely to quit sports due to costs

In this post, we break down the data by family income. Youth sports have become an estimated $17 billion industry, often leaving behind families who cannot afford to keep up with the escalating arms race. In our latest analysis of the parent survey, we explored participation rates, free play, pressure on kids, and costs to play by evaluating responses against household income.

How do parents know what sport is best for young children?

In this month’s mailbag, the advice comes from Skye Eddy Bruce, founder of the Soccer Parenting Association. She’s a former multisport athlete (track and field, cross country, soccer) and was a youth All-American soccer player before playing Division I college soccer. Soccer Parenting believes a strong and supportive community of level-headed and like-minded parents and coaches will inspire players and best serve player development.

Romania deploys Project Play to get more kids active in sports

Among the few buildings in the world larger than the Pentagon, the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest is so colossal, so dense and byzantine in its layout, people here say that only the occupant who commissioned it, the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, knew how to navigate all its marbled hallways.

Who knew one hallway would someday lead to Project Play?

That day, to be exact, was Sept. 26, 2019, when about 130 leaders found their way to a large ballroom two levels up to participate in the Joacă Pentru Viaţă Summit, or the Play for Life Summit. The goal: Rethink the delivery of sport for youth in the former Eastern Bloc country, to get more of them involved.

The president of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee was there. So were top politicians, the acting Sports Minister, officials from the Ministry of Education, and Olympic medalists. The day began with a video message from reigning Wimbledon champion Simona Halep, who offered her congratulations to the Aspen Institute Romania, host of the event.

“There’s nothing better for kids than to be encouraged, at first through play, towards exercise, sports and a healthy and productive adult life,” said Halep, the country’s most celebrated athlete. “Not all of today’s kids will end up winning a Grand Slam or Olympic medal, but they will be representing a competitive generation, ready to face life successfully. Good luck to the Play for Life Summit. I am with you!”

Over the past year, Aspen Romania has used our Project Play framework to convene leaders with the aim of developing a national plan for getting more children active through sports. While Project Play was created for U.S. purposes, two of the 11 countries where the Aspen Institute has international affiliates – Aspen Mexico will release its plan in November – are now partnering with their Olympic committees to create strategies to build healthier children and communities through sports.

These are their programs, and we support them where we can.

In Bucharest, that meant sharing the process our Sports & Society Program and its partners have used to build Project Play as an engine of progress in the U.S. It’s our Theory of Change, if you will, for Romanian leaders to borrow from as needed.

Step One: Organize the Thought

Launched in 2013, Project Play spent the first two years convening leaders – 300 of them at roundtables where we posed questions on a range of youth sport topics. We took a lot of notes, surfaced the best ideas, then packaged the best of them into what became our seminal report, Sport for All, Play for Life: A Playbook to Get Every Kid in the Game, with its eight strategies for the eight sectors that touch the lives of children.

The document was a critical step in laying a foundation for collective impact. It helped define what good looks like in youth sports, and the areas of opportunity for stakeholders. It created the conditions for the energy and money in youth sports – a $17 billion industry, at a minimum – to move less at cross-purposes. While programs that serve low-income youth could use more support, investments need to align with the needs of children and the research around how to build an athlete for life.

As with any country, Romania will need to develop a plan that recognizes its unique assets, limitations, culture and history. In the U.S., for instance, “Train All Coaches” is a key strategy, in recognition that most youth coaches are volunteers who are winging it. In Romania, where government-supported sport clubs provide programs, nearly all coaches are paid, educated and certified.

The training that many of them receive, however, is focused on identifying promising children and developing them into elite athletes – a holdover from the old Soviet-era system. The challenge now is how to train them in competencies like teaching social and emotional skills through sports, in all youth.

Step Two: Organize the Organizations

It’s hard to trigger systems-level change without getting the organizations at the center of that system to develop policies, practices and programs that map to the shared vision. In the U.S., we use a variety of tools to encourage cooperation and action: Project Play 2020 and Project Play Champions, which mobilizes industry leaders and non-profits; our community projects; and the annual Project Play Summit, where last month 550 leaders gathered for two days of panels and workshops.

Romania is well on its way to getting all the right organizations at the table. A key partner is the Romanian Olympic and Sport Committee, whose president, Mihai Covaliu, called for a reboot of the Romanian sport system at the Play for Life Summit.

For a while, Romania was able to rely on the old, authoritarian system to achieve results on the world stage. Romania won 26 medals at the 2000 Olympics, a decade after Ceausescu was executed, ending communist rule. Its female gymnasts dominated the 1990s, building on the legacy of Nadia Comaneci and the authoritarian coach Bela Karolyi in the 1970s.

By the 2016 Rio Olympics, Romania’s medal count had fallen to just four, across all sports. None were in gymnastics, and in Tokyo next year, as in Rio, the women’s team did not qualify.

“Too few of our children know how to run, jump and play,” said Covaliu, a former Olympic champion fencer. “We need to fix that. Mass sport sits at the base of all sport success.”

Step Three: Organize the Gatekeepers

That would be the parents, ultimately the most influential agents in the lives of children. In the U.S., our surveys show that more than 9 of 10 parents appreciate the value of sports and want their child to have positive, sustained experience. But they’re often lost on how to guide their child, leading to high attrition rates. It’s why Project Play 2020 launched the Don’t Retire Kid campaign in August, to drive them to solutions.

Romania faces a different challenge, according to leaders – parents withholding their child from sport activity. Some just don’t appreciate the value of physical activity, sending their children to school with medical notes exempting them from P.E. Others worry about introducing them to sport clubs where coaches demand performance from kids at too early of an age.

“We need to let the children enjoy playing and see what flows from that,” said Ciprian Paraschiv, development manager at the Romanian Football Federation. “As the Pope said last year, ‘Every child has a right not to be a champion.’”

It is impressive to see what Romanian leaders are already putting in place, in support its new vision. A tournament comprised of middle school teams, supported by the Olympic committee. A festival in Bucharest in June where thousands of kids got to sample 40 sports, collect stamps at each station, and connect with local clubs. Downloadable decks of playing cards that coaches can use to talk productively with kids.

Aspen Romania has asked if its staff can translate some of our tools, such as the Project Play Parent Checklists. Here you go. Happy to share, where feasible. Hope it’s useful.

Can’t say any of this was in Project Play’s Theory of Change. Certainly not Romania, 22 hours away by flight from my home in California.

But we’re beyond thrilled to see the framework travels well.

Tom Farrey is executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program, home of Project Play. He can be followed on Twitter at @TomFarrey and reached at Tom.Farrey@aspeninstiute.org.

Learn more about the Joacă Pentru Viaţă Summit here.