Does being on a sports team in school better prepare you, compared to those that don’t, job-wise, social interaction-wise, marriage-wise etc.? Are there studies that support any of these ideas that do not come from sports related organizations?
I suspect it wouldn’t be hard to find anecdotal evidence from individuals who gained such benefits from being on sports teams in school.
But could “studies” establish causation as opposed to just correlation?
I hesitate even to post such an unhelpful response, but you could consider it a thread bump.
Sports are a way people form connections that can lead to job opportunities down the line.
Agree.
I’m a former sports coach and the mantra when I was learning that trade was “sports builds character” and team sports are a metaphor for working together…
Yeah, maybe. And for some people I’m sure that’s true. But I think you can easily find other people who got the same thing from being on the debate team or performing in their high school’s musical. Or being a stagehand for their high school’s musical. You could also find people who played individual, rather than team sports and got good life lessons.
And surely there are many people who participated in sports and it just made them better assholes and bullies. All this to say, there’s a reason I departed that line of work. I think the “sports builds character” stuff is much over-played. To me, the important thing for kids is that they find SOMETHING they like, get a little obsessed with and build skills and knowledge. Could be a musical instrument, skateboarding, riding unicycles… Anything that gets a person engaged with learning without someone else making them do it. I suspect that kind of thing more likely correlates with being good in the workplace and personal satisfaction.
These are just some of the straws grasped at whenever someone is asked to justify athletics in education. It’s easier than just admitting that without sports a lot more kids would find nothing of interest at school.
Yes, I’ve heard that. Is it true?
The OP is specifically asking for studies that don’t come from sports organizations as opposed to anecdotes. We all know why they are supposed to be good for you.
I googled a bit and couldn’t find any actual data at all. There were plenty of what are basically opinion pieces and nearly all of those are from sports related magazines and journals or just one person’s experiences.
I can say the same thing of people I knew in the gifted program at school, or honor society. I think anything that gives kids a reason to think they’re superior to other kids, it’s going to produce assholes and bullies. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if sports has a greater share given the higher profile.
Yes, this. Sports can be good for kids (I played soccer and think it was good for me) but so many other activities can do the same thing
But how does that differ from any other social activity?
nevermind
It is attractive to different people. I doubt there’s anything unique to sports, but i also think “sports can be part of a balance diet”, if you know what i mean.
But so can strawberry Frosted Pop Tarts.
To the first part of the OP’s question, I can report that a surprisingly large number of my high school’s football team found great success with careers in sales, despite the fact that most of them were considered to be dumb jocks.
It may be because most of those “dumb jocks” went on to play college sports, while other dumb guys didn’t go on to college, and having at least some college gave them a leg up.
As to the second part of the question, I’m not aware of any studies that either confirm or refute my anecdotal observation.
To answer the OP, I think one benefit of team sports in school is that it teaches responsibility (in theory.) You get to see how much the team depends on you not screwing up, and how your fumbling the ball or making an error can cost the whole team and also how your performance today can influence whether you remain on the roster tomorrow, etc. There are 100 ways it could teach accountability. You also get to see what it’s like to be scrutinized in front of a crowd and to have a ref’s eyes on you at all time. It can also teach selflessness, as being a ball hog is detrimental to the team.
An actual study would have to be long term with three large groups of people: played sports, involved in different student groups that lasted all year like drama or newspaper (if that’s still a thing) and wasn’t involved in any activities. Even then there might be too many confounding variables like maybe the last group would be less likely to go to college just by the nature of being in that group since you almost need to have done something as part of applying to good schools.
As an aside, I am profoundly unathletic which is a horrible thing to be. I would have loved to participate in sports because I like working in teams and the tactical aspect of sports fascinates me.
I took up challenge square dancing as an adult, and discovered that i love participating in a team.
I’d also like to see a study on the impact of sports on long-term health. Proponents of sports often claim that they promote physical fitness, but the overweight coach is a longstanding trope, and lifelong sports injuries are not uncommon.
That’s a good question and there probably are studies about that. I’ve known lots of people with lifelong injuries from high school football and even other sports, mostly joint problems. Maybe something non contact like running or tennis would be more positive.
The one real study I can find quickly seems to support the null hypothesis - no measurable long-term benefit to sports at the High School level, at least as far as turning kids that might not perform well into ones that will.
They do find strong correlations between athletic participation and grades, graduation, college attendance, future wages, and obesity, but find that those correlations are entirely due to selection bias (i.e. those students that participate in high school athletics are already more likely to get better grades, etc).
I’m not really sure if “challenge square dancing” counts as a sport for the purpose of this conversation. Has it shown up on any of the 6 or 7 ESPN channels?