Did i say it did?
Robert Putnam is a pretty famous sociologist and political scientist that has made a career of showing the correlations between club participation and improved social connections. He doesn’t necessarily focus on school sports, but club sports are an integral aspect of his research.
I never said you did. I am questioning whether it would really count as a sport for the purpose of this conversation.
But here we’re back to is club sports better than other clubs or social activities like attending lots of live music with friends, hiking groups, D&D or challenge square dancing?
@Czarcasm is that a distinction you’re looking for, or are you just looking for a “sports involvement is beneficial” affirmation?
This is the first sentence of the OP. They are specifically looking for a comparison.
One thing that’s different about sports compared to clubs or social activities is the commitment to the activity. A team member is expected to attend all the practices, meetings, and matches. That’s generally not the case with social activities. It’s generally up to the person if they feel like attending the social activity, and if they do attend, they can be as engaged as they personally want to be. With sports, the person is expected to be working hard towards the team goal. If the person is lax about participation and treating it as an optional social event, they will probably be kicked off the team. There are other activities which are similar to sports in this regard, such as drama, band, and the flag core. This high level of commitment means the participant will need to put in extra effort in other areas of their life to ensure they can meet the expectations of the activity. They may need to keep their grades up and become better at scheduling their time to ensure they can do what’s necessary to stay in the activity. Those skills can help them get better grades overall and give them skills to help in other areas of their life.
The high school students I work with are excellent at scheduling their sports related activities. They mainly achieve this by last-minute cancellation of their tutoring sessions because coach called a practice. Happens to me at least once or twice a week. Just last night I had kid show up 15 minutes late because practice ran long. But they wouldn’t dream of showing up 15 min late (or leaving early) from practice
I’ve seen this as well. There may be a few factors involved here:
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You already mentioned sports providing a path to college, which tends to lead to better job opportunities.
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They might not actually be “dumb” and might simply be perceived as such because they are large, muscular, and/or don’t have a bunch of esoteric interests often associated with “smart nerds”.
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Sales roles are often suitable to people who are conventionally attractive, likeable, and who participate in various activities and organizations. So there may be a correlation between sales people and people who were in the “popular jock” crowd in school.
That appears to only be asking for a comparison between being in sports and not being sports, with no mention at all of sports involvement being better or worse than other sorts of involvement.
Can only speak for myself, but I regularly think of benefits I derived from being on the track team in HS. Which I think was different from a social club. For one, in my huge city public school, it threw me together with a body of students I might not have otherwise been close with. But there was also an element of pushing myself to improve, desiring to contribute towards a competitive group activity, and instilling some physical practices and expectations that remain 50 years later.
And this comes from someone who regularly decries the importance given to sports at all levels from peewee through pro.
I am asking if being in sports in a school setting is actually more advantageous later in life, compared to participation in other school activities or even just going to school alone. Do they get better jobs? Do they fare better socially? Do they fare better physically over the long run? I would like to know what facts and/or studies have been done, and what actually show.
For instance, of those that participate in school sports, what percentage of those get college sports scholarships, and what percentage go on to play on professional teams?
Yes, i think these are two different questions. And if it’s the latter, i would say that people have different abilities and preferences, and providing a variety of paths towards “significant involvement” will help more students than fewer paths will. (To some limit, but “sports or not” seems well within that limit.)
Are you asking about high school or college? And what level of sports?
Since the vast majority of people that participate in sports in college start out doing the same in high school, let’s go with high school for the time being.
My daughter is an example. She is not in sports, but she is an athlete who participates in dance. And she is on a competitive dance team. It’s an expensive commitment for my wife and myself, dues for the dance academy, costumes, and so on. My daughter is in the dance studio 6 days a week (including one day where she is an assistant teacher for younger dancers). She can’t just decide not to go in because she doesn’t want to. She is committed, and we even had to sign a contract for it. But her academy does competitions nationally, kids who graduate go on to professional careers (and it’s fun seeing dancers on TV that we recognize from when they were kids at my daughter’s school), and it has been huge for her.
My daughter has ADHD and before she got into a competition dance team she struggled to stay focused or commit to anything for long. But she formed bonds with other dancers (who are her best friends) and other teachers, and they have all pushed her to push herself (in a good way; it’s a very positive environment which does a great job of quashing toxicity from dancers and parents). And when she feels like giving up or quitting, we ask her if she’s willing to cut those people out of her life, and she’s not. It’s not like she’s being forced to do any of it, she knows that if she absolutely can’t do it anymore then it’s fine, but she also knows there are consequences for quitting. And this is the first year she has been a TA, and she absolutely loves it and loves her kids, and loves being a role model and doesn’t want to let “the littles” down.
It’s amazing the level of confidence and maturity this has given her. Especially with her ADHD struggles. And she is not going to be a professional dancer. With no disrespect to her, she just doesn’t have the natural talent with it. But she enjoys it, it is great for her, and I think that the lessons and discipline will last her whole life.
I think I would like to limit this conversation to school sports, otherwise it turns into a large and unwieldy “things done in school that helps people” thread.
Personally, middle and high school sports did a lot to help me build confidence and self esteem, and also taught me a lot about teamwork. I got a lot of value from it (football and wrestling).
Here are some stats from the NCAA showing what percentage of students that participate in high school sports go on to play in the NCAA…and it doesn’t look good: Estimated probability of competing in college athletics - NCAA.org
This link shows what percentage of men’s high school sports participants go on to play in professional sports: The Statistics — The Academic Athlete Foundation
High School to Professional (Men’s): ~0.03%.
in that first chart—is women’s ice hockey so much higher than everything else because there are comparatively fewer women playing ice hockey?