How many of us remember FREE play or non-adult supervised play?  I do.  This was one of my favorite childhood memories.  I am blessed to relive it since I have  2 young kids who do it all of the time.  They participate in FREE play.  It is so great to see them learn by just playing.  There is no organization to what they do.  They think something up and boom they go and play. I can remember back to the summer time when I was a kid going outside with the neighborhood kids and making games up all day long.  We organized games and played with no adult supervision.  That is almost unheard of today.  

In today’s society kids start organized or supervised sports as young as 5 or 6 and they never stop.  Rarely do they go outside and just play made up games.  The imagination and physical well-being of the youth is being torn apart.  

Some of the things that a non-supervised adult game taught us was how to handle our own conflicts, how to manage our team, how to work together to have fun and be productive.  Adults did not regulate every little thing we did.  We just went out and had fun.  Another big advantage non-adult supervised games had was it taught us how to move.  We moved to get away from our opponents, to run to a base.  We learned how to cut and change direction.  No adult taught us that and very rarely was there ever an injury when we played.  Sure we would come back with scrapes and bruises but that is part of life.

If we want our youth to prosper and learn how to become better athletes then we need to allow them to play non-adult supervised games more.  They need to team up in the streets and have fun.  Play made up games.  Enjoy life and the FREEDOM that come with being a child.   If we do not they we will have a society of robots not knowing how to think, solve problems, or get along.  Does this sound familiar?  It sounds to me that that is where society is today.

Check out my book “Youth Athletes and Why we never fail”  There is a chapter on Structured verses  Non-Structed games.  Go get it on YOUTH ATHLETICS ON AMAZON.  

Also being unleashed the first every Certified Agility Specialist Certification April 9th at Explosive Sports Performance.  Registration to come soon.