Parent Involvment in Youth Sports
Nine out of ten kids say the reason they play youth sports to have fun. However, “80% of children drop out of youth sports by the age of 12” (Reed). Some of the most common reasons children drop out of youth sports can range from something as simple as not having fun anymore for something as complex to feel as if the parents/coach is being unfair to them, like constantly getting judged after every game. Parents can avoid this all by supporting, not overbearing, being aware of the National Association of Youth Sports (NAYS), and making sure the child is enjoying him/herself. The overall outcome of youth sports should be for the child to find something they enjoy and to have fun doing it. Most kids try various
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Most youth athletic programs depend on parent volunteers to keep the program running. Sports can be expensive, so if the parent or supporter of the child participating in the spending the money to buy the equipment, such as shin guards, padding, sneakers or cleats, uniforms and practice wear, balls, and participation fee the supporter wants the child to genuinely enjoy the sport. Parents provide an essential support system for athletes, their involvement may be as simple as transportation to the games and practices to games, and supporting the child on the sidelines (Mackenzie). Every team has different types of parents, but from just being the dad who comes to games every once and awhile to the full out soccer mom that car-pools and attends every event they both have an equal role in support. Parents also support the organization through all the fundraising and money they put into it or cutting orange slices for halftime or making sure the players have water. Many youth sport teams do fundraisers and depend on the parents to host them. Fundraising sometimes will go directly to the team and end up saving you money in the long run and others may go directly to the organization to keep it running. A parent should support the child through the losses and wins, having the child understand both are okay.The game, practice or any sort of performance should belong to the child. The games should …show more content…
The parent cannot do it for them so they must support them (Singh). Parents try to live through their child's shoes and that is not a healthy aspect of the child. The parent can be involved and give their child help but how they do it is key. The parent may encourage the child to do their best to reach their best potential, but the parent cannot over coach or hen helping them remember the parent is the parent and not their coach so be supportive and make sure they are having fun. Stress the process, not the outcome to be a great player of any sport it takes hard work and practice, even the people that it comes naturally to it still takes hard work to become great and no players are perfect. A child could play the best game of their life and they could have won, lost or tied. For example, a soccer team who is having a bad year could be playing one of the toughest teams in their division and say they play a great game, but still lose by one, that team is still going to come off feeling great because they played great against a great team, it could have been there best game of the season. A parent plays a huge role in how the child feels for the sport when a child is playing any sport, it is more mental than skill, therefore the child must have the mindset to try their best and play hard. a parent may make them second guess every move they make their game
The amount of unnecessary behavior by parents at youth sporting events is increasing rapidly and is ruining the kid's experiences and their passion for the sports. Parents in the United States are becoming more involved in their children's sports than the kids themselves. The reason that so many young American athletes are quitting at such an early age is because their parents are making the sports a joyless experience and are placing too much pressure on the kids to win and to be the best. Parents have become out of control at youth sports and it seems that the kids are showing more civility than the parents these days. Parents need to get back to teaching their kids that sports should be played for fun and not just for showing who's the best.
On average 35 million children play youth sports each season and 85% of coaches are parents coaching their own kids. Whether basketball, soccer, baseball, or softball; furthermore, involves players, parents, referees, and a ball; additionally, if it is played as a game, in a tournament, is practiced, it will require a coach. This single figurehead will often be the deciding factor as to the level of satisfaction everyone involved receives from the experience. Coaching youth sports can be a balancing act between developing good players and cultivating great kids.
There are two ways parents can avoid youth sports burnout for their children: making sure the children have a healthy balance in their lives and giving the children input into decisions. While sports require dedication in order to achieve a high level
I have been playing sports for as long as I can remember, from taekwondo to swimming to basketball to everything. Every time a game or tournament came up I knew that my parents would be at those events, criticizing every one of my moves. I vividly remember one time, I was at my taekwondo tournament, after performing I looked over to my parents at the sidelines to see their reaction on my performance and I remember them being upset and angry at me. At that moment, I was not looking forward to the car ride back home because I knew that I was going to get an earful. The rest of the event was ruined for me because I simply did not have any interest left due to what was going to happen later on. Needless to say, parents should skip out on attending their kids’ games/events unless they can be supportive and quiet.
