For far too long, recreational programs have put too much emphasis on a traditional model that is not effective for player development and sadly does not allow players to have fun while learning the fundamentals of a sport. A great solution to this problem that encourages five- to seven-year-olds is an approach called Biddy Ball. This article…

Young adults today are the least happy demographic group, departing from a long-established U-shaped relationship between life satisfaction and age in many countries worldwide. The longstanding U-curve reflects the unhappiness and stress that most people experience in the midlife years as they juggle financial and family constraints while both the…

This is the first story in a new series of success stories focused on restorative justice work. The work featured in these stories seeks to acknowledge the impact of harmful practices and creates opportunities to heal that harm between those who enacted it and those impacted by it to transform the community. This report discusses The Hive, which…

Youth sport coaches have an incredibly complex and challenging role. The physical developmental changes that youth and adolescents go through can seemingly happen overnight. It is not surprising, therefore, that coaches spend most of their time thinking about how to help players with their physical skills. However, the significant developmental…

Sport coaches can agree that various levels of practice and play contribute significantly to the overall development of a young athlete. Coaches of young athletes need to also address issues related to strength and conditioning as part of the developmental cycle. Unfortunately, many sport coaches are not well trained in the science related to…

What comes to mind when you think about skateboarding? Depending on your age (wink), your initial thoughts might range from "kid's toy" to "action sport," or from "thrilling" to "dangerous" or even "annoying noise." Although skateboarding bore the reputation of a rebellious counterculture in its…

When you don't have a hand, what could you have instead? This article introduces the impact of inviting youth with disabilities to learn tools and technology to design their own solutions and advocate for their own future. This approach to programming is rooted in a mindset of designing WITH, not FOR. Not only are design outcomes improved when…

Sport has the potential to serve as a context in which youth can develop as players and people. Positive youth development (PYD) through sport is a prevalent strength-based approach that aims to promote life skills acquisition in youth participants. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the utility of critically interrogating PYD through…

Wooden planks are a tool for developing youth skills through science, technology, engineering, and math exploration. These are small planks that can be stacked to create complex structures as youths explore math and physical relationships in an applied context. Building with wooden planks also cultivates planning, reasoning, and team skills as…

In Boston and Providence, youth serving organizations recognized a need to credential students' real-world skills including teamwork, perseverance and critical thinking. By issuing digital badges, a microcredential gaining traction in both workforce development and education, programs are equipping students with portable evidence of their skills,…

Programs that seek to engage participants in arts-based programming may be drawn to creative youth development (CYD), a youth-focused, holistic approach to learning through creative expression. As the Creative Youth Development National Partnership (2018) defines it, "'Creative youth development' is a recent term for a longstanding theory of…

Sea kayaking may be best understood through the insights and knowledge of people whose ancestors kayaked for survival. Greenland Camp, held over several days in late summer, is a kayaking event that draws paddlers from around the world to reconnect with one another and learn age-old and advanced skills of the Arctic's Inuit. Greenland Camp is a…

Positive youth development (PYD) is a strengths-based approach used by programs to support the development of young people's skills, nurture their interests and values, seek and incorporate their input, and connect them to positive adults and useful resources. PYD and racial equity practices are complementary, and a focus on racial equity is…

The Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program and National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development have forged a partnership with the goal of exploring the role youth sports can play in developing young people's social and emotional skills. With funding from the Susan Crown Exchange (SCE) and guidance from a strategic advisory…

Youth preparedness is all about teaching and training children and youth those skills that help them to be actively engaged in school safety every day and to be ready to jump in during and after emergencies. This Ready.gov article highlights several instances of how teens involved in Youth Preparedness Councils across the country stepped up to…