BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL IN YOUTH: The value of sport and physical activity in helping children and adolescents develop human connections that will benefit them for a lifetime

I recently had the opportunity to travel with my two children to North Carolina.  This travel experience presented them with a basketful of positive experiences.  During our week of travel, my kids were able to participate in two physical activity / sport camps in the Chapel Hill-Durham area of North Carolina.  The programs guiding these successful camps were the Bouncing Bulldogs, Youth Hoops andChapel Hill Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.  The week-long summer camps for my daughter and son, ages 7 and 9, respectively, allowed them to enjoy social, cultural and physical activity experiences but more importantly increased their self-confidence.  Experiences such as these should be available to all children.  While it may be reasonable to assume that youth do have such opportunities to attend quality programs in America, the truth is many youth do not have access or opportunities to such programs, especially summer programs (National Summer Learning Association, 2010). 

A common thread among each of the three camps that my kids attended was the emphasis on building fundamental skills, both motor and social, in a supportive, encouraging environment.  Many physical activity / sport-based programs today, to include summer camp programs, are focused on competition and performance rather than building essential life skills (i.e. motor, communication, cooperative).  During the week of the camps, I witnessed, from the top-down, administrators and instructors committed to ensuring that children were placed in situations where they were learning fundamental skills in jump rope, basketball and martial arts, respectively, but more importantly skills in working together with different people, talking in front of an audience and even leading their peers in an exercise or routine, all in a non-to-low competitive, enriching environment. 

One area of great concern and promise among humankind is resilience.  Individuals in society, for a multitude of reasons, handle situations in different ways.  For many, situations are challenges that provide opportunities to build and develop oneself for greater rewards and outcomes in the future.  For these individuals they have the trait of resilience.  For others, situations are obstacles that inhibit or prevent them from tapping into their potential and realizing positive, rewarding outcomes in their life.  For these individuals they lack the trait of resilience.  Research (Werner & Smith, 1982) has identified key factors that contribute to this all-important trait of resilience.  These factors include high activity level, responsive to people, positive social orientation, age-appropriate sensorimotor and perceptual skills, adequate communication skills, special interests and hobbies, and a desire to improve oneself.  Physical activity and sport, when presented in the right way, deliver many, if not all, these factors to children and youth in a fun approach and at a very important stage of their development, early in life.  When children develop resilience they will become productive, beneficial members to society in most cases.  To the contrary, when children do not develop resilience life becomes much more difficult and opportunities to contribute positively to society decrease significantly. 

The Bouncing Bulldogs, Youth Hoops and Chapel Hill Gracie Jiu-Jitsu provide the type of experiences that all youth should be afforded.  For some youth, it may be music, performing arts, science, or some other field and area of interest.  But for youth who enjoy and thrive from all things physical and movement-related, physical activity / sport programs should be supported, encouraged, funded and sustained so that our society as a whole will become better.  Undoubtedly, society will be better as a natural result of the resilient individuals that realize their self-worth as well as the worth of others in their social network.  Let’s build the social capital in youth through positive, accessible programs that will benefit the youth and society for a lifetime.  

Basketball Bond: Discovering the Value of Relationships

Today I experienced an unbelievable feeling– a feeling that I will not soon forget when I approach young people in any environment or circumstance.  Today I felt comforted in knowing that a common bond I share with ten young boys has the power to transform an insulated spirit and soul. 

While I am truly blessed to be able to enjoy the many pleasantries that I have been afforded in this life, I often find something lacking inside, something that a solid profession and material things can not satisfy.  Today marked one of those days when I felt a little empty on the inside despite the fact that I woke up to a beautiful family and enjoyed a productive day teaching my elementary and middle school students in a suburban school district north of New York City. 

It was not until I joined the group of young boys in the Different Encounters program, in what many would call an “underprivileged, low-income” community that I begin to experience a feeling of joy and connectedness.  While attempting to discuss the meaning of the word relationship with the boys, I felt the profound meaning of the word in real time. 

Player responses to the meaning of relationship included the following: 

• Bond
• Friendship
• Two people working together toward a common goal

After starting the session with a short drill in which many of the boys became frustrated, I soon witnessed a positive transformation as the session advanced, in terms of the boys understanding the value of working together as a unit rather than viewing their actions as exclusive and independent.  While far from perfect, their positive attitude and behavior change let me know the power of the basketball to teach the important concept of relationship.  

As they began to work together and experience the process of forming a relationship with their peers, I simultaneously began to feel the emptiness inside of me fill with joy.  The power of the basketball to fill my insulated spirit with a touch of joy and connectedness is but one example of a positive outcome that can be achieved through an after-school, sport-based, youth development program.  

Reform or Recognition? What America's Youth Sport Programs Need

Youth sport programming in the United States is unsurpassed around the world in terms of its quality and impact.  From CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to public servants in the fields of defense, education and policy, youth sport programs have influenced and positively impacted our nation’s best.  Despite the example and record of these exemplary programs, many individuals and groups suggest that youth sports in America need reform (A Call to Action:  Youth Sports Reform).  To this, I advance the following inquiry – is it that youth sport programming needs reform or that youth sport programs in the many communities around the country need greater recognition for their positive impact?

