Apparently ESPN long ago figured out the answer to a very intriguing question which has been baffling most adults over the age of 40 for the past decade or so. That question is, since droves of children nationwide end up abandoning participation in youth sports after the age of 12 (e.g., the National Alliance On Youth Sports has reported that 70% of kids who participate in organized youth sports quit these activities entirely by the time they reach the age of 13 years old), then where in the heck are they all going, and how are they occupying all of this newly found free time?
Well, like most of us adult cynics, we might presume that the primary answer is that they've all headed to the couch or bedroom to plop themselves in front of video games or glue their noses to Facebook and You Tube. And in large part this is true. In fact, a recent study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the amount of time teens and adolescents devote to "entertainment media" continued to rise dramatically, with kids spending more than 7 1/2 hours per day (per day??!) attached to computers, phones, TV's and video consoles. But any parent of a child between ages 11 and 18 would not be surprised by that. And, for that matter, most adults I know have also had their own use of computers and cell phones increase rather substantially in the last 10 years (ya' think!?), although I saw no data from Kaiser on adult Blackberry addictions or Farmville fanaticism! So when early teens finally escape the clutches of parents and coaches whose zealotry for sports can no longer hold these burgeoning young adults captive to their oppressive and controlling organizations (okay, that was a bit cynical), where do these kids land? According to ESPN, "X" marks the spot.
Xtreme Growth
In the early 1990's executives at ESPN took note of an emerging trend among our adolescents and teenagers, especially the boys. At a rapidly growing pace, the underground world of so-called "extreme" sports was beginning to catch on with the youth of America. More and more kids were laying down their leather baseball gloves and picking up a skateboard, BMX trick bike or pair of RollerBlades and taking to the streets, parks, schoolyards and driveways. Around that same time, ski resorts across America were enduring an extreme "invasion" of their own from a new technology and a new breed of downhill dare devils. The modern day snowboard had exploded in popularity among young skiers in the early '90s, and the generation of pioneers of snowboarding were looked upon with contempt by the departure of older plants, the winter has seen these young rebels as rude, inconsiderate group of looters who ruin the serenity of the tracks were everywhere . Of course, this perception is only added to the attractiveness and fueled the growth of snowboarding.
Recognizing a potential marketing gold mine with a youth movement aimed at a certain distance from purchasing power (onlyask the producers of Mountain Dew and Red Bull), rolled up his first ESPN X Games in 1995, followed by its first winter X Games in 1997. The story of his growing success speaks for itself. ESPN just finished the Winter X Games 14, which once again set a new record for the public to participate. More than 43 million viewers for Shaun White and other celebrities Generation Y "dew" to see their things, while a record number (over 84,000) of the participants got to enjoy the (sub) culturepersonally in Aspen, Colorado. To understand the success of the wild X-Games is to understand the psyche of a generation of young new dramatically different. And if you understand this, we are no longer with us, scratching his head on the mass exodus from organized sports through our teenage children. It all adds up.
Over the past 10 years, while participation has stagnated in the traditional sport is the fastest growing sport in America .... You guessed it, skateboarding. And just behind? Snowboarding.So what's the appeal? Well, the answer is likely to represent extreme or X Sport is the exact opposite, the average children's adventure with a traditional organized sports program, an experience that many of the accounts has not been very positive. Consider the contrast. Where the traditional youth sports are organized, highly structured and is used by adults, are the sports X disorganized, unstructured, and have virtually no involvement of adults. Where traditional sports emphasize aTeams win and celebrate the highly skilled athlete with honors adults, the most coveted positions and larger portions of the playing time, promote individuality X Sport, to reduce stress and anxiety for individual success and failure, and enable equal participation of all athletes regardless of ability (or his father might be coaching). Best of all, are X Sports "their" sport, not "we." Sports are created by children for the sake of the children so that children like to have to play and be freemicroscope and the phrase adults. Without parents are prepared on board, the first time, falling from their card to criticize, X sports are the words "fun" and "play" back into the world of video games. No wonder why children continue to flock there in record numbers.
Come in a society where organized sport for our children "to dominate the free time to" pick up "almost extinct, we can really learn a lot from this trend of extreme sports. If wepursue leisure activities for our children by these organizations funnel, then we should insist that organizations approach that is consistent with what children really want from the sport (not what adults want them) to use. All the surveys have ever been to why children play sports shows have seen the same priority of reasons. "Play" fun, friendship and desire, the objectives of advanced skills and are constantly winning on the basis of these lists. If we want to keep thisChildren in the "game" then we need the goals of the coaches, parents, youth sports organizations and aligned with those of children. If we do not, then the mass immigration of X Sports will certainly continue. And this is a good thing with ESPN.
