Coaches Coaching Coaches - Part 1

Why 70% of Kids Quit Their Sport by Age 13 (And What Coaches Can Do About It)

     I've been coaching since I was 19 years old. I've been on the sidelines, in the weight room, in the film room, and in the office having hard conversations with kids and parents. And the one question that has always stuck with me is this: why do so many kids quit? Not just quit a sport. Quit the experience entirely. Research shows that 70% of youth athletes drop out of their sport by age 13. Let that sink in. Seven out of ten kids who start playing a sport will be done before they even get to high school. That number doesn't happen by accident. There's a reason, and I think a lot of it starts with us, the coaches. It Comes Down to Motivation I recently completed a graduate research project at the University of Oklahoma where I administered a validated sport psychology survey, the Sport Motivation Scale II, to 128 high school athletes in the Deer Creek School District. Football players. Track and field athletes. Freshmen through seniors. The goal was simple: understand what actually motivates high school athletes to keep showing up. What I found reinforced something I had felt in my gut for years. The athletes who are most likely to stay in their sport, keep showing up to 6 AM practices, push through the grind, and bring their teammates with them, those athletes aren't motivated by trophies, scholarships, or fear. They're motivated from the inside. That's called intrinsic motivation. And the research is clear: coaches are either building it or tearing it down, whether they know it or not. 

 Three Things Every Athlete Needs

    There's a framework in sport psychology called Self-Determination Theory. I know, that sounds like something you'd read in a textbook. But stay with me, because once you see it, you can't unsee it. The idea is simple. Human beings, athletes included, thrive when three basic psychological needs are met: Autonomy. The feeling that what they're doing is their choice, not something being done to them. Athletes with high autonomy feel ownership over their sport. Competence. The belief that they are capable and improving. Not that they're the best, just that they belong and that they're getting better. Relatedness. The sense that they matter to the people around them. That their coach sees them. That their teammates need them. When those three things are present in a program, motivation grows from the inside out. When they're absent, or worse, actively undermined by a coach's behavior, athletes disengage. And eventually, they quit. 

What This Means for You

    

I'm not here to tell you that you're a bad coach. Most coaches I know genuinely care about their kids. But caring isn't always enough if the environment we create doesn't reflect that care. Think about your program right now. Do your athletes feel like they have any voice? Do they feel competent, not just the starters, but the kid at the bottom of the depth chart too? Do they feel like they genuinely belong to something, or like they're just filling a roster spot? Those questions have answers. And the answers are shaping your culture whether you're paying attention or not. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be breaking down what the research, and my own data from 128 real high school athletes, says about each of these areas. What coaches do that builds intrinsic motivation. What coaches do that destroys it. And what small, practical changes can make a real difference in how your athletes show up. Because if 70% of kids are quitting before high school, we have to do better. And I believe most coaches want to. This post is part of an ongoing series based on my graduate research project at the University of Oklahoma, examining student-athlete motivation through Self-Determination Theory in a high school athletic program. This post is part of an ongoing series based on my graduate research project at the University of Oklahoma, examining student-athlete motivation through Self-Determination Theory in a high school athletic program.

This post is part of an ongoing series based on my graduate research project at the University of Oklahoma, examining student-athlete motivation through Self-Determination Theory in a high school athletic program.