Einleitung

Section 3: trends in youth sport
The authors reflect upon the role of the organisational setting for youths’ sports participation, including traditional sports and sports clubs as well as what they refer to as ‘sport light’ - the less organized/less structured modes of sports participation. We have known for a while that young people nowadays are less clubbable than hitherto (Roberts, 2008) and that when they cease actively participating in one sporting context (e.g. competitively) they sometimes take up the same or a similar activity in another, perhaps more recreational, setting (Coakley, 2007). In this regard, Borgers et al. investigate whether drop-out and drop-off from traditional/conventional sports participation in clubs during youth leads to drop-in to more recreational and informal forms of sport (sport light) - in effect, lifestyle sports — in late youth/early adulthood. In the process, the authors ask a number of questions regarding the organisational settings for sports participation in relation to life stage, the groups most involved in club-based sport, drop-out from clubs, and whether drop-out from clubs reflects decreasing patterns of sports participation in general as opposed to new ways of participation. Borgers et al. explore the popularity of different settings for sports participation among youth and why they choose particular contexts, as well as the appeal of sport light. Data derived from a large scale cross-sectional survey on sports participation in Flanders is utilised in order to develop profiles of sports participants in relation to the organisational setting of sports participation and preferences. In short, the findings of Borgers et al. suggest that whereas 15—18-year-old youths are more inclined to engage in the traditional club sports system, the life stage of youth is associated with drop-out from club-organised sport and, for some if not many, drop-in to sport light. Thus, Borgers and her colleagues conclude that the commonly reported issues of drop-out during youth should not be seen simply as drop-out from sport per se: moving away from sports clubs does not necessarily mean becoming inactive. In doing so, they remind us that youth should not be treated as a single participatory market - participation patterns differ not only with regard to sporting preferences but also in terms of the organisation of, and settings for, sporting practices.