Across the country, young people are dropping out of organized sports. The share of kids ages 6 to 17 who participated in a team sport dropped by nearly 5 percentage points between 2017 and 2022. The decline isn’t primarily because kids are losing interest, though. Rather, what they’re losing is access — especially as the cost of participation continues to rise.

Reversing this trend — and making sports more financially accessible — is critically important for kids’ mental and physical health. So it’s worth looking at some of the barriers sports have faced, and how tennis is forward-thinking this matter.

It’s no secret that learning and playing a sport at an early age can prove enormously valuable in a whole host of ways. As a growing body of research confirms, sports participation is associated with lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression in young people — as well as better self-esteem, improved cognition, and heightened physical literacy. Physical activity releases endorphins, feel-good hormones that put you in a better frame of mind, and enhances brain connections. It helps kids maintain a healthy weight, and sets young people on a physical, mental and social path to a lifetime of healthy habits.

These benefits have grown all the more important now that America finds itself in a youth mental health crisis. In 2023, an astonishing 40% of American high schoolers experienced symptoms of depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And nearly one in ten were at risk of suicide.

Part of this is fueled by inadequate physical activity.  Even though the federal government recommends that youth get an hour or more a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity, the majority do not adhere to these recommendations. Youth sports programs are the perfect solution for adhering to these scientifically sound guidelines.

Barriers to sport involvement, especially financial ones, have been growing ever more formidable. The average cost of playing youth basketball, for instance, was over $1,000 a year in 2022, a study by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play found. Soccer was almost 20% more expensive, at $1,188 a year on average. No wonder nearly two-thirds of families say the cost of youth sports is a financial strain. Around 11% of families were planning to take on debt to pay for these sports, which means that a critical, foundational pathway to health and wellness is not accessible to many – a social determinant of health we cannot ignore.

Tennis is one of the few sports to counter the broader trend of inaccessibility to sport. Since 2019, the number of Americans ages 6 and older playing tennis has increased by 34% — and currently stands at 23.8 million.

Part of this success is due to tennis’s relatively low barriers to entry, especially compared to more equipment-heavy games like hockey, football, or skiing. All you need to get started in tennis is a racquet and a few balls — maybe $30 worth of equipment in total — and access to one of the nation’s roughly 270,000 tennis courts, which are typically free to use. Even those without access to a court can begin building their skills against a concrete wall.

Modest equipment costs are only part of the story of tennis’ growth. In the United States and around the globe, the game has found ways to adjust itself to a wide range of populations and to people of all ages and abilities, including individuals who are too often told they cannot participate in sport because of physical, mental, emotional, or age-related challenges.

Tennis recognizes that not everyone needs to play on the same size court and by the same rules as Taylor Fritz or Coco Gauff.

All the way down to beginner youth (and all the way up to the elderly), adaptations are available, ranging from the speed and size of the ball, the size and weight of the racket, the size of the court, rules of service, scoring, and the length of a match. That way, the game is accessible at all levels of play. Importantly, wheelchair tennis has made a major breakthrough, and is an exciting variant of the game that’s widely available around the country.

Tennis is also a game young people can easily continue playing into adulthood. There are local leagues and competitions across the country for players 18 and over, 40 and over, and even 95 and over — with more than 330,000 players participating. And the World Tennis Association allows players of all ages to play together at a similar skill level.

By being accommodating to players of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, tennis has been able to include huge numbers of people across the country who might not otherwise be able to participate in sport.

Sports remain one of our best tools for combatting the crisis in youth health, both physical and mental. To fulfill that potential, all sports need to look for opportunities to expand their reach through custom tailoring to meet players where they are. And to continue this expanded reach for life.

Brian Hainline, MD is Chair of the Board and President of the United States Tennis Association and recently transitioned from the NCAA as their Chief Medical Officer. He co-chaired the International Olympic Committee Consensus Meetings on both Pain Management in Elite Athletes and Mental Health in Elite Athletes. Dr. Hainline is Clinical Professor of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
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