Basketball’s Chris Webber: Pressure on kids to make the NBA is “scary”

Jon Solomon
Editorial Director, Sports & Society Program

This year’s Project Play Summit was an away game, venturing away from Washington D.C. for the first time in its five-year history. Detroit welcomed the convening with more than 500 leaders at the intersection of youth, sport and health – the largest turnout in the Summit’s history. The Summit hashtags, #DontRetireKid and #ProjectPlay, were the top two trending items in Detroit. Through two days of panels, workshops and activation announcements, participants discussed barriers to get all kids equitable access to sports and physical activity, and shared activations that are happening to create solutions.

At the Aspen Institute’s 2019 Project Play Summit, former NBA and University of Michigan star Chris Webber implored parents of youth basketball players to become more involved — and more aware of the pressures of youth sports — so their child enjoys a positive experience.

“I think growing up in my time was easier because the culture allowed it to be different,” Webber said. “I can’t imagine the pressure of being 12 years old and being told you can make it to the NBA and believing it, [when] you don’t have the skills but a coach told you that to keep you around. That’s scary.”

Webber spoke on a panel in Detroit that honored the 25th anniversary of the documentary film Hoop Dreams, and explored the pressures and opportunities in youth basketball today. This year’s Project Play Summit was the largest in the event’s five-year history with more than 500 attendees, and marks the first time the Summit left Washington D.C.

At the time of Hoop Dreams, Webber was the country’s highest-rated recruit, having been identified as a top prodigy when he was only 11 years old. But Webber had the advantage of being raised by “a village” in Detroit – his parents, high school coach, AAU coach, police officers at Detroit PAL, and older local players who made it ahead of him. “It was really more of a community culture,” he said. “It was not about the coaches, it was about the people who are the coaches.”

Today, Webber said, youth basketball coaches frequently gain their status simply because they are associated with a talented player. In reality, the coach may be a bad influence on the child.

“This is not a secret club — these [youth basketball] coaches are not as good you think they are,” Webber said. “Go back to your high school days and go to a guy that may have been a jerk. He’s still a jerk today, but coaching your kid. They’re teaching your kid how to communicate, how to problem solve (poorly).”

ESPN.com recently documented America’s “youth basketball crisis,” in which kids are playing too many games and entering the NBA with broken bodies. In recent years, the NBA and USA Basketball created youth development guidelines for the sport and developed a coaching license. Webber said these tools should empower parents to know what a good basketball experience looks like.

“The No. 1 8-year-old kid is not going to the NBA. So, let’s quit putting that out there,” Webber said. “When we talk about the kids playing too many minutes, those are for guys who have already chosen their major in sports. How can you choose a major in sports before 14? How can you choose what you’re going to be great at? Your body hasn’t even developed. You haven’t even grown. I would just encourage community leaders and parents not to be intimidated by sport. You know enough. You know how to discipline your child. You know how to encourage them.”

Watch select sessions of the Summit here.

Michigan Secretary of State supports state authority to help access to sports
Speaking on a Summit panel about the role of government in youth sports, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said she would support adopting a commission and/or creating a high-level state government position that would help prioritize access to sports.

Benson is chairing a 14-member task force in Michigan, commissioned by the state governor, that aims to increase opportunities for women and girls in sports. The commission is still several years away from issuing its report, but Benson anticipates it will recommend a cabinet-level position focused on access to sports — an idea she has discussed with Big East Conference commissioner Val Ackerman, an advisor for the task force.

“We notice in states that are leading, and in foreign countries that are leading, they often have that high-level position — whether it’s advisory or authoritative — to actually implement changes and to advise those making decisions how to prioritize access to sports,” Benson said. “In my view, any government at any level – state, local or federal – should consider that type of permanent voice at the table as they make decisions from transportation to budget and everything in between.”

As states across the country consider legalizing sports betting, Benson said the opportunity exists in Michigan to use gambling revenue for access to youth sports. It’s a concept that’s used in Norway.

“Where the revenue goes – whether it’s to schools, to schools and sports, or to sports – I think is part of the negotiation right now,” Benson said. “In my view, it is a way to generate revenue. There are also ways to get revenue by having high-profile sporting events – hosting the NFL Draft, for example. That also enables us to create policies that will generate revenue for our state and our economy that can be reinvested as opportunities for people to play sports.”

Benson was also asked by an audience member if college athletes should be allowed to make money off their own name, image, and likeness. California may soon finalize a law making it illegal for colleges in that state to punish an athlete for accepting endorsement money. Benson said she would “lean toward wanting to ensure individual athletes’ likenesses are empowered and their likenesses are protected and they have some autonomy over that – whether it’s through payments and/or other ways to protect their own brand, even if they are in the early stages of an amateur or professional career.”

Special Olympics chairman: Sports doesn’t yet teach that everybody belongs

The biggest problem facing sports is clustering people around ability levels, a structure that narrows the field and stigmatizes everybody else, said Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics. Speaking on a Summit panel about sports for social impact, Shriver said he believes the day will come when every U.S. high school has a Special Olympics Unified team, meaning athletes with intellectual disabilities play on the same team as those without intellectual disabilities.

“I don’t think the world of sport has yet fully absorbed the challenge of the Special Olympics movement because it is a radical vision of human equality,” Shriver said. “It’s not a cute sidelight. People ask me do you go to the real Olympics? And for a long time I said, ‘Well, sometimes, but only occasionally and we’re not the same as them.’ About 10 years ago I started saying, ‘Yes, I do – all the time.’”

Shriver said sport has an unhealthy paradigm by selecting kids for teams solely by performance and spectators. “That’s a super powerful destructive influence on children. … Who’s the fastest person with Down Syndrome in the world? I have no idea – and I don’t care, honestly.”

Shriver said he becomes emotional when a Special Olympics athlete raises his or her arms in joy after a third- or fourth-place finish. “Not because I feel sorry for her, but because I wish I was more like her,” Shriver said. “And not because she has an intellectual disability, but because she has the bravery to reveal that she herself believes that her best is enough.”

College baseball coach finds rec league better than travel ball

Even college baseball’s national coach of the year isn’t immune from the pitfalls of travel sports. University of Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich said he mistakenly signed up his son for travel baseball around 8 years old.

“We thought he was really good,” Bakich said. “He ended up not really liking baseball at all. Here he is, we’re paying $2,000 a year, and he says, ‘I hate baseball.’ Dagger to the heart. So we said, ‘OK, we won’t play travel.’ We gave him a year off travel ball and went back to playing a rec league and he loves it. The competition and coaching and caliber – there’s not much difference. He’s enjoying baseball again.”

Other Announcements from Project Play Summit

• Please join us in congratulating our Project Play Champions. These organizations committed to taking a new, meaningful, specific action consistent with the strategies of Project Play.

