Engage Sports Blog Youth Sports Matters

As the new school year approaches that means the start of practice for our High School and youth fall sports.  With the scorching temperatures we have been facing it is more important than ever to educate coaches, parents and all athletes about heat preparedness before they take the field.  Be proactive in your awareness!

The keys to managing a great youth sport tournament are not as complex as you might think. To help peel back this onion, we reached out to Tim Brownlee, president of Diamond Sports Promotions to get his thoughts. Diamond Sports Promotions (DSP) was started in 2005 and is based in Normal, IL, which is located in the heart of Illinois about 2 hours from St. Louis. DSP runs about 70 high-school aged tournaments per year encompassing 800 to 1000 teams per year.  DSP is a very busy and well run program, and while their focus is baseball, their approach to running tournaments applies well to all youth sports. 

Recommendations for youth sports strength training are affected by the debate for and against that exists among the medical community, sports community and parenting community.  The argument against strength training, especially for kids under 12 years old holds that strength training, especially weight lifting, will damage growth plates causing injury and abnormal bone development. More recent studies suggest strength training, if done properly, has significant benefits including improved performance and resistance to injury. In this post we present more details on these arguments and specific recommendations from the Council of Youth Sports and Medical Fitness.

Many coaches and association leaders look to share useful parents do's and don'ts at youth sports practice to help create a better practice environment. The challenge is sharing such sports parent behavior tips in a supportive and no accusatory tone.  We  have gleaned tips from experts and resources across the web to come up with some of the most useful tips for parent do's and don'ts as youth sports practices. If you have more, we'd love to hear your comments and suggestions.  

When looking for a listing of youth sports tournaments, the easiest thing to do is start with an internet search but there are also many other ways to find great tournaments.  

Youth baseball is losing young players and some feel that it is because youth baseball is too boring for today's kids. Nationally youth baseball participation has declined 4.3% from 2009 to 2014, according to a tracking study by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SIFA).  Contrasted with tackle football, which has declined a whopping 17.9% over the same period, baseball's decline looks comparably shallow. Football with its concussion and injury issues is perhaps more understandable, but baseball? Our national pastime?  Why would youth baseball show such a decline?  Is the pace of play and nature of the game turning kids off?