The Average Cost of Each Children's Sport (and Time Spent Participating)

[jgills88]

https://www.playgroundequipment.com/the-average-cost-of-each-childrens-sport/

I came across this article about youth sport participation, participation cost has been discussed to death on this forum, but I thought that the second graph concerning participation time was an interesting place to start a discussion.

This study claims that on average, children will do a sport for about 3yrs, and most will quit a sport by the time they turn 11.

Many of us see skiing as potentially a lifelong sport, how do we reconcile the apparently very common occurrence of quitting early with developing more and more skiers while overcoming what seems to be a 3yr hump?

[Horton]

One of my big focuses is trying to make lake time interesting and fun for my child. If it's just me and her and a bunch of other old guys she hates it. When I go out of my way to get other kids to ski with us or when I've managed to get high school or college age nannies to ski with us my 8-year-old is much more interested.

For anybody reading this I am seriously looking for girls or young women ( who like children) who want to ski with us an hour south of Sacramento next summer.

[jpwhit]

@jgills88 I don't think that study is very relevant to skiing. It's pretty much focused on organized group sports where kids are dropped off by parents. A lot of those parents just think of that as a form of childcare.

In practical terms, most kids skiing are doing it as a family activity. And it tends to be small group oriented. And like @Horton, the way I kept my kids engaged was by making it interesting with other kids their age being involved. We accomplished that by spending the summer with 4 other families RVing at the lake 5-6 weeks every summer. My twin girls just turned 30, and they are still extremely committed to skiing. They started when they were 6 years old.

Now we have a lake house, and both my girls and their husbands, along with a couple of their nephews and their spouses, as well as some of the kids they grew up with skiing all spend many weeks and weekends at our lake house each summer. My first grandchild is expected in April and many of the young families that spend time at the lake house are expecting kids soon as well. So the next generation is just around the corner as well.

[Hucklefin]

LOL @ $389 for Hockey equipment per year. Stick that your kid is gonna break one per month, are $250 each. Skates, which your kid is gonna need one pair per year are $900 and those are prices for junior sizes. Because we all know you won't be able to hold off getting them anything but the top of the line stuff.

Currently thinking about all this as I have a baby boy on the way, and I played a very serious amount of hockey all my life. Cost is one thing, time is another. Going to be a tough decision to make for the level of involvement here. If you want your kid to be good at hockey, it needs to be a year round life commitment and I don't know if I am going to want to put up with that the same way my parents did. It is a LOT.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

IMO, one of the biggest problems is focusing too much on a single sport. Far too many parents have the mindset that they want their kid(s) to be the very best at that particular sport, frequently have delusions of getting a college scholarship, and push their kids way too hard. The kid burns out in short order and wants nothing to do with that sport anymore. The kids mainly want to have fun, play and hang out with their friends.

The best athletes are very good in at least 2 sports and not bad at several others. The variety is critical for both mental breaks and physical "cross training". But trying to convince today's parents of that is an uphill battle.

[jhughes]

Club gymnastics is 6-8 grand a year, these estimates seem really low.

[Wish]

Plus-1 for @Bruce_Butterfield ....my daughter was fortunate enough to go to a small private school where there were not enough "club players" to fill any given team. So she played 3 sports and was good enough to be a starter for all three from her freshman year on. Add ..band member.. to that. Sounds like over kill but she wanted it...never pushed. Variety I think was key. Unfortunately she did fall away from skiing when she hit high school but up till then was setting tournament PBs right and left but it was always a struggle keeping her interested. I had to be Ok with that.

I was told by a skier/parent to be patient. That she would come back to the sport once the others were done. I did not believe him. Or at least did not want to be disappointed. Then out of the blue for my birthday this yr, and after 7yrs off the water, I received a commitment letter to ski with me at least 2x. She's gettn back into it with goals she's set for herself.

[NameUnavailable]

I agree with @Bruce_Butterfield...odd but I do...I feel sorry for the kid that their parent thinks they are the next Tiger Woods. And shame on many coaches that push those thoughts. My kids played multiple sports growing up and in HS. They settled on Vball both got scholarships, but I think I could have paid for college for what club Vball cost.

[Luv2Ski]

I agree with @Bruce_Butterfield also. I see a lot of parents pushing kids to do one thing and I see a lot of kids unhappy about it. I also agree that having other kids involved makes it way more fun. My kid loves skiing and the whole thing was his idea! I don't push it at all, and never have. We are not from a ski family and I discovered this sport when I was 40. I grew up in a cold climate and did not discover the sport until late in life. My son saw me skiing at 5 years old and said "I want to do that". We haven't stopped since. He's almost 17 now and we ski at least 3 x's week. It's a LOT of time and sacrifice for sure but he is fully committed so I do call I can to support him. Many times it's just him and I, but we have taught several other kids how to ski, and that certainly keeps everything more fun and helps to grow the sport. I think kids just need to be encouraged to try a little bit of everything and then be free to decide what makes them happy.

[Than_Bogan]

One of the most important and true things @Bruce_Butterfield has posted -- and that is a very high bar!

I just want to scream that at people sometimes. But I will say SOME are starting to get the message. When I tell parents that joining track for a season or two each year will make their kid better at their "main" sport than just grinding away at Club Whatever, some actually agree!

Surprisingly, I am finding that often the kids themselves are more hesitant -- at least initially. Maybe they don't want to appear less comitted to their friends in the sport?? Not sure of the whys, but I definitely get more people trying my jumping events when I talk with the parents!

[Wish]

Perfect statement;

Kids should be encouraged to try a little bit of everything.

Goal of mine was to teach my daughter life long sports beyond high-school sports like... golf, waterskiing, snow skiing, ice skating, billiards and tennis to name a few. Some she liked…some she didn’t.