Friday, June 25, 2010

"What are your goals for a child playing sports?"


Peter Barston is back with another question. Peter is the remarkable teen from Darien, Connecticut who enlightened us last winter with an unusual research project.

Peter, assisted by his dad, decided he had to get to the bottom of this question: Why do kids play sports? So he put together a survey and passed it out to hundreds of kid players in his hometown. When he'd analyzed the responses, Peter concluded the following. Kids play sports for fun. Not for scholarships. Not so they can advance to travel ball. Not to win necessarily. Playing for fun was the most cited answer in every sport, among girls and boys and across every age group.

This week, Peter is sharing data from his survey of parents. He polled several hundred in his hometown asking: What are your goals for your child playing sports?

Here are responses from 141 football parents.

Encouraging stuff. Hats off to the exceptional (and presumably truthful) sports parents of Darien.

MY GOALS FOR MY CHILD PLAYING FOOTBALL-RANKED IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE

1. TO HAVE FUN
2. TO BE PART OF A TEAM AND LEARN TEAMWORK
3. TO IMPROVE HIS SKILLS AND LEARN TO PLAY FOOTBALL THE RIGHT WAY
4. TO STAY IN SHAPE AND GET EXERCISE
5. TO INCREASE HIS SELF-CONFIDENCE
6. FOR THE EXCITEMENT AND CHALLENGE OF COMPETITION
7. TO MAKE FRIENDS
8. TO GET TO A HIGHER LEVEL OF COMPETITION, SUCH AS HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
9. TO WIN
10. TO HELP HIM GET INTO THE BEST POSSIBLE COLLEGE
11.TO EARN A COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP

1 comment:

Next Generation Baller said...

Once again an awesome job by this young man. The survey results indicate that parents are doing things for the right reasons.
That being said,I hope he would get similar answers if the survey was done anonymously.