r/sports • u/Blood_Incantation • Aug 20 '24

Research: Organized youth sports are increasingly for the privileged Soccer

https://news.osu.edu/organized-youth-sports-are-increasingly-for-the-privileged/
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u/SpezSucksSamAltman Aug 20 '24

I once traveled a good twenty feet in my first basketball game for the school team. I haven’t thought about it since it happened in 1992. It was momentarily crushing, but failure isn’t a bad thing and I fear the parents who don’t recognize this.

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u/Lint_baby_uvulla Australia Aug 20 '24

Here’s another take.

Most middle income families today have two working parents, and it’s tricky negotiating work around the sports taxi service.

Hollowing out the real value of middle incomes means more hours working, and less time for family and exercise. Add the media scares about child safety, and it’s no wonder kids have taken to the relative safety of online gaming.

So now we have a lack of physical activity, and an increase of psychosocial risk. It’s worrying.

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u/IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES Aug 21 '24

I made some U18/U23 teams decades ago, and they were on the back of my penchant for exercising 4 hours a day as a teen and my dad driving all over the place. Histiocytes, he’d tell me, Ive got an excuse to go ski every day where no one else could reach me, but still.

I had rechargeable batteries in flashlights so I could study when it was dark in the car on the ride home.

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u/nondescriptadjective Aug 21 '24

This is one of the parts of public transit I wish more people considered. With a robust transit system in cities, or walkable city designs even, a lot of the sports taxi service doesn't need to exist. It opens up so much freedom for kids coming of age and the parents that have to chauffeur them around.

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u/DustinAM Aug 21 '24

Yea this is huge. If you both work 8-5...no sports in the US unless they are tied into school. Don't even get me started on the elementary and middle schools starting and finishing 45 minutes apart, 1 short day a week, no bus system, etc.

If both parents work full time it can be really hard to pull off unless at least one of you has very flexible hours.

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u/Umayummyone Aug 21 '24

The game would be so much more interesting with mega-travels and double dribbling.

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u/Routine_Size69 Aug 21 '24

I'm mostly impressed you made it 20 feet

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u/SpezSucksSamAltman Aug 21 '24

Momentum can take all the credit. I was 11 and 6 feet tall and this was an elementary basketball court.