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Officially, that is. Opening Cermony has commenced. They've been playing soccer for two days.
It's a good bet that most-to-all of these athletes were involved in youth sports. Some are still youths!
Here’s hoping that the next generation of Olympic athletes are inspired by what they see over the next two weeks.
Cheers!
The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) is offering a free online course aimed at providing information on hazing, bullying and inappropriate relationships to "high school coaches, school administrators and the general public."
From the NFHS site:
... (NFHS) is now offering its online course “Creating a Safe and Respectful Environment” for free on the NFHS Coach Education Web site at http://www.nfhslearn.com/.
Creating a Safe and Respectful Environment, which has been available for $20 since February 2012, provides education for coaches on the critically important topics of inappropriate relationships, hazing, bullying and cyber-bullying, and the appropriate use of technology when interacting with players and the public. The course provides examples of court cases involving these issues and suggests appropriate actions that coaches should take when these types of issues arise.
US Soccer recently named its Under-14 Boys' National Team.
From Soccer America:
U.S. under-14 boys national team head coach Hugo Perez named 36 players for the training camp July 29-Aug. 5 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The squad includes 15 players from California and four each from New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
In an interview with Soccer America Kristine Lilly, world record holder for national team appearances and veteran of five World Cups and three Olympic Games, talks about her experience as a youth player and what she sees now in the youth game.
SA: How different do you imagine your soccer experience was from today’s youth soccer environment?
KRISTINE LILLY: If you’re talking 8, 9 to 12, I hope it’s not much different but I have a feeling it might be. Because I hear so much about clubs that are recruiting 10-year-olds and that’s really not what was going on when I was younger.
You played for your town team. Maybe if you were good you made the A team and they had a B team. So you represented your community and played within your area and for your state and moved on from there.
Nowadays I think it’s a little more consuming for the kids, which I think is a little bit unfortunate. What I hear is that kids are getting burned out early and that’s sad, because you shouldn’t be burned out at 12 years old.
The entire Part 1 interview from Soccer America is here: http://www.socceramerica.com/article/47290/kristine-lilly-good-coaches-create-good-memories.html
Part 2 is here: http://www.socceramerica.com/article/47291/kristine-lilly-have-fun-and-go-after-it-qa-part.html
Seemingly in a battle of research reports, researchers at The Hood Center for Children and Families at Dartmouth College, in a study just published on the Pediatrics website, found that participation in team sports does do a better job of keeping weight off kids than other activities.
From CNN:
Investigators surveyed more than 1,700 high school students by phone and asked them how much they participated in team sports, what other forms of physical activity they were involved in and their height and weight.
The study found those kids who played on three or more sports teams in a year, were 27% less likely to be overweight, and 39% less likely to be obese than those teens who did not play team sports. They also found biking or walking to school had less of an effect on a student's weight - although it did reduce their likelihood of being obese.
“We estimated that the prevalence of obesity would decrease by 22% if all adolescents walked or biked to school four to five days per week,” said Keith Drake, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Hood Center for Children and Families at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
Drake's research also found that P.E. classes for teens seemed to have little effect on their weight.
And from US News & World Report:
"If parents are truly interested in preventing overweight and obesity, getting their kids to join one or more sports teams may be an effective way to do that," said the study's lead author, Keith Drake...
"It really might be worth all that driving you'll have to do, because playing sports has a healthy impact on weight," Drake said.
Last year University of Minnesota's School of Public Health published the results of a study which had:
reviewed research comparing sport participants with nonparticipants on weight status, physical activity, and diet. Among 19 studies, we found no clear pattern of association between body weight and sport participation …
Additional research may foster understanding about how sport, and youth sport settings, can help promote energy balance and healthy body weight.
Perhaps the Hood Center report represents that “additional research.”