• New local State of Play reports were released in Hawai’i and Seattle-King County. Coming in 2020: Reports in Central Ohio and Camden, New Jersey.

• The 2019 State of Play report was released with the latest youth sports participation data and trends. Read the report and see the charts.

• The football team at American Heritage School is the first Healthy Sport Index Contest winner. Nominations for other high school teams based on exemplary health are being accepted at pn/hsicontest.

• Project Play and Nickelodeon developed the World Wide Day of Play partner playbook. Register here to gain access to the playbook.

• Project Play and Kellogg’s announced a partnership to search for the best middle school programs in the country. The goal: Revitalize middle school sports by inspiring leaders to adopt models that serve as many students as possible.

“I’ve lived with depression, and without sport, I don’t think there was a way to approach that challenge with such optimism and belief and a hard wire that I can control my fulfilment and what I want to get out of life. All of that came through being a kid and finding play.”

— Kyle Martino, NBC Sports broadcaster and former pro soccer player

“I would challenge those in the room to make a commitment. Don’t have a coaching staff for a girls team that has all men. Don’t serve on a panel that has all men. Insist on diversity because we need you to do that.”

— Nicole LaVoi, Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport co-director

“As a big brand, we have a responsibility to make awareness to the whole world about giving opportunities to everybody.”

— Mariona Miret, FC Barcelona Foundation head of programs

“Here was a gut-punch reminder of how brutal life in the NFL can be. ‘Not For Long’, indeed.”

— Yahoo! Sports columnist Pat Forde on C.J. Anderson, who learned he was cut by the Detroit Lions shortly after a moderated conversation with Forde at the Summit.

“Don’t bet on programs, bet on people. People have values. People have passion. Great programs are the result of passionate people.”

— Dave Egner, Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation CEO

“When you rearrange the letters in ‘listen’ it spells ‘silent.’ In order to truly listen, we have to silence our brains and stop trying to be right and figuring out how to respond. Just shut up and listen to our children.”

— Valorie Kondos Field, former UCLA gymnastics coach

“I’m familiar with how you can get caught up in this (youth sports) mania. You want so much for the happiness of your kid that you’d do anything for that, and this seems like their happiness is being good at this time. But in retrospect, it was mania. In retrospect, my son wishes he had played more sports and not played 100 games of baseball a year.”

— David Brooks, New York Times columnist and executive director of the Aspen Institute Weave: The Social Fabric Project

“I’ve messed up at it (sports). My daughter was a D-1 (college) athlete and I fell in love with it. Who wouldn’t? I think I pressed too much and junior year she burned out of college. It’s hard for parents, but the big thing I want to say is we all have to do what you all are doing here today: We all have to tell our stories.”

— Peter Gilbert, Hoop Dreams filmmaker

“I’d like to see parents who don’t pay to see their kids win, who don’t try to fuel arguments because they may have lost, or their kid may not have won the meet.”

— Daniel Solomon, 12, Urbana, MD

Story originally published here.

Hoop Dreams at 25: Is youth basketball any wiser now?

Jon Solomon
Editorial Director, Sports & Society Program

It’s been a quarter-century since the release of Hoop Dreams, the sports documentary that launched the genre with its revealing portrait of two African American young basketball players (William Gates and Arthur Agee) trying to improve their lives. In many ways, Hoop Dreams was the first reality show.

Originally intended to be a 30-minute short film, Hoop Dreams filmmakers shot 250 hours of footage for a three-hour film spanning six years in the lives of Gates and Agee as they chased NBA dreams that neither reached. At a young age, Gates was viewed as the second coming of NBA great Isiah Thomas – they were both inner-city Chicago kids who played for the same coach at a white, suburban Chicago private high school – but Gates’ career was derailed by injury. Agee, also from the inner city, played at the private school as well but was forced to leave early in his career when the coach determined his basketball skills weren’t worth keeping.

The movie is “not only a documentary,” film critic Roger Ebert wrote in 1994. “It is also poetry and prose, muckraking and expose, journalism and polemic. It is one of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime. … Hoop Dreams contains more actual information about life as it is lived in poor black city neighborhoods than any other film I have ever seen.”

On Sept. 17 at the Project Play Summit in Detroit, the Aspen Institute will host a panel discussion, ”Hoop Dreams at 25 – Is Youth Basketball Any Wiser Now?” The panel features former NBA star Chris Webber and Peter Gilbert, one of the movie’s filmmakers, and examines what has changed – and still needs to change – for the game to better serve kids.

Scheduling conflicts will prevent Gates and Agee from appearing at the Project Play Summit. Gates now works at a prison in Texas; Agee is a motivational speaker who still lives in the West Side of Chicago. They recently spoke in separate interviews with Jon Solomon, editorial director of the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program, about the impact of the movie 25 years later and the current state of youth basketball.

Jon Solomon: Does it feel like it’s been 25 years since the movie came out?

William Gates: It really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. The crazy aspect of it is, it still resonates. That freaks me out. I think it’s great because the message is still strong, but it’s bad because the message is still strong and we haven’t advanced as much as we’d like to. I think Hoop Dreams opened minds and hearts and hit a sympathy nerve, but like with all things, if there was never a plan to change, it still hovers there.

When Hoop Dreams first came out, everybody was fired up and said, “We really need to address how high school and college athletes are being treated and this meat market (for how basketball recruits are identified and treated). I can still hear (basketball recruiting analyst) Bob Gibbons in the movie saying, “I’m serving up meat and trying to serve it up nice and neat.” Now the high school coaches have been removed from having control and the shoe companies came in and were more impactful. They run basketball as a whole now.

Solomon: What’s different about youth basketball today compared to 25 years ago?

Arthur Agee: They’ve taken it from the outdoors and put it inside gyms now. You lose something. There’s that community aspect where anyone in the neighborhood can walk on the court, and he’s 35 years old and really playing hard, but you don’t understand why he’s playing hard because of the way he played growing up. You go inside a gym, now everything is for show. Forget about the win. I want to cross these guys up and get an “oooh” and go directly on Twitter.

We never played in a sanctioned AAU tournament (in the 1980s and ‘90s). We had neighborhood teams. I played against Chris Webber. That was just two neighborhood coaches who wanted to play each other and let’s compete. One thing I do like about AAU is it gives these kids something better than they’re used to. Some kids never get to travel and go anywhere. But what’s lost is the fundamentals of the game. Kids are 12 and 13 playing with 15- and 16-year-olds. No, play with your age group. Some of the AAU coaches, it’s all about wins. OK, but is the kid learning anything?

Solomon: William, your kids have played basketball, including in college, and you coach AAU. You faced a lot of pressure as a player, especially after you injured your knee. How did your experiences shape how you coach other kids?

Gates: In my program, we start from fifth grade until you quit. We don’t lose you. We keep you. We want to see you develop, because to me, basketball is our classroom. We have to teach these kids how to tie a tie, what fork to pick up, how to teach them etiquette and culture.

