Youth sports are getting more expensive, more competitive, and more structured at younger ages. So what happens to the kids and families who simply want a chance to play?
In this episode, Healthy Sports Parents founder Jonathan Carone talks with retired professional hockey player and Swift Hockey founder Zechariah Thomas about the growing barriers to youth sports. They discuss kids entering travel hockey as early as kindergarten, why taking a summer off can make it harder to make a winter team, the difference between formal training and simply playing, the rising cost of ice time, and why accessibility has become such an important part of Zechariah’s work.
Zechariah also shares what his own parents did to make hockey possible for him, why roller hockey could help more kids discover the sport, and the lesson he believes every sports parent needs to hear: let your kid be the one pulling you toward the game.
If youth sports are supposed to give kids opportunities to grow, learn, compete, and belong, we have to ask whether the system we’ve built is making those opportunities harder to reach.
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MORE FROM ZECHARIAH:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zechthomass/
Website: https://swifthockey.com/
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