Now You Know: Winning Does Not Make Youth Sports Fun
It’s 5am and in a couple hours I embark on a road trip to take my son to arguably the hardest youth wrestling tournament in the country. This is our third year going. The last two years my son lost more matches in this one tournament than he did all season.
My son hates to lose. However he still tells me that this is one of his most fun trips of the year. He loves the road trip, staying in a hotel, hanging out with his wrestling buddies, and the opportunity to test his skills against the best wrestlers in the country. This doesn’t mean he won’t cry if he loses, I hope he doesn’t but it’s a good chance he will shed some tears this weekend. Regardless, he still loves going on this trip.
Surprisingly, a research study supports his love of this trip even though he doesn’t win as much as he usually does. Research done by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health found that winning is not even close to one of the top factors that make youth sports fun.
As stated in Science Daily:
If you think winning is one of the key determinants that makes organized sports fun for kids think again: Winning along with other mental bonuses ranked near the bottom of 81 determinants of fun, each of which falls into one of 11 big fun factors, according to a new study. In this first of a kind study, a research team used a method called concept mapping in order to map “fun” in youth sport.
This study found that the following were the most important factors for kids having fun:
- Being a good sport
- Trying hard
- Positive coaching
- Learning and improving
- Game time support
- Games
- Practices
- Team friendships
- Mental bonuses
- Team rituals
- Swag
Considering what my son has told me about the events he finds fun, this list is no surprise. However, intuitively I would have assumed winning was a bigger factor. But now I know, and as one of my favorite childhood cartoons GI Joe would always say, “knowing is half the battle.”