The top-down approach (private financial interest, charter schools, high-stakes testing, etc.) to education that is permeating through general education right now is also threatening positive youth sport programs.  While funding is an essential component to the sustainability and efficiency of any successful youth sports program, the benefactors should not be the compass for the program.  The individuals on the ground sharpening the important skills of the youth who are being served should be the ones out front and speaking about the programs.  They are the ones who can best advise the nation about what is working and what needs to be corrected in our youth sport and development programs.  While benefactors and champions of youth sports are important, they must not overreach and take hold of a purpose which is not theirs, the day-to-day operations of the programs they are funding. 

Trailblazers often go unrecognized until the final moments of their work, and sometimes life.  What is needed is the recognition of the many trailblazers around the country, on the ground, doing the work with the young people on a daily basis.  Reform in youth sports implies that something is wrong or in need of improvement.  Based on the many successful individuals in our country who participated in youth sport programs it would appear that it is not reform which is needed but rather greater recognition or attention on the many programs that are having the impact that we all want to see.  Let’s find them (rather than focusing on the substandard examples), highlight them, showcase them, and learn from them before we decide to waste too much time, energy and resources on something that may not be needed.  

Monitoring Physical Activity: Pediatrician Commitment and Guidance

Pediatricians have an all-important, professional responsibility to provide solutions for the prevention and treatment of diseases in children.  This responsibility, nonetheless, should be shared.  Physical activity (PA) is an integral component to the well-being of children and needs to be promoted at home, in the community and at school (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2006).  Working with parents and community organizations in a greater capacity, with a particular emphasis on education, pediatricians can build upon their commitment to have a stronger impact on not only their profession but also on the health and well-being of the nation’s children. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) should be applauded for their continued research and recommendations to prevent and treat diseases in children, such as their recommendation for children to watch no more than 2 hours of quality television programming per day (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001).  However, with the advancement of new biotechnologies, pediatricians can and should do more on the education and prevention side of getting more children active and engaged in physical activity. 

One strategy for accomplishing this is for pediatricians to make a commitment to informing parents about physical activity opportunities for their children.  Opportunities could include recreational and sport clubs in the local community, community-based organizations offering physical activity programming and resources such as videos and books that children can engage to improve physical activity knowledge.  Partnering with the community and making information available in their offices can have a collaborative impact.  For the pediatrician they will be accomplishing their professional objective of providing solutions to improve the health of the patient while all stakeholders will be impacted economically and altruistically.   

Another way that pediatricians can assist and commit is by monitoring their patients’ physical activity levels through the use of accelerometers, a biotechnology monitoring device that tracks physical activity.  Many of these devices are relatively inexpensive and provide a great means for parents and children to become physically active together.  The integration of technology and physical activity can work together, in this instance, rather than competing against one another for a child’s time.  Coupled with the resources in the community, these devices can help pediatricians and parents track where, when, why and how children are engaging in healthy, active behaviors.  This information can then lead to better informed decisions, recommendations and ultimately policies to improve the health and well-being of the youth population. 

Pediatricians, parents and community organizations all have an equal stake in the health and well-being of children.  This stake can be maximized to reach its full value and potential if all three work together to create solutions and opportunities for young people to engage in physical activity.  The advent of new technology makes partnership between these three respective groups feasible and attractive.  Accelerometers and other physical activity tracking and monitoring devices can help inform and educate on physical activity trends so that solutions can be created to get children more engaged in activity.  The physical, social, intellectual and emotional well-being of our children is important and all of us can do our part to help.  

Different Encounters: A Grassroots Education Program

Different Encounters (DE) started as a conversation between two friends playing weekend basketball in the neighborhood of Jackson Heights in New York City, New York.  What started as a simple dialogue around helping a few youth learn the skills of shooting, dribbling and passing has now unfolded into a wonderful design to educate adolescent youth in areas that will allow them to be successful throughout adolescence and into adulthood. 

The integration of physical, health and character education will hopefully establish a sense of purpose and value in the young people who experience the program.  At DE, we want to provide the young people an experience that will help guide them in making decisions and choices as well as expose them to a ‘different’ mindset, a mindset that emerges through in-depth conversation and dialogue with the program staff members.  The DE staff members bring a diverse, different viewpoint to the program but are similar to the participants in that everyone shares a love for the game of basketball.  This singular connection allows a mutual respect in which staff and participants can learn from each other while also gaining mutually beneficial rewards in the process. 

The rewards for the young people are improved self-confidence, greater self-awareness, increased physical activity and structured opportunities to learn new information, meet new people and to have fun playing a game that they love.  For the program staff, the rewards are realized in knowing that they have given back a portion of their time in helping a young person learn valued lessons that will lead to making better informed decisions, which ultimately could result in the improvement of society on a number of measures. 

Though still in its infancy, DE realizes its usefulness in spreading love among the members of humanity, regardless of age, through a common interest and passion, which in this case happens to be a bright orange ball.  DE endeavors to develop a model that can be reproduced the globe over to inspire people to be active, engaged and good-hearted.