Curtis (Gates’ deceased brother) used to tell me all the time: “Use basketball, don’t let it use you.” I didn’t understand it at 14 or 15. But as I’ve got older, I understand it more and more. Parents (of kids on his team) say they don’t know what to say to college coaches. I say, “Yeah, you do. You know what’s best for your family. You’ve been raising this child your whole life. If you know you have a kid who doesn’t like to be yelled at, you may not want to play for a coach who yells a lot. If you value education, then find a school that values education.”

On my AAU team, a lot of times a parent will say, “My son is going through this. Can you talk to him?” I’m more than happy to do that, but when I’m done, I’ll call the parent and tell them what’s going on. I don’t want to take that responsibility away from them.

Solomon: Arthur, what’s your 11-year-old son’s basketball experience been like?

Agee: He was playing AAU. It just cost too much money. They wanted $1,000 to $1,300. And the thing is, that’s just the entry fee on the team. That’s not the travel. What if mom and dad can’t go? Now, you have to arrange for them to go with other parents and money to eat. Hell, no. That’s just way too much. My fiancé and I, we’re trying to buy a home. It works for my son playing locally around Chicago. He’s not going to Orlando.

I want my son to enjoy the game, have fun with it. My basketball career was wonderful, and I feel so sorry for kids who are under so much stress if they don’t go to practice. They’re doing it for the parents. They’re playing too many games now. It’s like a job these days for kids. You can burn a kid out. You shouldn’t be playing five or six games a weekend. Let your body heal back up. Let your energy be right.

Solomon: William, there’s a scene in Hoop Dreams where your St. Joseph’s High School coach, Gene Pingatore, asks you what you’ll study in college and you say, “I’m going into communications, so when you come asking for donations, I’ll know the right way to turn you down.” The perception was he was using players. Was that how you viewed him?

Gates: People thought Coach and I fell out and didn’t get along. My son played for Coach. I went to his funeral recently. It was heartbreaking when I heard he had passed. To me, every coach has their personal flaws, but I was closer to him than (Gates’ college coach at Marquette University) Kevin O’Neill. Yeah, (Pingatore) was an old-school coach and said some outlandish things. But there aren’t too many players who played for the guy who didn’t walk away and say four years later, “I’m a better person.”

Solomon: Any regrets about making Hoop Dreams?

Agee: No, I use it to teach my son. He’s obsessed with Hoop Dreams. He probably watches twice a week. He picks out his favorite part and says, “Dad, what were you thinking about when you had to leave St. Joseph’s? Do you think (Pingatore) didn’t believe in you?” I said, “Yeah, I didn’t show good promise as a ballplayer like William Gates did. Had my skills developed a little earlier, I probably would have stayed there. But you can see that didn’t stop me from growing my game.”

Solomon: William, there’s a moment in the movie that beautifully characterizes the hopes and, typically, letdowns of chasing the NBA dream. You say, “That’s why when somebody says, ‘When you get to the NBA don’t forget about me,’ and all that stuff, I should say, ‘Well, if I don’t make it, don’t forget about me.’” Twenty-five years later, have people forgotten about you?

Gates: That’s been a blessing, honestly. Here we are 25 years later and people still recognize me. I’ll be coaching and people will recognize me and take a picture with their kid. That always brings a smile to my face. It’s a reminder it’s still just a game and that Arthur and I haven’t been forgotten. There are so many athletes who have been.

But it is bittersweet. Hoop Dreams has brought a tremendous amount of blessings in my life and I would never take it away. But it’s also a reminder that my dream didn’t happen. I think sometimes people think they’re watching a fictional movie. Man, that’s my life. You’re seeing the results of what happened in my life. Every time I watch, I know my knee is about to give out my junior year. It’s a reminder for me of what could have been. But it’s more sweet than bitter.

Register for the Project Play Summit on Sept. 17-18 in Detroit at as.pn/2019ppsummit. Speakers will include Chris Webber, Valorie Kondos Field, David Brooks and Tim Shriver. See the Summit agenda for more information. Learn about Project Play at ProjectPlay.us.

Story originally published here.

Meet ESPN’s Cassidy Hubbarth, emcee of the 2019 Project Play Summit

Sports & Society Program

In August, the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program launched a new campaign, “Don’t Retire, Kid,” to raise awareness about declining youth sports participation and solutions to create positive experiences for kids. One of the PSAs included Cassidy Hubbarth, a talented NBA and college football broadcaster at ESPN, as a reporter at a fictional press conference for a 9-year-old boy to retire from sports.

“What are you going to do with all your free time?” Hubbarth asked.

“Whatever’s fun,” the boy responded.

That’s as good a way as any to introduce Hubbarth to Project Play. On Sept. 17-18, Hubbarth will emcee the Project Play Summit. Jon Solomon, editorial director of the Sports & Society Program, recently spoke with Hubbarth about the pressures she faced to specialize in one sport, the pros and cons of social media use by young athletes, and the growing number of players who arrive to the NBA injured after playing too many games as a child.

Jon Solomon: What was that experience like for you at the Don’t Retire, Kid video shoot?

Cassidy Hubbarth: It was great. I was able to have a conversation with the young boy (Navonne Love), who was so impressive. It was pretty cool to see someone at his age perform the way he did. To be a part of this initiative means a lot to me because I was a three-sport athlete in high school. I took pride in the fact that I participated in a lot of sports. It’s my first introduction to this initiative, which I really didn’t know until that shoot day that kids were “retiring” and were no longer participating in sports. Given that I work in sports, sometimes it can be a little bubble and I don’t really understand what is happening outside that bubble.

Solomon: What sports did you play growing up?

Hubbarth: I played pretty much every sport except for hockey and, oddly enough, tennis because my whole family played tennis. I think because my parents and two older brothers played tennis, I never got in their doubles game. My main sports were basketball and soccer, and in high school I ran track. I also swam, played softball, and did gymnastics.

When I moved to high school, I was the only three-sport athlete in my grade, and I had a large graduating class of almost 700 people. A big problem was I was being pressured from my soccer team to drop basketball to specialize in soccer. I was better at soccer, but I was never going to drop basketball. I felt pride each season having a team to be part of. I think a lot of people who got the team awards on my soccer team played club sports, and it always felt a little political that I wasn’t on a club team and that’s who was voting on awards. It’s not like I’m holding a grudge all these years later! (laughs)

Solomon: Did you stick with basketball despite pressure from soccer?

Hubbarth: There was no way I was going to drop basketball. We won the state soccer championship my junior year. One of the best players on the team decided not to play her senior year to play travel (soccer) instead. And I just remember this letdown that we could have made another run for a title. But she had to do what was best for her and it opened up scholarship opportunities for her, so I can’t hold a grudge.

Solomon: You have a large social media presence. Social media has also become a big part of youth sports. What are the pros and cons of social media use by younger athletes?

