Lawmakers Look at Impact of Sports on Young

Author of "Take Back the Game..." was among those testifying...

Colin A. Young|SHNS

Lawmakers heard Thursday how the youth sports landscape has changed dramatically with the rise of private club teams -- and with it more early specialization, overtraining, injuries and burnout -- and batted around potential ways for the state to implement some kind of oversight structure for kids' athletic programs.

Some of the speakers said they would welcome some kind of statewide youth sports oversight body and suggested it could impose rules around things like the number of hours per week a child can practice, train or compete, training for youth sports coaches, registration of private sports leagues and clubs, and more.

"Our youth sports ecosystem is not operating anywhere close to peak efficiency because we are not focusing on the children in front of us. We are failing far too many of our children. By high school, 43 percent of U.S. students no longer participate on any team at school or in their community. Only 23 percent of high school students meet the CDC's recommended level of physical activity and that number is down five points from 2011," Jon Solomon, editorial director of the Sports & Society Program at the Aspen Institute, said. "Youth sports have become an industry underwritten by more than $30 billion in annual payments by families. Too many of our kids can't afford the travel ball private training experience. Structurally, we also discriminate against late bloomers, kids with disabilities and those who just want to play casually with friends."

The informational hearing was held jointly by the Joint Committee on Economic Development and the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. Sen. Barry Finegold, the Senate co-chair of the Economic Development Committee, said it's rare for two legislative committees to take a combined look at a topic.

"But when it comes to sports, health care and economics are colliding and I think that's why it's so important," the North Andover Democrat said.

Members of the committees heard from coaches, a trainer, parents, club program administrators, researchers and others on the risks of early sport specialization and overtraining to the physical and mental health of young athletes, barriers to accessible participation, and the landscape of program financing.

No specific bill was before the committees Thursday, but Finegold and Health Care Financing Committee co-chair Rep. John Lawn of Watertown have filed legislation (S 1374 / H 2222) to establish a special commission on the best practices of youth sports organizations. That group would be tasked with looking at, among other things, "the potential need for stronger oversight and accountability in the youth sports industry." Those bills are before the Joint Committee on Public Health.

"Senator Finegold and I had some conversations over the last year or two, even just talking about our own children's sports and youth sports and the state of youth sports. The MIAA oversees high school sports, the NCAA [oversees] college sports, but really an explosion of youth sports and the oversight of youth sports and so many different clubs sports ... it was worthy of a discussion to talk about what we're doing and should we be doing anything further to kind of oversight youth sports," Lawn said. He added, "So I think we're just trying to talk about, is this something that we should pay more attention to?"

Dave Brown, who has been a coach and administrator for North Andover public sports leagues, told the committee how the divide between public and private programs -- the latter of which often come with high fees, travel expenses and private coaching -- creates conflicts for families and kids, and often ends up hurting the public programs that are more accessible.

"What happens is you put your child in a private program and you've paid $2,500 or $3,000 for club soccer, club baseball, or whatever. And then there's an inevitable conflict between activities for that and activities for the Little League, or the public program. And what parents often do is they think to themselves, 'well I paid 10 times as much for the private as the public, my kid is going to the private.' And I've firsthand seen it where the child actually feels like they're letting their teammates down and really doesn't want to go, and their parents are essentially forcing them to go," Brown said.

The dynamic is frustrating, Brown said as someone who has run the public programs, and leads to uncomfortable decisions for volunteer coaches.

"You get these situations where, OK, your strongest players -- the ones that make your Little League or your public team, your community team, better -- they're not showing up for practices, they show up for games. But then you're looking at the kids who've been there every time and you're like, 'Well, I'm not going to sit them down because this -- forgive the language -- quote unquote primadonna shows up," he said. "So it creates just creates problems for everybody."

Linda Flanagan, a former coach, athlete and the mother of athletes who wrote a book about "how money and mania are ruining kids sports and why it matters," [Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids' Sports--and Why It Matters] stressed to the committees that an overemphasis on organized sports for kids -- whether it's more intense club program training, kids playing for multiple teams or multiple sports each season, or a combination -- has a real effect on the health and wellbeing of young people.

"There's a widely accepted rule of thumb for age-appropriate playing time and it's this: a child should not train more hours per week than years she is old. An eight-year-old, in other words, shouldn't train for more than eight hours a week," she said. "Here's what's happening: The Aspen Institute Sports and Society Program found that kids between ages 5 and 18 who played sports last year spent an average of 16.6 hours a week training. Forty-four of those kids got injured, 5.6 percent tore a knee ligament, 8.4 percent got concussions. Kids are experiencing an epidemic of overuse injuries, a function of too much training and not enough rest."

Solomon, the Aspen Institute researcher, told the committee to consider the increasing use of phones, social media and video games by young people. He said video games often are blamed for the more sedentary lifestyle of today's teens, but that "they provide much of what children want out of a sports experience," including lots of action, a freedom to experiment, the ability to play with friends, and without having a parent or coach criticize every action.

"The child is at the center of the video game experience, all made possible by research and feedback loops that seek input from its young customers," Solomon said. "Now imagine if youth sports providers worked half as hard to understand the needs of kids, especially those who are left out or opt out of sports. So my main recommendation for this commission is ... include children's voice in the process, ask them why they do or don't play sports, what's working and what could be improved, and then really listen to them because this is of course their experience, not ours."