5 Tips to Keep Your Kids Playing Sports Longer

If you’ve been involved with youth sports in any capacity in the last decade, you’ve probably seen kids burning out before middle school. They’re quitting by age 13 and losing their love for sports at an alarming rate. Research shows that 70% of kids stop playing sports by age 13 because they stop having fun or feel too much pressure.

But here’s the good news:

As parents, you have incredible influence when it comes to keeping your child active, confident, and motivated in sports. Playing sports longer doesn’t require elite training, private coaches, or travel teams, it requires the right mindset and environment. Follow the five tips below to keep your kids in the game!

5 tips to keep your kids playing sports longer while building confidence and a love for the game:

Tip 1: Focus on Fun First

If kids enjoy sports, they’ll stick with them—it’s that simple. Fun doesn’t just mean laughing on the sidelines and goofing around. For most kids, fun means improving, feeling included, and being challenged in a positive way.

How to focus on fun as a parent:

• • • Talk to your children about what they enjoy most about their sport.
    • Encourage them to try new sports, positions, or skills.
    • Choose programs that balance learning with fun, not just winning. Keeping score is fun, but not when it’s the main focus of the game.

Tip 2: Praise Effort, Not Just Results

Kids build confidence in youth sports when they achieve a new skill or goal. In order to do this they can’t fear failure. You have to teach them that mistakes are ok because they are part of learning. To do this, praise what they can control and shift your language.

Try These Phrases:

• • • Instead of: “Did you win?” Say: “Did you give your best effort?”
    • Instead of: “How many points did you score?” Say: “What did you learn today?”
    • Instead of: “How’d you miss that easy lay up?!” Say: “That’s ok! Aim for the backboard next time. Forget this one, and focus on making the next one.”
    • Try these other encouraging phrases. 

This helps kids develop a growth mindset, which keeps them motivated long-term. It also helps them get comfortable with making mistakes. The more comfortable they feel, the more likely they are to feel confident in leveling up their performance with riskier or more challenging plays!

Tip 3: Support Multi-Sport Participation

One of the biggest myths in youth sports is that kids must specialize early to succeed. In reality, early specialization increases the risk of injury and burnout, especially before puberty.

Multi-sport athlete advantages include:

• • • Developing better overall athletic ability.
    • More likely avoiding overuse injuries.
    • Staying mentally fresh and not burnt out.
    • Having statistically more long-term success.

Encourage your child to play a different sport each season or mix team sports with individual ones. Variety builds better athletes, and happier kids.

Tip 4: Build Confidence Through Small Wins

Confidence isn’t something kids are usually born with, it’s something that needs to be taught and encouraged by their environment. Confidence is built through a positive playing environment, support, and consistent progress over time.

Help your child gain confidence by:

• • • Setting small goals each season such as “5 good passes every game,” or “improving my speed from home to first base.”
    • Encouraging them by using positive language.
    • Choosing a youth sports organization that focuses on growth and doesn’t make winning the number one priority.

These tactics will help your kids build confidence and help kids feel proud of their effort in sports and beyond.

Tip 5: Be Their Safe Place, Not Their Second Coach

Kids quit sports when they feel too much pressure. Parents can often be a source of pressure without even noticing it. It’s important to know that after games, kids don’t want a breakdown of everything they did wrong. They want support. Kids feel enough pressure and criticism from coaches, teammates, rivals, and sometimes even themselves. They don’t need another source of pressure, they need a fan!

Try using a simple, supportive phrase after every game or practice:

“I’m proud of how you tried today.” or “I loved seeing you have fun out there.”

These statements show your child that effort and enjoyment matter more than results. It also shows your child that you’re their number one fan and a source of support, not another critic. Save feedback for later, and only if they ask for it.

If your goal is to keep kids in sports, the key is building joy, resilience, and confidence—not chasing early success. Youth sports aren’t about creating champions at age 10, which is not a realistic outcome. Youth sports are about teaching lifelong lessons and developing healthy habits.

When parents focus on growth over perfection and effort over outcome, kids fall in love with sports and in return stay in the game longer!

Bonus: Quick Parent Game Plan

Choose i9 Sports^®: a program that encourages your young athlete through every age and stage.

At i9 Sports^®, our programs are designed to grow with your athlete at every level. From rookies learning basic motor skills, to veterans perfecting the fundamentals, i9 Sports^® has a program for every athlete! 

i9 Sports^® programs focus on fun based skill development, sportsmanship, and teaching kids life skills that last long after their last game. With the transferable life skills and confidence they learn from i9 Sports^®, your kids will be athletes for life.

Choose a sport, and find a program near you today!