Hubbarth: We’ve seen clips of LeBron James’ kid (playing basketball). That’s a lot of pressure in many ways to be the son of LeBron James. But there’s an interest. … Social media creates opportunities, but it creates pressure. Everyone likes a good story, but there’s no gate to close off the mean and cruel people in this world.

It’s hard, but I think young people are used to showcasing themselves in front of a camera. They’ve grown up with these devices, so I think it’s natural to them. I just worry about how it affects their psyche. I didn’t have a cell phone until I was late in high school, but I was taking video of myself. Facebook launched when I was in college. I made sure I stayed off Facebook because I knew I wanted to be in sports broadcasting, and I was worried people would post things of me I didn’t want out there. …

It’s very helpful there are NBA names like Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan being upfront about mental health and anxiety, so there’s not this stigma around it. People are truly consumed through their phones and there is a little bit of social anxiety in interpersonal communication skills. Everybody is putting out their best foot forward on social media and then when it comes down it, there’s no hiding in front of cameras on the main stage. I can’t imagine what the pressure is to be Zion Williamson (who had more than 1 million Instagram followers as a high school basketball recruit) when I deal with my own anxieties just on television.

Solomon: There was a good two-part series recently by ESPN.com documenting that NBA players are arriving to the league with broken bodies because of how many games they’ve already played as youth. Do players talk about this wear and tear they accumulate before they even enter the league?

Hubbarth: Yeah, the AAU circuit is big business. Part of it is it’s what they love to do, and they’d probably be playing basketball somewhere at the park (if not for AAU). But it’s different when it’s a competitive stage like that because these AAU tournaments have gotten major. You can feel the tension at these tournaments because these players are fighting to be listed in the top recruits or be in front of college coaches. That plays into how hard they’re pushing it at these summer games.

Solomon: I saw that you have a new baby daughter. Congratulations. I know it’s incredibly early, but have you thought about what sports experiences you think you may want for her to have one day?

Hubbarth: I think she’s going to be an athlete. She’s pretty coordinated and close to walking and she’s not even nine months. As a parent, you judge every little thing day to day and you always think your child’s a genius! I want to support her on whatever she wants to do. I just hope she kind of explores as much as she can to be a part of a team. It’s something I really would like for her. Being part of a team taught me so many lessons that apply to my work today and my home life.

Register for the Project Play Summit on Sept. 17-18 in Detroit at as.pn/2019ppsummit. Speakers will include Chris Webber, Valorie Kondos Field, David Brooks and Tim Shriver. See the Summit agenda for more information. Learn more about Project Play at ProjectPlay.us.

The story was originally posted here.

Valorie Kondos Field: Gymnastics needs a path for non-elite athletes to enjoy the sport

Sports & Society

Forty-six former U.S. national team gymnasts competed at UCLA under Valorie Kondos Field, who recently retired as the program’s coach after winning seven NCAA championships. Most of them arrived beaten down physically and emotionally – and tragically, some were sexually abused. UCLA gymnasts described Kondos Field, affectionately known as “Miss Val,” as a healer and a coach who could make the sport fun again.

The gymnastics community continues to sort through the aftermath of the sexual abuse inflicted by USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar on more than 400 gymnasts. In addition, because the chase for gymnastics gold starts at young ages, the demands placed on early specialization in this sport can result in broken bodies and psyches.

Kondos Field will be a featured speaker at the Project Play Summit on Sept. 17 in Detroit. Jon Solomon, editorial director at the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program, recently spoke with Kondos Field about possible solutions for gymnastics and her philosophy to coaching. This interview has been edited for length.

Solomon: How does a professional ballet dancer and choreographer become a seven-time NCAA championship gymnastics coach?

Kondos Field: When (UCLA) first asked me to be the head coach, I was flabbergasted and didn’t know anything about gymnastics. They said, “We trust you, you’ll figure it out.” I tried to mimic Bobby Knight and Pat Summit. That failed miserably. I thought, this isn’t going well.

True story: I was in the student union and happened upon Coach (John) Wooden’s book on leadership. The book opened up to his definition of success (“Success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming”). I realized I was trying to be somebody else. I went back to my office and scrapped everything I was doing. I hired really good people to coach the gymnastics part. I started staying true to myself. And most importantly, I had to figure out my why? Why was I going to be coaching? I didn’t grow up in athletics and didn’t believe in win at all costs. It was very clear that athletics was one of the greatest ways to learn life lessons.

Solomon: Did you play sports growing up?

Kondos Field: I was really, really good at tetherball. I was the tallest kid, so I was the tetherball champion.

Solomon: You’ve seen so many former national team gymnasts come to you with physical and emotional pain. What does that pain look like by that stage in college?

Kondos Field: The sad part I realized in coaching all these elite athletes is they had been under a lot of emotional and verbal abuse growing up – just denigrated and talked down to and demeaned, so they would be robotic and compliant. I think the worst pain came from losing their voice. And not just losing their ability to speak, but literally having no voice inside that was cognizant and resonating with them.

I can tell you so many stories when I asked them, “What do you think we should do in the gym today?” They would come back with this blank stare. They didn’t even know how to tap into their inner voice. I always felt that was the biggest tragedy.

Solomon: Was it only the national team gymnasts who usually experienced this pain, or did other gymnasts encounter this as well?

Kondos Field: I noticed a very clear pattern. The level below elite national teamers is Level 10. Most college teams are filled with Level 10s. You don’t see emotional damages from Level 10s as with the others. The Level 10s have an opinion, they have a voice. It’s the elites that are just paralyzed and petrified. I remember one of our elites, a year after graduating, said that when I asked her questions, she thought it was a test and wouldn’t answer for fear of being wrong.

Solomon: You wrote a powerful piece in 2018 in which you said Larry Nassar is not the head of the monster, but rather the monster is the culture of USA Gymnastics. What do you mean by that?

Kondos Field: Everybody wonders how over 400 girls were sexually abused. In my opinion, USA Gymnastics only cared about winning and medals. And the coach, Martha Karolyi, and her husband (Bela), had a proven track record of winning. When the almighty dollar gets involved, you start to see a shift in the moral compass. USA Gymnastics gave 100% autonomy to the Karolyis. They did not want anyone questioning them. You never, ever question Martha. …

When I was in London standing next to (former USA Gymnastics CEO) Steve Penny, I asked, “Why did you let Martha get away with emotional abuse?” He barely even glanced at me. He said because she wins. I said at what cost? And he didn’t answer. When people say we’ve been successful, I beg to differ. We’ve won medals, but we’ve failed.

Solomon: How do you think USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee have lately handled reform efforts?

