Belmont United: Parents

Dear Parent,

In 1987 the Athletic Footwear Association sponsored a study of 10,000 students ages 10-18 regarding their feeling about sports. The students reacted to questions such as why they participate, why they quit and what changes they would make in order to get involved again in a sport they dropped.

The most important finding of the study was that "winning", which is the most publicized and pursued goal of sports, never ranked higher than seventh even among the most competitive athletes. "To have fun" and "to improve my skills" were consistently the first two choices why the students chose to play sports. When asked why they dropped from sports, three of the first five reasons were "I was not having fun,""coach was a poor teacher,""too much pressure." How many coaches you know would have predicted this outcome?

Dr Martha E. Ewing and Dr. Vern Seefeld of the Youth Sports Institue of Michigan State University who conducted the study, and Dr. Steven J Danish, chairman of the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University added psychological and developmental interpretations proposed the following "truths" about children and sports:

• Fun is pivotal; if it's not 'fun,' young people won't play a sport. 
• Skill development is a crucial aspect of fun; it is more important than winning even among the best athletes. 
• The most rewarding challenges of sports are those that lead to self-knowledge. 
• Intrinsic rewards (self-knowledge that grows out of self-competition) are more important in creating a lifetime athletes than are the extrinsic rewards (victory or attention from others). 

Belmont United Soccer Club's mission is to provide fun and developmental competitive soccer opportunities to local youths. Our goal is to deliver to our club team players, soccer camps and academy participants the best possible soccer experience we can offer through highly qualified coaching.

Belmont United's Board Of Directors