ABOUT THE AUTHOR & THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MESSAGE
Inside my book The Car Ride Home you will not find pages of statistics and numbers, that is not the focus or intent of the book. That said, there’s been a lot of research done on the positive benefits playing youth sports has on our children, many that are lifelong. I could list dozens of universities and government entities that have done this research pointing toward the positive impact youth sports can have on our children.
Instead, I will include a page from InningAce, a really cool site and organization listing 12 reasons we should be doing all we can to keep our kids playing.
Click here for the full article: 12 Key Benefits Of Playing Sports For Kids In 2023 (inningace.com)
What is amazing is in all of the studies I have seen, these same positive benefits come up over and over again. My hope is that all of us seeing the WHY we need to keep kids having fun and playing youth sports, we might make the choice to order The Car Ride Home and invest an hour or so of our time to see if we can’t figure out the HOW we can keep our kids in youth sports.
​Infographic from InningAce.com
Most every study done on the matter says that 70% of our kids are quitting youth sports by the age of thirteen. I believe that with all that youth sports have to offer we must agree this is too high of number.
Now, if a child is quitting youth sports for another type of positive activity; dance, 4-H club, the scouts, etc., this is not necessarily a bad thing, interests change. But there are other reasons kids are quitting that I believe are unfortunate.
This graphic
shows us two important things; why kids play sports and why kids quit sports. Thanks to Science for Sport (scienceforsport.com) for the graphic. It would be interesting to see how many of these we as parents believe we have a direct impact on, both why kids play and why kids quit. I wonder if after reading The Car Ride Home if any of us may think a bit differently?
