Sports are the one thing that comes to a parents mind whenever their child has nothing productive to do and are just lying around. As we get older, sports can become relatively stressful to us because we constantly worry about homework, school, and occasionally work, but that is not always the case with young children. When we are younger we have countless amounts of energy stored in our bodies and hardly run out of it. This is why sports can truly be beneficial for us, especially when we begin to participate in them at a young age. Although some people believe parents try to become coaches to their children on the field, children should still be pushed to compete in sports at an early age by their parents but to a certain extent. This is because sports will make them tough, know how to handle a win and a loss, and make them less likely to get into trouble. “More than 30 million children and adolescents in the United States participate in group or individual sports (Engle).” The messages in the media, however are often contradictory – sports are healthy; sports are stressful, even dangerous – sports promote cooperation, sports breed unhealthy competition and burnout (Engle). According to the United Nations Report on Sport, Recreation and Play, physical inactivity was estimated to cause 1.9 million deaths worldwide annually in 2000. Research shows that, in addition to being a source of just plain fun, sports promote healthy development in many areas including positive effects that last into adulthood (Engle). Sports help physical, cognitive, academic, psychological, and character development. The definition of pushed or pushing simply means exerting force (someone or something), typically with one’s hand, in order to move...
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...We can do this by constantly competing on and off the field all the time. Until we have no more breathes, no more energy, and no more live left in us, we have to keep on performing at a high level. Sports are like a book. If we read and read it all the time, we will have the extreme knowledge about everything the sport has to offer. We need sports to live content and that is a fact. Just Play It.
Works Cited
Engle, Marianne. "Kids and Sports: Creating a Healthy Experience for Every Child | AboutOurKids.org." Kids and Sports. N.p., n.d. Google. 18 Mar. 2014.
Heffernan, Lisa. "Why Parents Should Push Their Kids to Play Team Sports." Empty Nest Parenting: Grown and Flown. N.p., 20 Nov. 2013. Google. 18 Mar. 2014.
McCormick, John. "Kids and Team Sports: Should Parents Push Their Children to Play?" TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Feb. 2013. Google. 18 Mar. 2014.
Kanters, Michael, and Cheryl A. Estes. "Parents And Youth Sports." Parks & Recreation 37.12 (2002):
Sports help them stay in shape because, the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit organization that does humanistic studies, said, “Exercise is one of the least expensive ways to stay healthy, with one study finding that exercise can prevent chronic diseases as effectively as medication,” (Aspen Institute). One of the many benefits of playing sports is that the children will build character. Building character is important because with character they will make new friends and develop different skills. Playing sports at a young age can build character in many ways, “Playing sports at a young age enables children to participate in social interactions and build skills such as teamwork, leadership, and responsibility as they learn to work with others to achieve a common goal,” (Aspen Institute).
Participating in a sport at an early age can be essential to the overall growth process during a child’s upbringing. Whether the participation is through some sort of organized league or just getting together amongst friends and playing, the lessons learned from this can help teach these kids and provide a positive message to them as they develop. There is a certain point, however, when organized sports can hinder progress, which is when adults get too involved and forget about the underlying reason to why they are helping. While adult involvement is necessary, adult involvement can sometimes send the wrong message to children when they try to make participation become more than just about fun and learning. According to Coakley (2009), “organized sports are worth the effort put forth by adults, as long as they do what is in the best interest of their children and put that thought ahead of their own agenda” (Coakley, p. 151). This is a valid argument because once adults put themselves in front of the children and their values, it needs to be re-evaluated as to why they first got involved in the beginning. Partaking in organized sport and activity from a young age can be beneficial to the overall development of children, as long as decisions actions are made in the best interest of the children and not stemming from ulterior motives of adults.
Sports are a popular pastime among all ages and types of people. People not only participate in them for fun, but also for money, physical fitness, rush of competition, and for many other personal reasons. Playing sports is especially common among young people in schools. Athletics are great and enjoyable for many reasons, but there can be a point where sports participation can go too far and become negative for children and adults. Sports specialization for young people is an increasing trend that results in sports having a negative impact on individuals and society.
Jessica Statsky, in her essay, “Children need to Play, Not Compete” attempts to refute the common belief that organized sports are good for children. She sees organized sports not as healthy pass-times for children, but as onerous tasks that children do not truly enjoy. She also notes that not only are organized sports not enjoyable for children, they may cause irreparable harm to the children, both emotionally and physically. In her thesis statement, Statsky states, “When overzealous parents and coaches impose adult standards on children's sports, the result can be activities that are neither satisfying nor beneficial to children” (627). While this statement is strong, her defense of it is weak.
