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Children and sport
Impact of parents on youth sports
Are competitive sports good for children
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Jessica Statsky in “Children Need to Play, Not Compete” highlights the danger of how some children’s sports are becoming too intense and competitive for young children. Statsky states that a lot of sports for kids ages six to twelve are starting to get very competitive, which is causing some kids to not want to play in the game. Specifically sports like football and soccer, which can be more rough than others, can cause kids to be afraid to play. Sometimes, kids will even fake an injury or act sick just so they do not have to go back into the game. Statsky also points out that sports for these young kids are getting this way because of coaches and parents. The coaches of course want to win, which in return can put a lot of pressure on the children
In the United States today the age for a kid to start playing competitive sports continues to get lower and lower. Parents in America have started to get their children involved in sports at a much earlier age than they used to, hoping that their child will be the next superstar. Parents are placing too much emphasis on winning and being the best, instead of teaching their children how to have fun. Parents in the U.S. are also placing too much pressure on their kids to be the best. Parents in America are becoming much too involved in youth sports and are starting to get out of control, sometimes even resorting to violence and vulgarity.
Kids are playing in a pressure pot full of stress and this is dangerous. They feel over-responsible toward team mates, parents and coaches and in consequence, are playing with chronic pain and even concussions. One-Sport Wonder Kids are deciding by ages 9-10 they want to excel in one sport in order to win a college scholarship.
In the article “Should Kids Play Football” from the Scholastic Scope on February 2015, writer Jennifer Shotz discusses both issues of the benefits and dangers of playing American football. For example, Jennifer Shots mentioned that tens of thousands of young football players get concussions every year. She states that most players return to the game after they are healed but some never return because their concussion was too severe to their health. On the other hand, the writer also discusses how football isn't the only sport that encounters concussions. The rules of football are always changing and each new rule provides a safer way to play the game. For example, the writer notes that Pop Warner has reduced the amount of practice time dedicated
After first reading the essay “Sports Should be Child’s Play,” I believe David Epstein made a valid point when discussing the issue of children participating in competitive sports at a too young of an age. He effectively delivered his argument by giving an appropriate amount of evidence without crowding the piece and losing the reader. There were certain sections of the essay that would have been difficult to understand without context, however Epstein was able to guide the reader and explain the evidence and situation when necessary. The title of the essay drew me in because “child's play” coincides with something that can be easily accomplished and is enjoyable. However sports, at the higher level, are challenging and are required to be taken seriously. If children are playing at competitive level too early in their life, it can cause a loss of enjoyment and be detrimental to their physical and mental health.
Once the whistle blows most people are more focused on the goal of the game, which is to win. This causes them to not fully enjoy the game and just go through the motion and the flow of the game. Children today are not allowed to just have fun because a lot of parents and coaches put a lot of pressure on them and are focused on winning. In Statsky’s writing, she explained how during scrimmage, the children are having fun and enjoying their time, but once the game starts, the happiness seems to disappear from the children’s faces. This proves how kids just want to have fun and not be competitive. Also, most children are afraid of failure, which might keep them from performing at their best ability during a competitive game, even if they are capable of it. It will also make them scared to play in competitive sports because they don’t want to let their team down. Without competition early on, children are allowed to just have fun with their friends, which is what most children at their age what to do. Also at a young and tender age, most children do not want to ram hard into their friends and it can be a traumatic experience for young kids who do. In addition, if the kid themselves end up getting hit, the child might never fully enjoy the sport and might not want to play the sport ever again. All in all, without competition at a young age, children are able to just play the sport for fun without fear and develop their skills, which may later on help them when they do decide to play
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.
Young athletes put in danger by the competition, aggressiveness, and intensity of sports. Kids everyday are being pushed past limits by coaches parents and fans. The intensity of sports has become so high they are causing mental and physical exhaustion. Sports like wrestling has kids eat different to either lose gain weight. Football player, Baseball player, and even cheerleader have to work out in extreme temperatures. Some kids involved in competitive sports have been taking weight lifting classes and even just conditioning. The youth are being put in danger due to how competitive, aggressive, and intense youth sports have become.