Looking back at Statskys essay she noted that children quits sports mostly “apart from their change in interest” but also because of “…lack of playing time, failure and fear of failure, disapproval by significant others and psychological stress ” (3) one will agree with me that teenagers are influenced by the parents, coaches and their friends. This group of people are considered as outside forces in every sport thereby making them loose interest in sports and not the sport discouraging the children from indulging. I do not agree that competitive sport is derailing Children advantage to partake in sporting competitions; rather it tends to develop their skills, needs and abilities.
...es in Youth Sports: A Comparison Between Players' and Parents' Perspectives.". N.P., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Everyone agrees that parent involvement is a good thing. But when the parent behaves inappropriately, it creates a poor environment for the children to learn and enjoy themselves. "Sideline rage" with parents behaving badly at youth sports events is such an epidemic, that 76% of respondents from 60 high school athletic associations said increased spectator interference is causing many officials to quit (Associated Press, 6/3/01). Parents are supposed to be role models, and the lessons they teach will determine their values and actions in the future. These days violence in children's sports is not limited to the playing field; overbearing parents are creating dangerous situations on the field.
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?
At this early stage of the child’s life, it is nearly impossible to believe a child could make a split second decision to make the winning play. The brains of these children are simply not yet wired to make those decisions. It’s through experience that the necessary connections are made in the brain and in turn create the possibility of those amazing plays. Most parents are simply observers during games, and thus it is far too easy to allow expectations for their child to be the star player run rampant. The parents have most likely been alive for three times longer than their child, which means they’ve had considerably more experience both within and outside the realm of sports. The failure to realize that their child lacks experience and thus can’t always act in the same way that the parents would have creates an environment that harms a child’s sense of worth and
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
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.
Sports teach kids to learn many life lessons, lessons that will be important such as working in a team or working hard toward a goal. Parents are far too involved in youth sports. In our current time, kids have no independence in sports, everything is parent run, with the intentions of the parent trying to have their kids win and become elite superstars. Atkinson writes in an article that in his home town of Methuen Massachusetts he and all the other kids in his town used to organize all the sports, and parents would help cover the financial part, but the sport itself was directed by the kids, the way youth sports should be run, for the interest of the kids. Kids should determine what goes on; kids should be able to experiment with different sports in a non hostile environment in which they can fun. Having fun is most important in youth sports along with learning life lessons. Kids who enjoyed youth sports growing up were more likely to go onto play high school sports (Atkinson). Of course there are exceptions in which some kids will want to be pushed in a sport; however, it must have the child's desire to be pushed not the parents’(Hatter). Lastly, as important as sports are in society in the 21st century especially in the U.S. kids need to be able to have a life outside of sports. Kids should be able to have fun away from sports (Katen). Kids should be kids, very few kids will be going professional in sports, and it is important kids
These days, there is too much pressure on children who participate in organized sports because of the unnecessary parental involvement they experience. A growing concern amongst those involved in youth sports is that certain aspects of parental involvement become detrimental to the development and experiences of young athletes. Early emphasis on winning, making money, and the disruption of education can exceedingly affect ones desire to further participate in a sport later on in his/her life.
However, children need to learn how to lose and how to be a team player. Also, some parents’
Sports is the most universal out-of-school-time (OST) activity among youths today. However, many of these youth are also participating in one or more OST activity in addition to a sports activity. Psychological studies on the value that youth sports offer to the positive youth development (PYD) of children have resulted in a vast array of conclusions which often contradict each other. Researchers often focus on the OST activities in general and less specifically on sports activity among high school youths. The researchers of this article studied the participation dimensions among adolescent youths between the fifth and seventh grades. These dimensions have not been differentiated in other studies (Zarrett, et al., 2009). This article will present a more comprehensive approach in the study of examining the benefits that sports participation has on youth development. Specifically, total time spent participating in OST activities, duration of participation in sports, and number of activities provides a more concise understanding to the relationship between several OST activities along with sports participation. Researchers hope that information from this study will lead to future research that exceeds some of the limitations found in this study.