Elitism in Youth Sports Yields Physical Fatness is an interesting article about physical fitness in the US.
My wife and I were talking about the same just the same issue other day. That PE in school never prepareed you for real life, and it does a bad job of teaching sports to kids. At least in our experience.
February 1, 2004
Elitism in Youth Sports Yields Physical Fatness
By KEN REED
e're fat. In fact, as a country, we've never been fatter. Today, as we prepare for the ultimate couch potato experience — the Super Bowl — it is sobering to note that almost 65 percent of adults in the United States are either overweight or obese. That is sad news. But what is even sadder is our children are on pace to be significantly fatter than we are by the time they reach adulthood.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the percentage of children ages 6 to 11 who are overweight has increased nearly 300 percent the past 25 years. The numbers are nearly identical for teenagers.
As a result, children today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents for the first time in 100 years, said William J. Klish, professor of pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine.
"We are in the middle of an epidemic that may have profound health effects for our children," Klish said. "If society doesn't act now to implement preventative measures, the increase of obesity will not stop."
The health implications are scary. For example, Type 2 diabetes was once considered an adult disease. Now, the incidence of the disease has increased dramatically in children and adolescents because more children are overweight. Klish notes that the percentage of children and adolescents found to have Type 2 diabetes at Texas Children's Hospital has increased to 27 percent in 2002 from less than 1 percent 20 years ago.
Making this picture even uglier is the fact that the number of physical education classes in our schools is steadily declining, despite an array of experts stressing more activity is crucial if children are to achieve a healthy weight. Today, Illinois is the only state that still requires daily physical education classes for students K to 12. By high school, most children are basically finished with physical education. The result is that grade-school children are now 24 percent more active than high-schoolers.
And Colorado, along with South Dakota, does not have any mandate for physical education on any level — elementary, middle school, or high school. So, when budgets are tight, physical education is easy to chop.
But physical education is only one side of the physical fitness coin for children. The other side is youth sports programs. For very young children, sports opportunities abound. But as children grow older, the emphasis changes from "participation for all" to "participation for the elite," and too many children are forced to the sideline, where they become sedentary spectators.
The United States lags behind other industrialized nations when it comes to lifelong sports participation. A small percentage of us play and the rest of us watch. The problem starts early. While the number of boys and girls (ages 6 to 12) participating in youth sports programs is greater than ever, the drop-out rate by age 13 is growing significantly.
This is unfortunate because the teen years are a time when sports participation can have its greatest benefits. Multiple studies show that children who participate in sports are less likely to smoke, consume illegal drugs and alcohol, miss classes, drop out of school and become pregnant. In addition, for those involved in sports, self-esteem tends to rise and the ability to solve problems, handle adversity and be creative improves.
"I think the biggest problem is that kids don't make the high school team, or the junior high school team, and drop out," said Richard Lapchick, founder of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University. "Kids think that if they don't make the team that their career is over, therefore they should stop competing or playing or doing anything that makes them physically fit."
The common perception is that the United States is a sports-crazed country that believes strongly in the value of sports for our youth. But when you peel back the layers of the onion, you see that what we really value is elite sports programs. From the professional level to traveling club teams for 8-year-olds, our focus as a society is on elite athletes. Resources start being directed toward programs for elite athletes when children are young.
"There's a disparity in sports, the fact that there is so much at the top and not enough at the bottom," said Tom McMillen, a former congressman and N.B.A. player. "If you look at America, we have very few resources at the bottom for our kids. We certainly have plenty of resources at the top. We can build megastadiums, pay megasalaries for athletes, but we're not doing enough at the bottom."
Drew A. Hyland, author of "Philosophy of Sport" (Paragon House, 1990), sees part of the solution overseas. "I think a wonderful thing would be for the United States to develop a more active sports club system of the sort that you see in Europe, where folks keep on playing actively in leagues and so forth on into adulthood," Hyland said.
In most European countries, there is a sports club for everyone. If you are a premier athlete, there is a team for you. If you are an athletically challenged kid, but still love the game, there is also a team for you. Clubs in Europe will often have an "A" team, a "B" team, a "C" team, on down, so everyone is accommodated.
To change the disturbing decline in the physical fitness in America, we need to do a better job spreading the word about the poor state of our children's physical fitness and the long-term impact that will have on their health. We must have more physical education in our schools, not less. And we need more recreation, intramural and club programs that provide organized sports opportunities for all ages and levels of ability.
As parents, administrators, legislators, teachers and coaches, it is up to us to find ways to get more children involved and keep them participating longer. Will it be physical fitness or physical "fatness" for our youth?
Ken Reed is a sports industry consultant and has a doctorate in sport administration from the University of Northern Colorado.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
