ALARM bells should be ringing in response to the staggering findings of a report published recently by Jersey Sport, which found 82% of children and adolescents are not active enough to support good mental and physical health.
How come young people don’t want to be the best version of themselves? Why do they choose to drop out and avoid something which only offers positivity, improvement and development to every aspect of life?
These are the questions I want to explore, using my experiences in local sport, while shining a spotlight on why it’s so important we make a giant shift in attitude towards this issue, as it has a greater impact not only on the person, but the whole of society.
Forget the usual health and fitness speech for a moment that everyone’s heard a thousand times before. What doesn’t get the spotlight it deserves is the chief reason why sport is so essential to the youth of today, it’s undeniable ability to force you to face almost any situation that you need for life.
There’s no side-stepping, no cutting corners, you must face them head on, otherwise you’re not playing sport right.
Handling the result, win or lose. Training every week. Working with your team and others towards an end goal. Dealing with injuries. How to handle praise and criticism. How to adjust each week for different opposition. How to work with coaches and people of authority. These are only a sample of scenarios sport forces you to react to, all of which can be related to situations beyond the game.
What you can experience is truly endless but, for me, there are two that top them all.
The ability to collaborate with others and being able to handle setbacks.
Why these two? These are the key things to achieving what you want in life. The ability to collaborate and work with people is essential.
You may like people, you may not, nowadays that doesn’t matter. You need them. To succeed at whatever you want to do, whether you are going to an interview for a dream job, or a first date with someone special, that ability to talk to people and work with them is always needed.
Otherwise, doors will shut for you. Beyond degrees, making good impressions are paramount to success.
Then there is the ability of dealing with setbacks. This part of sport, in my opinion, is the most crucial for today’s up-and-coming generation.
That grit, that resilience to brush yourself off and move on, learning from mistakes is the most essential part to succeed.
I’m 20 years old, so if I say things like this there will always be someone who thinks “What does he know?”
It’s been a huge wake-up call during the short span I have had outside of education. Setback after setback is tough. Without resilience, you have a higher vulnerability to depression and anxiety.
Life is full of setbacks and failures. You need that vigour to keep going, which is really what all sport professes.
Really, I haven’t even begun, and the benefits are already speaking for themselves. The few hours per week, usually consisting of a training session and a game, are a small price to pay in exchange.
So why is it that more young people are dropping out than ever before?
Teenage years are some of the most vital and formative years in people’s lives. However, despite this, they are also probably the most impressionable years too.
For many, it’s not really about what’s best for you, but more so what’s cool, or what everyone else is doing to stay with trends and not get excluded.
With this comes a huge shift in attitude towards sport participation. From 15/16 years and onwards, what’s seen as “cool” for many people is drinking, going out and meeting up with friends, not playing sport on a Sunday morning.
Week in, week out, countless players would either drop out and not turn up or, if they did, be hungover from the night before, resulting in several matches scrapped due to low numbers.
The issues of drinking alcohol in particular are well documented, especially at such a young age. It’s detrimental to your health and can begin a life of issues with addiction, as many can move on to recreational drugs in that partying lifestyle, which also costs an absolute fortune.
Why waste that money and time on something which doesn’t help you be the best you can be?
In today’s world, money and financial matters must be taken into consideration. During the past few years, football club fees have sky-rocketed. Many families, some of which are working multiple jobs to try support themselves, don’t have that extra money.
As a result of dwindling numbers, especially onwards from the under-18 level, clubs cease to put teams out, resulting in fewer clubs available for players to join.
Whatever players remain, they end up at a team oversubscribed, receiving very little game time and therefore losing that motivation. It’s a vicious cycle that must be stopped.
So how do we solve this? What can we do to keep young people engaged?
For starters, we must look at sports which are thriving in the world, such as martial arts, rugby and running. For me, they all bring a sense of community and belonging.
To integrate this into Jersey Sport, a higher focus on the social aspect needs to be made, engaging youth in individual and team sports, serving as a bright alternative to the party scene.
Improving clubhouse facilities to include more recreational areas would be beneficial.
This all comes at a cost and, after corresponding with Tim Pryor, the JFA’s chief executive, it is clear clubs are already strapped for cash, keeping up with running costs and struggling to find sponsorship.
The government and parishes should acknowledge that to keep a healthy, balanced community, it needs long-term investment.
Once those facilities are provided, the enrolment will be self-funding. Look at St John’s Recreation Centre as an excellent example of community investment.
With the recent introduction of the Performance Sport Program, introduced to assist funding top athletes in Jersey, as well as the recent deal signed with Antigua to provide opportunities, the government have made a start. But much more needs to be done.
To everyone thinking about quitting sport, don’t. You’ll regret it.
