The Negative Effects Of Competitive Sports

While there are many positives that come from children participating in sports, there are also many negative things that tend to be ignored by a majority of people. There have always been people that have “burned out” of their sport, but the number of children who are quitting their sport is increasing while the age at which they’re quitting is decreasing. Why is this happening you ask? It’s pretty simple. Competitive sports just aren’t the way that they used to be. Now it’s all about winning and being the best instead of what it should be about for children: improving, learning new skills, staying in shape, and having a good time with their friends. In addition, the training schedules are becoming much more intense, which is scaring children away from competitive

In addition to the lack of rest, high commitment competitive sports require children to give up school time to further themselves in their sport. Nowadays, there is an abundance of sporting events that are scheduled either during school, or during a time of day that requires children to miss some school in order to make the event on time. Scheduling sporting events during a time that requires students to miss school promotes that sports is more important than their schooling. I spoke with my friend Emilie Hawks, who has been a competitive soccer player (for both club and high school) for 14 years about her different tournaments that have caused her to miss a lot of school. “I first time I remember missing school for soccer was for a tournament in third grade. I left school early on a Friday, and I thought it was the best thing ever,” Hawks said. “After that, it was maybe two to three times a year that I would miss a Friday or Monday for a soccer tournament in elementary school, depending on where the tournament was at. Once I got to middle school, I started missing a lot more since my team entered MRL