When it comes to youth sports, let’s reward grit, passion rather than early growth

Recently, a buddy I grew up with called and ask “wanna take your godson to soccer tryouts Tuesday?”

I responded by saying “is there ice cream after?”

He laughed and Tuesday at 545, I showed up and we headed out to tryouts.

Now before I continue; here’s some background. My godson Evan is 11. He was trying out for “rep” under 12 soccer with a new local club team which advertises excellent coaching and development. A hook which got his dad interested enough to sign him up for the try-out.

Full disclosure, practice and junior athletic development are major interests of mine for which I have written and research extensively, including publishing about a dozen academic papers. So while I love my godson and wanted to support him, I was also really curious: what’s an 11 year tryout even like?

When we arrived at the field, I told my godson to have fun and took my spot among the hoards of parents anxiously watching their children. Over the next hour, the head coach barked orders at the kids, having them participate in 40 meter dashes, some ball control drills and finally participate in full field scrimmage. The parents ate it up; amped up by the competition and the potential reward of their kid being selected.

I, however, was a little less impressed. I didn’t really see top coaching or great benchmarking. Let’s be clear: how an 11-year-old runs a 40 has no correlation on what type of athlete they will be. Instead it is a measurement of their biological age; a term scientist use to compare a youngsters actual age against their physical and emotional development.

Since it is easy to be a critic, but harder to find solutions, I have spent the last couple weeks thinking about that day. What would have done better? How can we really measure the kids who will be successful, without just giving an added advantage to those early growers?

Here’s my answer: evaluate each youngster to find gaps in skill. Provide the player with some feedback and basic coaching. Give them a couple weeks to practice and have them return for another evaluation. Within such a system, rewards go to kids with passion, time management and interest in that sport. My hypothesis is that these kids, over time, with coaching and encouragement are likely to be the best in the long term.

All of us want our kids to be involved in activities they love and give them joy. Let’s rethink try-outs and make them less about being the biggest or strongest, and let’s reward kids for skills that actually matter like hard work, passion and grit. By doing this we give space for all kids in sport and reward them for skills that actually matter.

Brendan Ryan is an entrepreneur and scientist. He applies his interests in a wide variety of areas to write about business, sports and life in general.