Kondos Field: I think they’re doing a really great job. I do think they’re putting too much on (the U.S. Center for) SafeSport that people will report abuse, and that’s not the case. I feel the one, big missing piece is no one from USA Gymnastics has ever reached out to the victims. They say they can’t because of litigation, but every attorney I’ve talked to says they can reach out and say, “We’re family, we’re so sorry what you’ve gone through, and we hope to resolve this soon.” They haven’t even said that, so there’s a big divide.

Solomon: Do we need to have a conversation in America about changing the funding structure and at what age to introduce national championships into gymnastics? Could USA Gymnastics basically shift its paradigm in a way that deemphasizes national championships and sorting the weak from the strong?

Kondos Field: The issue I have with gymnastics in this country is there really isn’t a path for kids that really love the sport and that weren’t born with the ideal body to be elite. Gymnastics is about physics. You can’t do it if you’re not born with a lean, small body. But for the child that’s a little bit thicker and possibly overweight but loves the sport, I would love to see a program developed nationally where they can compete and have fun without putting all the pressure on having to win or be Simone Biles or be skinny. They shouldn’t be ashamed to be in a leotard. Sadly, the closest thing to a program like that is the Special Olympics, and we celebrate that. We can’t celebrate that same feeling for all children who weren’t born with the genetics of being a gymnast.

Solomon: Is there a role for USA Gymnastics leading the way on that?

Kondos Field: I definitely think there’s a role. It’s what Project Play does. Develop a system where you’re not trying to make the national team, you’re enjoying yourself. It takes a real challenging individual to be proficient on all four events. Allow kids to flip events and perform.

Solomon: Could gymnastics hold off on national championships and tiering of elite gymnasts?

Kondos Field: The problem with gymnastics is in order to be a great gymnast, you’ve got to learn really, really tough skills at a very young age. You have to learn when your body is nimble and light and before you inherit fear and your brain is smart enough to realize you’re doing some serious stuff here. There is a double-edged sword with that. It’s such a tragedy that your body is shattered by age 18 or 19 if you’re an elite gymnast, but you have to put in the time for the skills. …

Part of what I’d like to see reversed is let’s see gymnasts compete on teams at younger ages. College is the only time gymnasts ever really feel the rewards of being part of something greater than themselves. It’s such a true, team sport that if we could offer it at a much younger age, I think that would help the sport and those athletes who aren’t the biggest superstars. I hate it when I’m signing autographs for a little girl and the mom says the daughter just won her meet on balance beam. I want to look at the mom and say, “I don’t care.” Instead, I look at the girl and say, “What was the most fun part of competing?”

Solomon: Can the U.S. produce a gold medal Olympic team in which there is no physical and emotional abuse? Is that even possible?

Kondos Field: Yes, all you have to do is treat them and respect them as human beings. Any athlete with that kind of talent and heart of a champion, they want to be challenged, they want to compete. But they don’t want to be demeaned. What gymnastics doesn’t do at that level is you don’t celebrate failure as something to learn from.

Learn more about Project Play at ProjectPlay.us. Register to attend the Project Play Summit in Detroit (Sept. 17-18) at as.pn/2019PPSummit.

This story was originally posted here.

Kobe Bryant Tells Sports Parents to Get Out of the Way

Jon Solomon
Editorial Director, Sports & Society Program

At the Aspen Institute’s 2018 Project Play Summit, NBA legend Kobe Bryant urged adults to “get out of the way” and allow children to enjoy less-structured sports.

“Sometimes the most important thing you can do is just to observe,” Bryant told more than 400 people at the Newseum in Washington, DC. “You just watch and then you can guide. Get out of the way, observe, listen and guide.”

Bryant’s comments came on the heels of an announcement from Nike and the United States Olympic Committee to develop a free, 30-minute training course on coaching kids 12 and under. The course, HowToCoachKids.org, was inspired by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play 2020 effort to increase the quality and quantity of volunteer youth coaches in the US.

There are 6.5 million volunteer youth coaches across the US, yet fewer than 4 in 10 are trained. As a result, too many kids drop out of the sports or activities they once loved – fueling the inactivity crisis instead of helping to reverse it.

Bryant learned the European model of youth sports while spending much of his childhood in Italy. The best coaches he had contained similar traits: They were never condescending, they were not abusive with how they taught the game, and they encouraged questions.

Bryant’s post-NBA career includes coaching his 12-year-old daughter’s basketball team. Youth sports have become very structured, “which is very concerning,” he said. “We don’t have time to bring that imagination out. It’s a really big concern.”

For the first 20 minutes of his daughter’s practices, Bryant tells the children to practice imagine themselves as players. “They do this and I wonder what they’re seeing in their heads, I wonder what they’re imagining,” he said. “But it’s for them.”

Bryant told a story about a friend coaching a boys basketball team and instructing the kids they would have a water break in five minutes. More than five minutes passed without a break and the boys continued playing. When the friend tried the same approach with Bryant’s girls team, the players immediately pushed back.

“I said, ‘Dude, you lost the team already,’” Bryant said. “Mean what you say. They’ll hold you accountable. It’s not good enough to just say, ‘You know what? Do this.’ Boys will like say I’ll do it. Girls will say, ‘I’ll do it, but explain why.’ You have to measure your words because they’re very impactful. You can’t just throw out a comment here or there, boy or girl.”

Watch All Project Play Summit Sessions and Read Companion Content

Quotable

Soundbites from the 2018 Project Play Summit

“I’m trying to help usher [skateboarding] in in the most authentic way, let’s put it that way… I feel like at this point that the Olympics need skateboarding’s ‘cool factor’ more than we need their validation – in the same way snowboarding provided that to the winter games and it’s not all ice skating. Now in the summer games, it’s not going to be all swimming. No offense to swimmers, but enough swimming events.

— Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk on the sport joining the Olympics in 2020

I want [East St. Louis kids] to really know that I walked the same streets. I worked with the same people. And that the impossible is probable.

— Olympic legend Jackie Joyner-Kersee on her foundation’s work with youth

It’s a right for children and all youth in Norway to take part in sport. It’s more or less free to participate in sport from when you are a little kid.

— Inge Andersen, former head of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee

I’m quite optimistic [about soccer’s future in the US] because I see a change in our paradigm shift. In the past we were more coach-centered and now we’re more player-centered.

— Nico Romejin, U.S. Soccer Federation chief sport development officer

Project Play Summit Content

State of Play: 2018 National Youth Sports Report

HealthySportIndex.com

State of Play: Mobile County Report

Project Play Summit Media Coverage
Coach Kobe: Bryant shares philosophies on how to reach kids (Associated Press)

Youth sports are still struggling with dropping participation, high costs and untrained coaches, study finds (The Washington Post)

Story originally published here.

Meet NBC’s Mary Carillo, emcee of the 2018 Project Play Summit

Risa Isard

Mary Carillo’s voice is synonymous with tennis, the Olympics, and “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” She has worked in sports broadcasting since 1980, spanning jobs with USA Network, PBS, MSG, ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, and HBO, where she won a Sports Emmy Award.

