De-emphasizing Competition in Organized Youth Sport: Misdirected Reforms and Misled Children

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, organized youth sport became an increasingly prevalent childhood experience across Western societies—especially in affluent ones. Millions of children participate in organized sport each year. Partici pation is accepted and encouraged as an integral part of children’s lives because of its alleged benefits. Arguably, the goal of organized youth sport is to foster children’s overall welfare. Competition has played a prominent and sometimes controversial role in programs espousing this objective. It is precisely through the organization and administration of competitive sports that youth sport programs seek to advance their goal. However, the growing emphasis on winning, as well as the myriad of excesses and abuses that it has created among parents, coaches, spectators, and young athletes, has generated a massive wave of criticism against competition (6;7;11;26;33;37). Many professional organizations, advocacy groups, and experts in the field believe that organized youth sport programs are in crisis and have recommended reforms designed to establish a healthy environment that emphasizes children’s needs and interests first, so they can make the most of their sport experiences. To ensure this, those who advocate the refocusing of organized youth sport maintain that these programs should “emphasize that there should be action, [and] involvement among all participants” and that adults “need to encourage fun” (6: p. 147; 33). The gist of their proposals is to reprioritize the values inspiring participation in organized youth sport, which necessitates moving away from organizational models that mimic adult-oriented priorities. While confessedly de-emphasizing competition, the recommendations to emphasize action and fun have led organizers and administrators to discourage the formation of regular competitive teams and the keeping of scores or standings, to limit traveling outside the community, and to ensure minimal playing time for all young athletes. This set of recommendations and measures constitutes a growing trend in organized youth sport programs—a trend through which programs purport to underscore children’s interests and welfare over competitive performance and outcomes. In this essay, we argue that this trend in organized youth sport is unwarranted and misleading to children. We believe that when children are initiated into such