The group i9 sports, a conglomerate of locally franchised teams across the nation, surveyed 300 children between 8-14 years old. It found that an astounding 84 percent quit playing sports, or at one time wished they could quit.
An equal amount of 84 percent said they wished playing organized sports was more fun. And get this - one-third of the kids surveyed said they wished their parents weren't watching!
This goes along the lines of a parenting story I put together for Action News last year called "Learning the tough lesson of failure."
Back to the i9 survey: Why did the children surveyed wish mom and dad weren't at their sporting events? i9 reports that the children said adults as a whole yell too much from the sidelines. They also said parents tend to distract them, make them nervous and put too much pressure on them to win.
Here are a few more interesting nuggets from the i9 survey:
Brian Sanders, the COO and President of i9 Sports, said "We forget sports are teaching tools for life. Kids are learning behaviors picked up by teammates, coaches and parents. We need to be better teachers. We need to let kids have fun."
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