Chen, Grace. "Pros and Cons of Sports Competition at the High School Level." Publicschoolreview.com. Public School Review, n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
Youth sports are a staple in nearly every American’s childhood as highlighted in “Children Need to Play, Not Compete” by Jessica Statsky. Statsky makes two contentions in favor of this argument: first, that the participants of youth sports are not physically and psychologically ready, and second, that the mentality of win or lose is more harmful than helpful during the formative years of a child’s development. I agree with Statsky that children’s sports are too often over competitive, but some competition is beneficial to their development.
Our society, in terms of world sports, has grown increasingly impressive. Most professional athletes have been playing their specialized sport since grade school, and although impressive, the people we are rooting for are wearing out quickly. Although youth sports programs are a health benefit to society, they also pose disadvantages to a young person’s growth and development.
Each year, parents are spending thousand of dollars on team fees alone not including all the extras like coaching, equipment, and uniforms. Parents are spending all this extra money to one-up each other and to have the better kid. Rosenwald acknowledges, “Parents now start their kids in sports as toddler, jockey to get them on elite teams, and spend small fortunes on private coaching, expensive equipment, sway and travel to tournaments” (Rosenwald). It is like a game for the parents now too. One parent will spend this much money and then the next parent will go spend even more money and it just keeps going. The public refers to these youth sports as the new keeping up with the Joneses. Parents are spending big bucks now to believe the more money they spend now, the more likely their kid will get a college scholarship later on. The article reveals, “The number of children playing a team sport is falling, with experts blaming a parent-driven focus on elite travel clubs, specialization in one sport, and pursuit of scholarships for hurting the country’s youth sports leagues” (Rosenwald). Although this money spending train has made youth sports a large industry, many children are starting to hate sports because of the amount of pressure their parents put on them. The author adds, “Many of the adults trying to fix the problem remember a simpler, less expensive time in youth sports. There was no travel
Youth sports are a very important part of a child’s development. Youth sports allows kids to grow as a people and to learn important life lessons. Youth sports also allow kids to interact with people as well as work together with others as a unit to achieve a goal. However, kids are being forced, and pushed in sports at too young of an age by their parents. The number of kids who play youth sports is at an all time low in the country, and parents are a major cause of the problem. In the U.S. by age 15, 80 percent of children who play a sport quit the sport (Atkinson). Kids are being pushed too hard at a young age; children are also being forced by their parents to “specialize” in a single sport in a hope for the child to become a professional
Rosewater, Ann. "Playing Well - Organized Sports and the Health of Children and Youth." Up2Us - Home. Up2Us, May 2010. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.
McCormick, John. "Kids and Team Sports: Should Parents Push Their Children to Play?"The HuffingtonPost.com. The Huffington Post, 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
youth sports [were] the one haven for good sportsmanship," says Darrell Burnett, a clinical child psychologist and youth sports psychologist. "Not anymore. It's not just a game anymore." With technology (etc) distracting our children with violence and so on, we cannot afford to ruin what sports may do for them. With sports being just one of the few things left that can contribute to success in life, education, and health, parents need not to put any sort of unnecessary pressure on their kids at such a young age, or any age for that matter, ever.
According to the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS), there were over 40 million boys and girls participating in organized sports in 2008. With numbers like these, which continue to rise every year, it would certainly be of benefit to highlight the positives behind all this participation. This becomes especially important with the seemingly heavy media concentration on the opposing side of the fence where the negative tends to make a better news story. As a current physical educator and former coach, national champion, and parent of two Division I athletes, the positive aspects of athletic sports participation is a focus having deep meaning for me.
Let’s review the Pros of children taking part in organized sports: physical activity, socialization, health competition, self-esteem, and discipline. With every action there is an equal reaction also known as the Cons of children taking part in organized sports: which are injuries, cost, stress, and lost family time together.Some of the benefits of playing outdoor sports, are stated by Adnan Samia in an article entitled “Benefits of Sports.” In schools today the break time is hardly 20 to 30 minutes. Playing outdoor games enhance endurance, flexibility, improve balance as well as strengthen bones and muscles. Sports help in developing better hand-eye co-ordination and fast foot movement. The children who play sports are less likely to get arthritis and diabetes than their peers who do not exercise or play games.