The Good and Bad of Character Transformation in Youth Sports
Unquestionably, youth sports has the potential to be the ideal classroom to teach children character strengths. Yes, it’s true you can’t teach math, science, and English on a field, court, or mat. However, you can teach accountability, resilience, and tenacity using youth sports in ways in which math science, and English can’t be used. What’s more, one could argue that a child’s ability to hold themselves accountable, show resilience, and attack obstacles with tenacity will tell you more about their future than their math, science and English grades.
With that said, teaching character in youth sports is not a forgone conclusion. On any given day in the sports news you can find a professional athlete who has severe character flaws. Most if not all of these athletes played youth sports from the time they were able to walk. Yet, time and time again we see high profile cases of athletes who display extreme character flaws such as cheating and violence. In addition, just as often we hear undertones of cases of athletes with the less extreme character flaws of laziness and selfishness.
While youth sports may be a great classroom for teaching character, a great classroom still needs great teachers. Coaches who put their best athletes on a pedestal instead of holding them accountable are a problem. So are coaches who teach kids that winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. Also, you can’t forget about the problem parents who lie about their kid’s age or who dope their kids up with artificial stimulants to get an edge.
Character Transformation in Youth Sports
What these problem coaches and parents forget is that character transformation, both good and bad, is inevitable when a transformative process takes place. When a child goes from being bad to good at a sport or from being a participant to a champion, the transformation that gets them there will become part of who they are. This means both the good and bad will appear in other areas of their life.
If the transformation involves a heavy dose of accountability, resilience, and tenacity then those character strengths will be instilled in the child. On the other hand, if the transformation involves lying, cheating, and bending the rules, then those character flaws will also be instilled in the child.
For this reason, youth sports is a powerful tool that has the potential for teaching both good and bad habits. Contrary to popular belief, winning is not one of those habits. Instead, it’s what you do to transform into a winner that becomes habit. This is why youth sports is such a powerful classroom to teach both character strengths and character flaws. Furthermore, it’s up to parents and coaches to use the power of youth sports wisely.