Soon, she will be inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. But first Carillo will emcee the Project Play Summit on October 16 in Washington, DC. Risa Isard, program manager at the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program, recently caught up with Carillo and discussed her concerns about kids turning to technology instead of physical activity, early specialization in sports, and what kind of sport parent she was for her children.

Risa Isard: What excites you about what Project Play is doing, and specifically the Project Play Summit?

Mary Carillo: I recognized at a pretty early age that I was a jock. I will never forget the feeling — the first time my dad threw me a ball and I caught it. I think anything that I’ve ever done after catching that first ball as a little kid has informed how I feel about myself. That is what excites me so much about Project Play. What worries me is that so many kids consider sports something they play on their phones or on their iPad. If there’s something that this country can do to get kids more engaged at a young age, and keep them there, I think we’re going in the right direction.

Isard: What would it mean to have a country in which all kids have the opportunity to be active through sport?

Carillo: The sport I come from, tennis, is a sport that requires grownups to take you to tennis tournaments, get you lessons, [etc.]. But a lot of sports are street sports. You learn how to play hockey and basketball and football, soccer especially, from your friends. We have got to do a better job of opening up sport so that every kid feels like they get a chance.

Isard: What have you seen in your own life and in your broadcasting career as it relates to early specialization in sports?

Carillo: Specializing can be a dangerous business. The unfortunate part is that if you do not specialize you’re way behind. Steffi Graf turned pro and she was 13 years old. Jennifer [Capriati] did too. These are kids who don’t even finish high school, so they separate not only from other sports but they separate from any kind of a formal education. That to me is dangerous.

We didn’t want to be real tennis nerdy parents and force our kids to play.

Isard: We’ll be talking at the Summit about the promise of mixed-gender sport among kids. What were your experiences growing up playing in mixed-gender settings?

Carillo: I love that we’re going to spend some time focusing on this. Mixed doubles is the only [Grand Slam] event I ever won. It was 1977 with a kid I grew up playing with — John McEnroe. I’ve played with a lot of boys from an early age. So often in team sports the girls would be trying to get the football, get the basketball, and the boys would just block them out. “Oh, she’s a girl. She throws like a girl.” Accepting mixed-gender participation at an early age is key. Boys have to know that they can pass to girls.

Isard: Thinking about our theme, which is to Think Global, Play Local, what’s something interesting you’ve seen from your travels that you’d love to see brought to the US in youth sport?

Carillo: Especially in Rio in Brazil, where soccer is king and the women are so tremendous, there is a freedom to their style of play. The flair, the imagination, the freedom that those kids who become great players have is because they teach themselves. It’s like the way the Canadian hockey players play — you can tell that a lot of what they do is just instinctive.

Isard: What kind of sport parent were you?

Carillo: [My kids’] dad and I both came from a tennis-playing society and at an early age we noticed that both our kids preferred team sports. We didn’t want to be real tennis nerdy parents and force them to play. My son played basketball. My daughter was a track star and a volleyball player. I enjoyed watching them play. I had become so inured to the idea that there’s no cheering in the press box that I would pretty much sit on my hands, and I remember the parents of the other kids would say, “Why aren’t you getting more excited?” My kids are still very active … so I don’t think I screwed them up too much. They might give you a different answer!

Isard: You’ve covered the past 14 Olympic Games. What do you think is the role of the US Olympic Committee in protecting athletes from abuse? Or what should it be?

Carillo: The scandal in gymnastics has been an absolute horror, and clearly US Olympic [officials] have to all get better about this. It’s tragic to hear what can happen, what got buried, and what should have come out years and years ago. You hope that we pay far greater attention and take much better care of these young athletes because, you know, kids trust coaches. Kids are taught to trust people with whistles, people in uniform, grownups who are supposed to be doing only the best things for them. We’ve got to make sure that that stays true.

Isard:    What’s your advice to kids who say they want to retire from sport before age 12?

Carillo: Even if you’re not a great athlete, if you just stay physical, stay a part of something larger than yourself, understand how to share and how to divide roles and how to follow rules, there is nothing but good that comes from that.

Isard: Who is the best coach you ever had and what made them the best?

Carillo: When I was around 12 years old, I got the chance to be coached by the late, great Harry Hopman. I would say he was more of a coach than a teacher. He didn’t tend to spend a lot of time on your strokes. He just taught you what to do with them. I think there’s a great difference between teaching and coaching. He made me want to be on his court.

Isard: You’re being inducted later this year in the Sports Video Group’s Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. What are you most proud of in your career?

Carillo: Probably the longevity of it. I’m going in with an unbelievable group of fellows, including the great Bob Costas. Over all this time, I have gotten so much appreciation and respect for all sports, and I’ve been able to tell stories all these years and to get to know the athletic heart of some of the most remarkable athletes of our time.

Tune in to the Project Play Summit on Oct. 16 by watching selected sessions live at as.pn/PPLive. Speakers will include Kobe Bryant, Tony Hawk, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. See the Summit agenda for approximate livestream times. Learn more about Project Play at www.ProjectPlay.us.

Story was originally published here.

The best sports town in America

The tiny town of Norwich, Vermont, has likely produced more Olympians per capita than anywhere else in the United States. Over the past thirty years, the town of 3,000 has sent an athlete to almost every Winter Olympics. New York Times sports writer Karen Crouse traveled to Norwich to discover the town’s secret. Also in this episode, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred discusses taking the professionalism out of youth sports, and creating a simpler, more informal atmosphere of play. Featuring onstage talks from the 2017 Project Play Summit, held by the Sports and Society Program at the Aspen Institute.

The “Aspen Ideas to Go” podcast is a weekly show featuring fascinating speakers who have presented at the Aspen Ideas Festival and other public programs offered by the Aspen Institute — including Aspen Words, the Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series, and various events around the country. For a curated listening experience, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or listen to each episode on the Aspen Ideas website.

Originally posted here.

MLB commissioner discusses the benefits of playing multiple sports

Jon Solomon
Editorial Director, Sports & Society Program

Athe 2017 Project Play Summit, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred highlighted the potential of professional sports leagues, who ordinarily compete with each other, to collaborate in building healthy kids and communities.

In the event’s keynote conversation, Manfred specifically pointed to the shared interest in promoting multi-sport play among youth. He said he had spoken with the NBA, NFL and NHL commissioners and they all agreed that the best athlete is a kid who played multiple sports.

“Multiple sports give body parts rest, which is a really important issue in today’s youth participation market,” Manfred told more than 400 people at the Newseum in Washington D.C. on Sept. 6.

Manfred’s comments came on the heels of the announcement of the Aspen Institute’s new Project Play 2020 initiative, the first time that major industry and non-profit organizations have come together to set shared goals around growing sport participation and related metrics among youth. Multi-sport sampling is a key area of focus for the collaborative, which includes MLB and 16 other groups.