More specifically, children are also increasingly pressured--again, usually by parents and coaches--to specialize in one sport and to play it year-round, often on several different teams (Perry). Now, if sports specialization is such a great idea, then why are kids being “pressured”? As stated before, sports specialization can result in severe injury or even retirement from sports all together. Evidently, parents would not want to risk their athlete’s entire athletic career just because of an overuse injury. Knowing this, a diversity in sports activities is the solution to the problem. Additionally, a specialization in sports can lead to the young athlete not experiencing a sport that he or she may truly enjoy in their life. If a parent already makes a child decide on a sport to play, how will the child know if that is the sport they truly want to participate in? As the child ages, they could realize that the sport they play now is not one that they love anymore, so they could just quit. Deciding at such a young age is not only a hasty decision, but also a terrible one. Finally, this specialization can also create social problems. If a child is already so competitively involved in a sport, then their social lives and relationships with friends are at risk. The clear choice here is to let the child live a normal life by allowing them to make friends and play, rather than taking over their lives with competitive
Competitive sports are a very hot topic right now, and people have different views on children participating in them. Some may think that competitive sports help children to be healthier, because they are very active during practices and games. Although this is a good reason, sports can lead to concussions and other dangerous injuries. The truth of the matter is that sports can be very dangerous, and they can lead to many other problems. Children shouldn’t be playing competitive sports because they can get concussions or other dangerous injuries, they can develop excessive amounts of stress, and they can develop poor attitude.
A calm Saturday afternoon at the sports fields, wind blowing, sun shining down, not a cloud in the sky. This is quite possible the perfect day, that is, until they start. The one parent in the back of the crowd or off to the side, the one that argues every call, screams at their own child, and even goes so far as to taunt the other team’s players. This once scarce phenomenon of parents getting out of control has escalated to new levels not only in the number of incidents, but also in the level of severity of these incidents. When children sign up for sports they do it to be with friends, to have fun, and to learn the fundamentals of the game, however this is not what they are getting and this new parental behavior is killing youth sports. It is documented that 14 million of the 20 million kids that play sports starting around age four will quit by age 13, most kids give the same two reasons, negative parents and negative coaches. These adults have turned sports into a negative, joyless experience. What are these events that are happening, what is causing them to happen, and perhaps most importantly what can be done stop this growing trend in parental violence at youth sporting events?
It is not just the injuries that are playing a major effect in kids, but it is the physical and mental draining that is coming from their parents and coaches. Parents are pushing their kids to do all this extra stuff to make them the best on the team. Gerdy reports, “Youth sports programs are no longer about meeting the educational, development, and recreational needs of children but rather about satisfying ego needs of the adults” (Gerdy). These children no longer have a chance to learn the simply fundamentals because of their parents forcing them to the next level too early. Parents are also causing disturbances during their child’s game. Parent misconduct in youth sports refers to any disruptive, abusive, or violent behavior parents. The article responds, “The main purpose of youth sports, that is, to teach and guide young athletes in skill development in their sport of choice, to provide encouragement and support, to build self-esteem, and to allow children to have fun while exercising” (Atkinson). Parents have begun to promote the total opposite but screaming at their kid to do better instead of encouraging. These violent calls from the parents begin to produce emotional suffering and damage to the child because they begin to think too much about being perfect all the time and not enough about just having fun. Also, when these children are the parents and their kids are playing they will
Do you remember playing outside as a kid? After finishing your homework, your parents would give you the magnificent privilege in breathing in the nice air? Playing outside with your friends doing whatever game you guys came up with? Those were the good old days. Nowadays, kids won 't organize or play sports by themselves unless there 's a league with adults organizing it. They 'd rather play video games. Nearly every child today, at one point has played at least one sport in their life. Whether it was Little League Baseball, Pee-wee Football, etc. Organized youth sports have changed dramatically over the years. There’s even kids as young as three starting organized sports. Heywood Hale Broun once said that “Sports do not build the
Some of the effects can turn into very serious issues. Sports are a great thing to watch, but on the other hand everyone needs a childhood not just of sports ”We have a generation of children that have been pushed to achieve parental dreams instead of their own, and prodded to do more, more, more and better, better, better. The pressure and anxiety is stealing one thing our kids will never get back; their childhood” (The Race to Nowhere in Youth Sports). Childhood is one thing every kid needs to experience at a young age, sports can happen any time during childhood however don’t let it take over your childhood. If they want to play sports at that age that’s the parent 's choice although “Today’s athletes start earlier than ever, with kids as young as 2 or 3 taking sports lessons and joining leagues by age 5. About 26.1 million children, more than half of all 6 to 17 year-olds, suit up and play a team sport” (Hyman). At the age of 2 or 3 toddlers can get hurt way too easily. At that age, most don’t have a concept of what is going on during the game. Children need a say of what they want to play “Parents have too much control in our sports, the two and three year olds don’t need to be playing yet. It’s the parents that force the kids to play at that age” (Hyman). Not every kid will play college or even professional, but yet if we start them even younger the more we burn them out and no longer want to play. Sports can cause
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.
I understand that many parents do not want their child to play in competitive sports