Is the Joy of Youth Sports Being Lost in the Pressure Cooker of Competition?

Have you ever taken part in organized sports, either through school or outside? If yes, did you find those encounters to be beneficial? Or do you believe that youth sports have transformed into a realm of excessive pressure and an overwhelming emphasis on winning?

In the article “Luka Doncic Wants Young Players to Embrace ‘Mess and Joy’,” Tania Ganguli discusses Doncic, the star player of the Dallas Mavericks, who is concerned that basketball is losing its enjoyment for numerous young athletes. To tackle this concern, he has launched a new foundation:

Luka Doncic was just 13 when he relocated from his homeland Slovenia to Spain to join Real Madrid. He was not fluent in English or Spanish, but he could communicate through basketball effortlessly, and the expectations of a prestigious professional organization loomed large over him.

Nevertheless, it was enjoyable for him, even amid that stress, in the same way it continues to be now that he has risen to become one of the brightest stars in the N.B.A., playing for the Dallas Mavericks.

He has observed that many players in youth programs globally are not experiencing the same joy and that several of them have departed from basketball while still teenagers.

“The kids are, I think, a little bit stressed,” Doncic remarked during an interview.

Thus, this year, his foundation, which launches this week with an aim to make sports a valuable aspect of children’s lives, has engaged a research organization named Nonfiction to investigate youth basketball in the Balkans and the United States. Over a span of five months, researchers carried out detailed interviews with dozens of coaches, athletes, parents, trainers, and other basketball specialists. Additionally, they surveyed more than 1,200 parents of youth basketball players and engaged themselves in eight basketball camps and training centers. They received letters from children sharing the significance of the sport in their lives.

The researchers discovered that youth programs in the Balkans prioritized the team over the individual. They also found that after the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, much of the governmental support for basketball in that area vanished. The corporations that stepped in to offer sponsorships sometimes exerted pressure on teams to win, resulting in some coaches neglecting player development in favor of prioritizing victories.

In the United States, researchers found a basketball culture that was competitive and capable of nurturing the biggest stars globally, but this system favored viral highlights on social media over genuine player development. A quarter of the American parents surveyed indicated that youth basketball was more about profit than about fostering learning in children.

The article outlines certain principles that Doncic’s foundation derived from its research:

With Doncic’s feedback, the researchers formulated a list of principles they believed were essential for youth basketball programs to help children grow in healthy manners, both physically and emotionally. The principles encompass a “team-first mentality” and “program continuity.” Seager mentioned that they incorporated “embracing mess and joy” when Doncic, renowned for his imaginative playmaking skills, advocated for it.

Students, peruse the entire article and then share your thoughts with us:

• Have you ever engaged in organized sports, inside or outside of school? If your answer is affirmative, were those experiences beneficial and wholesome? What do you believe you learned from them? If you haven’t participated, please explain why.

• The N.B.A. star Luka Doncic claims that basketball is losing its enjoyment for many young athletes. Does this align with your personal experiences in sports? Are the current sports programs for the youth excessively demanding?

• Doncic’s foundation aspires to make sports a delightful aspect of children’s lives. What do you think of its approaches to support healthy physical and emotional development in individuals, such as promoting a “team-first mentality” and “embracing mess and joy”?

• Doncic mentions he has gained invaluable lessons from basketball, such as “bravery, experience, enthusiasm.” What insights have you derived from engaging in sports, whether structured or casual?

• How significant are sports to you and your friends and peers? Do you believe that all young individuals would reap benefits from taking part in organized sports?

• Lara Beth Seager, the executive director of Doncic’s foundation, stated, “I don’t know many 25-year-olds who invest in research initiatives, but that’s how meaningful it was to him.” If you had the means, what kind of research project would you invest in?

• If Doncic sought your advice on enhancing youth sports, what suggestions would you provide? What changes do you think are necessary or could be made for improvement?

Students aged 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and those aged 16 and older elsewhere, are encouraged to share their comments. All remarks will be moderated by the Learning Network team; however, please keep in mind that once your comment is approved, it will be public and may be published in print.

Discover additional Student Opinion questions here. Educators, explore this guide to learn how to integrate these prompts into your classroom.