From Quartz, Matthew Bowers discusses a study which examined the relationship between childhood leisure hours and creativity as an adult and found that playing informal sports significantly related to creativity while time spent playing organized sports was negatively related to creativity. Matthew writes:
“Perhaps the single-most intriguing finding from our analysis was the fact that those individuals whose scores on the creativity assessment identified them as “above-average” were not children who eschewed organized sports in favor of the activities we traditionally associate with creativity (art, music, theater, etc.). Instead, the respondents with “above-average” creativity simply appeared to strike more balance between their time spent in organized and unstructured sport settings.
In fact, those scoring in the “above-average” creativity bracket reported spending 15% of their total childhood leisure time playing informal sports versus 13% playing organized sports. The participants with “below-average” creativity, on the other hand, spent only 10% of their childhood leisure time playing informal sports versus 22% in organized sports.
Read the full story at Making your kid play organized sports could cost them their creativity
I can see how this could be true. I never played sports as a kid, and always felt very different creatively from those who did. In some instances, I think exposure to competitive sports at a young age can do more harm than good.
I totally agree with you here, childhood is the only period of time in our life in which we can grow as much as possible. It’s time to find creativity and skills in kids. And in my opinion, organised sports prevent it from kids.
This was a fascinating post! I never grew up playing organized sports. Just pick-up games in the front yard with cousins and neighbors. It makes total sense though how organized sports could hamper a child’s creativity. This is something to keep in mind for my children as they get a bit older.