[Orange Blaze]

A problem that I’ve found in youth sports is that kids aren’t learning basic fundamentals of movement from a young age. I coach at the high school level and it really amazes me how many kids can’t do basic movements like skipping or landing properly when they jump. These are skills that used to be taught in P.E. class in elementary school that aren’t being taught any more.

As far as the athlete turnover rate, I think it’s a combination of a few factors. The big one being that kids don’t go outside and have free play like they used to and have too many electronic distractions. Talking with parents and kids, I’ve found that a lot of kids simply aren’t as interested in being active as they were in the 20+ years ago and a lot of kids are there because their parents make them play and not because they actually want to be there.

For the kids that do play sports, too many coaches push the athletes to exclusively focus on one sport. I think this also plays into the lack of development of fundamentals as mentioned before. Sports are also becoming extremely expensive and opportunities for lower income kids to have access to better coaching are limited and this may result in an otherwise talented kid not being able to reach his/her full potential.

Finally, there is the political side of things. You either have administrations that have unrealistic expectations or they simply don’t invest in other programs equally like they would in another. Most schools have an identity as being good at 1 sport and every now and then they might be good at 2. It is rare, especially in smaller schools to see a school invest in the success of multiple programs. Pikeville is the best in this regard that I’ve seen at the small school level. You also have the “daddy ball” element that makes it hard for a good coach to be effective because their job could be threatened if they don’t play a kid whose parents are a booster.

Coaching is a very hard job and unless you’ve done it I don’t think most people understand how much work and stress is in that job. Add to that that they pay isn’t good and you spend a lot of time away from from your family and it makes the job even tougher. To be a good coach means you have to love what you do and I think the best coaches are the ones who aren’t necessarily focused on their win loss record but more so about using sports as a vehicle to teach young people core values that they can use later in their lives to be productive members of society.