If I own something does it hold more value?

Simple question with a simple answer: yes.  I met with a coach on Friday night and we chatted, as we tend to do, about what we believe matters in sport for children.  The answer we decided was that children feel, when the end arrives, that the journey was a good one.  I call this 'glass half full'.  Too many kids exit sport 'glass half empty'; unfulfilled and disappointed.  That's the ultimate shame for me.
This question is a simple litmus test for any sport or athletic program.  Instead of asking yourself (the coach) whether your program has value, ask the participants if the glass is half full or half empty.
In the course of our conversation last Friday, I has a moment of clarity and it's this: there is no ownership if engagement is not voluntary.
Our program involves the kids driving their own sessions.  We compose the sessions and then move around the kids as they are exercising, to make technical adjustments or to talk about why we're doing the task.  The kids are responsible for reading and executing the plan.
The most obvious outcome is comprehension.  The kids learn the language and the detail, in addition to the physical concepts (training targets and a variety of solutions).  This system also requires voluntarily engagement.  We get weak engagement from time to time but we don't micro-manage behaviour or 'drill' kids.  If someone is wasting time, they are asked to pull finger.  Only one specific circumstance has ever involved children being asked to leave the gym.
For a number of years, we provided gym services for a sports club and the arrangement involved compulsory enrolment in the gym program.  I had many low moments under this arrangement including grumpy, ungrateful/ disengaged parents and (unsurprisingly) disengaged and hard to manage children.  The problem was that enrolment was forced on parents and children.  It wasn't voluntary so they didn't own the decision.  The effect was a massive drop down from the very high engagement levels in all other gym programs.
I am certain that voluntary ownership improves outcomes for our participants.  I would go further to suggest that it's essential to helping children mature, and the raft of higher outcomes that extend from this.  The lessons I have learned also tell me that ownership and engagement are not outcomes of a program, but a function of expectation moment to moment and day to day.