Sport-based youth development. What does that mean to you? Maybe you have never heard of the term. Or maybe you did a literal dissertation on it and are ready to educate me on what it actually means. In either case, you came to this article to discover something. So, here I am to help.
The quick answer is that sport-based youth development is an approach where you intentionally design the sport experience in such a way to encourage them to reach the best potential self. The long answer, well it is very long. But I promise I will do my best to keep this short(er).
Sport-based youth development is connected to the larger umbrella of positive youth development. When we use that framework, we basically operate under the assumption that resources and environment will influence how young people develop. They adapt and change based on what is around them. You don’t treat them as “problems to be fixed;” you recognize that given the right tools, they will turn out alright.
As you might imagine then, sport-based youth development is positive youth development that occurs in sport settings. Here is an example. Rather than assuming they will become amazing citizens just because they happened to play a sport, you make sure you talk to them about the things that make them amazing citizens. You speak openly about the importance of sportsmanship and how that translates into their lives. You help them work through how to interact with their teammates and how that is something that they can do off the field as well.
Because I promised I would be brief, I will end it there. This is just a brief summary, but I will have more in-depth work on the frameworks over all. Take a look. Hopefully this got you started on learning more.
The Sideline Fix 