The specialization of youth sports has been felt heavily in baseball, with kids often playing on multiple teams for most of the year – and at the exclusion of other sports. Two years ago, MLB had a rash of younger pitchers who needed Tommy John surgery to correct elbow injuries, which typically occur due to overuse going back to their youth.

Orthopedists who studied the issue told MLB, “you are getting damaged goods in the draft, and you’re getting damaged goods as the result of overuse of pitchers, in particular when they’re young,” Manfred said.

MLB started Pitch Smart with USA Baseball so youth coaches understand the appropriate number of pitches and when pitchers should start throwing certain types of pitches. Most importantly, Manfred said, coaches simply need a way to track how many innings a kid is pitching since they’re playing in multiple leagues.

“Multiple sports give body parts rest, which is a really important issue in today’s youth participation market.”

— Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball Commissioner

The travel-ball phenomenon – and all of its time and cost demands — is often viewed as the best way for kids to be scouted by colleges and professional baseball. MLB isn’t ignoring travel ball.

“You can’t change that piece of the world,” Manfred said. “So we’ve responded to that by scholarshiping kids into programs that we know are doing a great job and actually paying for them to participate.”

MLB has created youth academies for underprivileged kids to participate. Manfred said the goal is to eventually have 30 academies around the country.

On the other hand, Manfred said MLB has embraced informal play opportunities through its Play Ball program. Play Ball is a one-day community events in which kids do baseball-related activities. Casual play associated with baseball has increased 18 percent, according to Manfred.

“I take that as a really good sign,” he said. “It’s focus, it’s investment, it’s making great partnerships in the youth space. … We had unusual partners like the U.S. Conference of Mayors. You have to have partners who believe the game can be played on an informal basis.”

Manfred recalled how as a child he would go to a local park in the morning, resurface for lunch, and come home for dinner without any adult worrying.

“My kids grew up dramatically different than that,” Manfred said. “But I do think in a different environment that if you have community-based activity, those activities can be structured in a way that promotes a form of informal play that can exist in a more complicated society.”

Manfred said getting parents to understand the benefits of kids playing multiple sports will be an education process. He pointed to John Smoltz’s recent Hall of Fame speech on the topic as one way parents can understand that many elite athletes played multiple sports as a child.

Earlier in the day in his 2017 State of Play address, Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program executive director Tom Farrey called for a new approach to evaluating success in youth sports. He encouraged sport providers, coaches and other stakeholders to focus more on creating a “new scoreboard for sports,” based less on the traditional measure, whether a team won a competition, and more of metrics like participation rates, churn rates, and percentage of coaches trained.

Manfred said youth coaches are always going to want to aggregate the best athletes on their own teams, but that they could be convinced to better appreciate the value of multi-sport sampling.

“Competitive people are attracted to coaching,” Manfred said. “(However) I do think you can make coaches understand the argument that you’re going to get a better athlete over the long haul if he’s playing three sports.”

Watch the full conversation here. 

Project Play Summit 2017 wrap-up: News, quotes, and more

It’s time for a new scoreboard for sports. The first day of the 2017 Project Play Summit brought together over 400 leaders to take measure of the nation’s state of play and chart next steps in building healthy communities through sport. Together, we explored alternate ways to measure success through emerging metrics, introduced major new initiatives, and heard from many speakers, including a keynote conversation with Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Announcements

The Aspen Institute formally rolled out Project Play 2020, which will be guided by the Project Play framework of eight strategies for eight sectors. Project Play 2020 will initially focus on training all coaches and encouraging sport sampling, with members developing shared and mutually reinforcing activities over the next three years that will be determined as work groups define gaps and opportunities. The founding members of Project Play 2020 are Nike, NBC Sports Group, Target, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, Dick’s Sporting Goods, U.S. Olympic Committee, Hospital for Special Surgery, PGA of America, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, New York Road Runners, National Fitness Foundation, American College of Sports Medicine, Ketchum Sports & Entertainment, Sports Facilities Advisory, Sports & Fitness Industry Association, and the Global Obesity Prevention Center at Johns Hopkins University. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention serves as Technical Liaison to the group.

The announcement was lauded on stage by Craig Robinson, New York Knicks senior executive and brother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, who made an appeal at last year’s Project Play Summit for industry to rally to grow sport participation for underserved kids. “It is absolutely amazing how fast that this formidable group got Project Play 2020 off the ground so quickly,” Robinson said.

Don Wright, Acting Assistant Secretary of Health, said that Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price will make childhood obesity and sport participation an HHS priority.

“This is truly an exciting announcement,” Wright said. “We look forward to supporting and uplifting the shared goals of Project Play 2020.”

Read more about Project Play 2020 and why it’s needed.

Founding members of Project Play 2020

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Project Play: Baltimore released an in-depth State of Play: Baltimore Report, which provides the Aspen Institute’s findings and recommendations for youth sports in East Baltimore. Read the report here.

The report includes results of an exclusive survey of youth in East Baltimore, 40 findings on factors that shape their access to quality sport activity, and maps that highlight the connection between the loss of recreation centers and areas where gun violence rates are highest. The report offers guidance for Baltimore stakeholders in using a new city fund to bolster recreational opportunities to keep children and teens active and involved in their communities. Baltimore’s Children and Youth Fund is a “game changer” and represents a major opportunity to build a healthier community, the report said.

Anyone interested in connecting to Project Play: Baltimore should contact program coordinator Andre Fountain at andre.fountain@aspeninstitute.org.

Project Play is teaming with the Community Foundation of South Alabama and the Jake Peavy Foundation to examine closing the opportunity gap for youth sports in South Alabama. The initiative is called State of Play Mobile County, where the child poverty rate is 28 percent and only 69 percent of all residents have easy access to physical activity locations.

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Jake Peavy, former baseball player

“Having a chance to use the resources of the Aspen Institute and be a part of Project Play is special to me, and it’s very special to me because I’m a dad of four boys,” said Peavy, a former World Series champion pitcher and Cy Young Award winner.

Peavy has not pitched this year. “I am going to go back to playing baseball,” he said. “You’ll see me sometime soon on a major league mound.”

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The Aspen Institute unveiled Project Play: Harlem, joining Baltimore as the Sports & Society Program’s latest model community. It’s a multi-year initiative to help stakeholders increase youth sport opportunities in East Harlem, with the support of Harris Family Charitable Foundation, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, and Mount Sinai Health System.

First, the Aspen Institute will capture the State of Play in East Harlem through an exclusive report to be published in Winter 2017. Then, local stakeholders will be convened to share findings, identify opportunities to fill gaps, and connect community organizations with potential partners. Anyone interested in connecting to Project Play: Harlem should contact program coordinator Ranya Bautista at Ranya.bautista@aspeninstitute.org.

