Ask almost any parent about their toddler’s terrible twos stage and they are apt to take a deep breath and smile grimly before offering a politically correct response.
When toddlers act out in those memorable ways, experts say it’s because their communication tools haven’t caught up with their intrinsic growth—including their flowering ability to have opinions and learn about emotions.
No doubt it’s a developmental milestone, and its residue continues through their life and their sports lives as well.
Nurturing the development of independence as kids grow is the subject of a brace of recent scholarly studies that consider the impact their free choice has on whether or not they embrace sports.
No Fun, No Gain is a study conducted by Swiss Psychologist Silvia Meyer at Basel University in which intrinsic motivation—self-generated—is the prominent determinative factor in staying in sports versus extrinsic reasons which can cause them to quit playing.
Intrinsic motivation is defined as an action resulting from one's internal drive: the activity itself is enjoyable, and external factors do not play a role. By contrast, extrinsic motivation is behavior prompted by external incentives, such as rewards, avoiding punishment, or the expectations of others.
The essence of Dr. Meyer’s work complements works of other sports studies which show that the most important factor in keeping a young athlete’s interest in playing is fun and freedom of choice prevail.
