Athletes who are having fun build a self-directed desire and capacity to perform/play and a self-motivation to expend significant effort.

We have all heard experts recommend sports, such as hockey, and physical activity to be fun above all else. But why do they provide this counsel? Is it that fun is reported in the research concerning athletics as an essential athletic need, or is it that athletes themselves identify that fun makes the hard effort and personal sacrifice worthwhile?

What’s the big deal? Isn’t just doing the sport itself inherently fun? Why should those leading sports, like coaches, and skill developers have to “create” fun experiences and fun skill rehearsals?

As it turns out, participants identify (for a variety of reasons) that sport itself isn’t necessarily always fun! This may be because “…fun just doesn’t happen” and for far too many sports like hockey can quickly become job-like. In fact, when you talk with many former athletes, they often revert to negative experiences they experienced in sports. Things like intimidation, at the hands of a coach or fellow athlete, bullying and environments of over-competition that led to burnout and injury. They also often describe an excessively structured atmosphere in youth sports, and they feel hard-pressed to identify just what about sports is fun.

Consider my son, a kid who is genetically advantaged when it comes to sports. He is tall with a long wingspan, well-muscled and well-coordinated. He is physically literate and at over six feet he easily performs acrobatic movements, exceeds at balance tasks and he even juggles three and four balls with relative ease. What’s more his motor skills and his intelligence allow him to quickly learn and apply movement patterns to easily solve movement problems. These are great qualities for an athlete and would lead most to assume that he thoroughly enjoys sport! Much to my chagrin, he doesn’t, and he recently became forever tied to the disappointing statistical majority of teens who drop out from sport just when their bodies and minds are moving towards their physiological peak. His reason.“… it’s not fun enough Dad… and the coach only play the really good guys. Why should I practice so much and never play? I don’t want to ride the pine! It’s embarrassing.”

What’s the benefit?

Worse yet for many parents and guardians sports like hockey seem to be an aggressive, angry and violent pursuit. “I don’t want my son or daughter to get hurt” is often something I hear in my work preventing serious injury in sports. I also hear parents identify that the costs and sacrifice as far as time and money do not balance with the benefits of sport physically, socially or emotionally.

“I’m not going to argue with my kid to get ‘em to go just so that I can spend thousands in equipment, transportation and family time when they aren’t having a blast! They like those video games more.”

Adding to this dilemma is the ardent sports enthusiast, the undertrained and oft-overwhelmed sports leader. Well-intentioned, for the most part, but not qualified and often not providing fun or effective programs. Most coach education today is not reaching these grassroots leaders and when training is available it is often inconsistent in terms of its delivery. And so, the average volunteer coach and sports administrator are working out of an antiquated paradigm, often decades old as they coach like they were coached. They do not readily place fun into their seasonal plans as a desired outcome. And when fun is witnessed it seems to originate as a circumstance or an aside rather than a well laid out plan. Likewise, a belief exists, especially at “competitive levels” of play, that fun is just a “time-waster” and a far too liberal offering to be considered fundamental to a legitimate elite program. After all, isn’t fun much too “soft” a directive? Isn’t the need to build results and “play with an edge” needed to perform and win?

Engagement of participants

The experts tell us that the engagement of participants is an observable characteristic found in highly performing athletes and teams. It occurs at all levels of sport from recreational to professional and a managed environment and appropriate activity that is planned and appeals to the group supports engagement. Engagement is seen as a cognitive, social, and emotive consequence of a lesson plan. It is a process filled with enjoyment and intensive attention and focus. An engaged participant stands out amongst others. They are the ones who are interacting with others and consistently act in a sustained and engrossed way. They are deeply connected to the task at hand and others performing similar tasks. Engaged participants report losing track of time, feeling deep levels of satisfaction, ease and even joy as they readily invest themselves and their resources in the activity. They are having fun…boatloads of it! Incidentally, it is in this “zone” that rapid and persistent learning, development and ideal performance states (IPS) are found. Undeniably, athletes who are engaged (having fun) build a self-directed desire and capacity to perform/play and an intrinsic impetus (self-motivation) to expend significant effort.

As athletes age and gain experience in training and in skill, moving from fundamental movements to physical literacy and from activity/sport discovery to performance it becomes a vital requirement that they be able to invest large quantities of time and noteworthy amounts of sweat equity into sport. Most often it is those who have not built a foundation of fun that become easily disengaged (actively or passively – influenced by others or by themselves) … think of my son. They are simply not willing to “grind” and devote themselves because it isn’t fun, and they cannot see the benefit. In fact, and perhaps oddly elite athletes report enjoying the “grind,” the intensity and the effort in deliberate practice (db) where most others do not and will not find enjoyment in it.

Building resiliency

Perhaps it is because they have experienced fun and joy in sport at the early stages of their sport development and that fun was nurtured, planned, and given the importance that these individuals become resilient moving from the inevitable setbacks, errors and loss that come in sport. Many athletes who are having fun appear to defy the odds and are not afraid to fail because they enjoy the challenge, and they feel and experience a deep connection. As a result of having fun, they stay in, seek mastery and perform at their personal best levels.

So, not only are we encouraging retention in sports by promoting fun, we are also recruiting new participants and supporting athletic potential and optimal performance. My advice, above all else, is to make sports fun because the experts aren’t wrong!