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Laureus Sport for Good Foundation USA (Laureus USA) announced that it will be launching Sport for Good New York City and Sport for Good Chicago in January 2018. (Watch the announcement here.) These place-based initiatives will drive collaboration between local organizations that are strengthening their communities through sport. Nike will be the funding sponsor of Sport for Good New York City. Alongside its 2018 chapter expansion, Laureus USA will also launch the Sport for Good League – an online community focused on the use of sport to create positive social change. If you are interested in joining the league, sign up here to receive updates.

The Aspen Institute recognized one group per Project Play strategy for taking a new, meaningful and specific action.

• Ask Kids What They Want: Parks and People is launching six new sports leagues based in part on youth surveys.

• Reintroduce Free Play: Joy of the People will reach 1,200 underserved kids with free, fun soccer events across Minnesota for the 2018 World Cup.

• Encourage Sport Sampling: Seacoast Public Health Network will have a new program reducing the stigma of families asking for financial aid.

• Revitalize In-Town Leagues: Volo City Kids Foundation is launching new, free rec programming in Washington, D.C., that focuses on development and skill and provides after-game meals for players and their families.

• Think Small: LA84 Foundation and Street Soccer USA are partnering to connect at-risk/homeless youth to soccer and services.

• Design for Development: USA Wrestling is revamping training in 2018-19 to emphasize physical literacy, movement and health skills.

• Train All Coaches: The National Fitness Foundation will invest up to $50,000 in training and grants for quality PE for Project Play: Baltimore.

• Emphasize Prevention: Hospital for Special Surgery will launch free digital education for youth coaches replicating ACL workshops it’s been conducting.

• Call for Leadership: Winning Communities will train high school and college students in five communities to lead health and sports programs.

Watch/Listen Project Play Summit Highlights

• State of Play in 2017: Reflections from the Project Play Summit

• Watch every Project Play Summit session

• MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s full conversation

• Collaboration Nation: What’s possible when silos connect for kids?

• Tom Farrey’s State of Play: 2017 address

• Former MLB players Harold Reynolds, Rick Ankiel and Jake Peavy offer advice for kids and parents in youth baseball

• Reece Whitley, a 17-year-old star swimmer in Philadelphia, talks with 11-year-old Nina Locklear of Baltimore about what kids want in sports

• Aspen Ideas to Go podcast: Karen Crouse on the Best Sports Town in America

• Project Play Summit photo album

They Said It

“This is the least active generation in history and we should never get comfortable with that.”

– Caitlin Morris, Nike General Manager of Global Community Impact

“Some of you crazy parents are making these kids go nuts, playing (one) sport. I want you playing all kinds of different sports.”

– Harold Reynolds, former MLB player

“Parents should assume nothing about who’s interacting with their kids. It’s amazing the interactivity in which parents engage in their child’s life outside of sport … but more and more parents kind of hand off their children to a particular program or coach without any understanding of the qualifications that that adult has to interact with the child and make sure that experience is a good one.”

– Steve Stenersen, U.S. Lacrosse CEO

“Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t do sports. Yeah, I’m a little girly. I do worry about my hair because I don’t want to look a mess. But the thing is, when you play sports, it’s like playing with your own family. You meet new people every day.”

– Nina Locklear, 11-year-old from Baltimore

“Seventy percent of African Americans in Detroit do not know how to swim. About 48 perent of Hispanic folks do not know how to swim. … It’s a very serious item.”

– James Nicholson, chair of YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit.

“Let your kids have an open mind and learn to swim on their own without pushing your fears on them.”

– Nikki Cobbs, swim coach at Baltimore’s Dunbar High School.

“We have to be mindful that just saying go out to play is nice and nostalgic, but the reality is for many, many children, unless we can create a safe environment that their parents feel safe for them, then that’s going to be a very challenging thing to overcome.”

– Ed Foster-Simeon, U.S. Soccer Foundation President/CEO

“What we see often is criticism of our program that we’re not real baseball – it’s just rec league baseball, it’s just community baseball, the better players are in travel teams. Some people get irritated with that. I don’t. I actually tell our people we should wear that as a badge of honor. We always get caught up in what’s the next thing for 9-year-olds.”

– Steve Keener, Little League Baseball President and CEO

“I’ve never been part of any industry that’s moved at this rate – 40 inbound calls per week on new (youth sports facility) projects, most of which shouldn’t be built in the original concept as shared with us.”

– Dev Pathik, Sports Facilities Advisory CEO

“Women are more detailed. They’re better coaches. … We have to open up our minds that an athlete is an athlete and if you can coach, you can coach.”

– Reynolds

“If I was a young kid I wouldn’t know what he was doing besides making his kids’ shoes and looking cool while doing it, and yelling at a female is just a side product. Since I graduated from Stanford, I look at it as what are you doing to these children? Are you creating a path that’s going to be helpful to the kids that don’t make it? Your sons are the ones that are privileged to make it, and the reality is most people don’t.”

– Chiney Ogwumike, WNBA player,on controversial AAU basketball coach LaVar Ball’s rant against a female referee this summer.

“LaVar Ball, if he was in our (Little League) program, would have been suspended for two games. … We need to take those kinds of things seriously.”

– Keener, on LaVar Ball’s rant against a referee.

“If we want kids to be able to have free play, if we want them to just go out and run around and do things, we have to address the root issue, which is that the parents need to be secure enough in that they can afford their kid not to get a scholarship.”

– Chris Kluwe, former NFL player

“The irony is for all the money flowing into travel ball and in youth sports, it’s not actually more professional, it’s just more commercial. Most coaches are still not trained in the key competencies of working with kids.”

– Tom Farrey, Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program Executive Director.

“(What) I don’t like about coaches is putting pressure on you and they’re always thinking you can win or you’ll do very well. But if, say for example, if they put you in a play back to back or you’ve got to run an event back to back and you’re really tired, you wouldn’t do so well.”

– Brenton Baker, 10, Buffalo, NY

Project Play Summit Media Coverage

• The Washington Post: Youth study shows declining participation, rising costs and unqualified coaches.

• The Atlantic: What’s lost when only rich kids play sports

• The Baltimore Sun: Aspen Institute aims to help Baltimore youth fill recreation gaps

• The Undefeated: Study shows no one is asking Baltimore youth what sports they want to play

• Business Insider: Industry leaders rally to grow youth sports participation

• Sports Business Journal: Sports stakeholders join forces in effort to stem decline in youth sports participation

• NewHotGood: Highlights from the Project Play Summit and the Aspen Institute’s work

Project Play Summit Social Media

The Project Play Summit trended nationally on social media during Sept. 6. The hashtag #ProjectPlay alone generated 24 million impressions and was seen by nearly six million people. More than 3,100 posts with that hashtag were made by 1,250 people – double from last year when First Lady Michelle Obama was featured.

The story was originally published here.