Is Your Sideline Shouting Killing Your Kid’s Love for Sports?

If you walk by any park in the Wenatchee Valley on a Saturday morning, you’ll hear the sounds that define our community: a referee’s whistle, a soccer ball hitting the ground, and, all too often, a parent shouting from the sidelines.

People in Washington are passionate about sports, but a new national survey from Project Play (done with Utah State and Louisiana Tech Universities) shows that our excitement might actually be pushing kids out of sports before high school.

The Fun Factor

Survey results from almost 4,000 kids ages 10 to 17 make one thing clear: youth sports are about being social. When asked why they play, kids didn’t say "winning championships" or "earning scholarships." Instead, they focused on:

When the Sidelines Get Sour

Sadly, adults often get in the way of these simple goals. The study found that kids quit sports at an average age of just under 13. For many, pressure from home is the main reason they stop playing.

The pressure from the sidelines isn’t the same in every sport. Soccer parents were most likely to get upset about how their kids played, while basketball parents had the most negative behavior overall, such as criticizing their kids’ skills or making them feel embarrassed.

This problem is even worse for girls. Girls who quit sports were twice as likely as boys to say their parents compared them to other players or argued with referees. When the ride home turns into a round of tough questions, the fun disappears.

The Bigger Picture