Last year ended on a kind of heavy note, but it inspired a resolution for 2016 as it relates to the intersection of parenting and sports:
Have more fun.
Fun can take a lot of forms. Just before winter break, I took a group of my son's fourth-grade pals that I coach in the local rec-hoops league to the nearby varsity high school game. They got to hear the coach in the locker room before the game. They stood in the player-introduction line, slapping starters' hands. They took the court at halftime to play Knock-Out in front of the fans as the game "entertainment." They sat together directly behind the varsity bench and stuffed their faces with popcorn, guzzled Gatorade, invented their own handshake routines and cheered on the team. A close win felt like their own. They had a blast.
There are, in fact, 81 individual determinants of "fun" in youth sports -- findings according to the most interesting research I was introduced to during the past year: Dr. Amanda Visek is an associate professor of exercise science at George Washington University, and she studies how kids have fun in sports, ultimately creating what she calls "fun maps."
"Contrary to what many may think, fun does not come at the expense of individual athlete and team achievement efforts," Dr. Visek wrote. "In other words, it appears that greater athletic performance is more likely to be achieved if kids are engaged in the most fun sport experiences possible."
The top three most important factors to create fun in youth sports, according to Dr. Visek's study, are positive team dynamics, trying hard and -- arguably with a bigger impact on fun than anything else -- positive coaching, which heavily influences both of the first two.
(But what about winning? For kids themselves, it ranked near the bottom -- you can decry a culture of fostering losers or you can follow the data from the kids' own sentiments; winning itself simply doesn't map as strongly to how kids most define "fun" in sports as many dozens of other factors. And just to prove how much we all have to learn, a factor I was sure would rank high -- swag, like cool uniforms or gear -- was at the very bottom.)
The rec-hoops season tips off this weekend in gyms across the country, including ours. During the past few years, I have tried to introduce as much fun as possible. Our signature thing -- the one the kids enjoy the most -- is our pregame layup-line music. We turn on a portable speaker and play whatever songs get 7- or 8- or now 9- and 10-year-olds fired up. Past selections are predictable for kids' pop, straight out of the top of iTunes. "Uptown Funk." "Centuries." (Pitchfork-rated, it's not.)
Our kids love the ritual. Our parents enjoy seeing their kids happy. I was definitely concerned that opposing team parents would get offended, but most reactions have been positive. The kids on the opposing team seem to really like the way the music makes the pregame atmosphere slightly more arena-authentic, more fun. (In three seasons of doing it, I have had just a single instance of a ref from the old school disliking it intensely and seemingly taking it out on our team with overly touchy foul calls.)
I'm still not sure what we will pick this year. I asked New York Times best-selling author and former Grantland staff writer Shea Serrano, who wrote the recently released and amazing "The Rap Year Book," for kid-friendly, pregame layup-line playlist recommendations. His reply:
1. Drake and Future, "Jumpman." "It's the perfect get-hype basketball layup-line song (talks about Jordan and Ginobili) and also very kid-friendly (just ignore the part about the gentlemen's club and the part about the dope man)."
2. Adele, "Hello." "This pick is just because I think it would super-discombobulate the other team if they're over there running through their drills and all of a sudden Adele comes on."
3. Justin Bieber, "Sorry." "I was on the basketball team in middle school for my seventh- and eighth-grade years. I played in 18 games. In those 18 games, I scored a grand total of two points. I always felt like I needed to apologize to my dad after he'd show up to watch them."
So now I want to hear from you: What songs would your kid want to hear in their warm-up line? (Always the best starting point: Ask them!) It could be for rec hoops or hockey skate-arounds, soccer warm-ups or baseball BP. (And if they think it sounds like a lame idea, I want to hear that, too!)
More than that, I want to hear how you or your kids' coaches have introduced fun to your kids' organized-sports experiences. Help me stick to my New Year's resolution. Share ideas for my team and help parents working with youth teams everywhere.
Leave your ideas in the comments, at espnW's Facebook page, tweet them to me at @danshanoff or email me at danshanoffw-at-gmail.com. I'll share your recommendations in future columns.