Why Do Kids Play Sports?

Some things never change—and that can be a good thing, especially when it applies to kids' sports.

Kids today, according to a recent survey by a Darien teenager, Peter Barston, play sports for the same reason they did  20 years ago: fun.

After polling approximately 1,000 youngsters, Barston learned that fun was the overwhelming reason why kids participate in sports.

His interest in why kids play was piqued one day last summer when his dad, Mike, returned home after attending a Positive Coaches Alliance meeting, a national organization advocating a kinder youth sports culture. (Mike serves on the board of a Darien youth baseball league).

The workshop included a presentation which referred to a 20-year-old study by scientists at Michigan State's Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, which asked young athletes why they played sports.

The top answer was "fun,"  followed by "something I'm good at." 

The kids surveyed were fourth to eighth-graders, 28,000 of them, from around the country.

"Winning" didn't make it into the top ten. In the basketball survey,  95 percent of the boys and 98 percent of the girls checked off  "fun" as to why they play.

Mike showed the survey to his sons, 15-year-old Peter and 12-year-old Stephen.

Peter, a sophomore at Fairfield Prep, was curious to see if the same answers in the Michigan State survey applied to Darien, two decades later.

"I started with Darien junior football, moved on to the Darien YMCA basketball league, polled players in a local softball league and recently finished up with baseball,"  said Barston, who began his update with fourth to eighth-grade Darien kids.

Barston made sure there were no coaches or parents present when he handed out the survey and pencils. He also told the kids they didn't have to sign the survey.

The single-page survey included 11 reasons the kids could give for playing. Barston explained  his methodology:

"If you don't care about a reason, give it zero points; the more you do care about a reason,  give it some points. Just make sure your total points add up to 100."

The 11 choices included the laid-back (to have fun and make friends) to the purposeful (to win, earn a college scholarship).

"Fun" was the clear winner in Darien, as it was nationally 20 years ago, regardless of age, gender and sport.

There was a gender difference among other reasons for playing. Where the girls listed "social" as a major reason,  the boys listed "learning skills."

Changes became more noticeable as kids moved up through grades. Sixth-grade football players listed "winning," as the seventh reason they participated; that became the second reason when they were in the seventh-grade, and the third reason in the eighth grade.

Guy Wisinski, who is  a member of the junior football league's board, said the survey was "a touch of reality" for adults.

Darien football already has taken the results to heart by changing the playoff structure from a single elimination format to pool play in order to put less emphasis on winning and more on just playing—and having fun.

Peter is considering the possibility of starting a website to encourage other young people to start "Why do you play?" projects.

Peter's work was recognized earlier this year in Peter Hyman's Jan. 30 New York Times article, "A Survey of Youth Sports Finds Winning Isn't the Only Thing."