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.
Coakley (2009) starts off the chapter by introducing how participation in organized sports came about and how gender roles played a major role early on. He describes how most programs were for young boys with the hope that being involved would groom them to become productive in the economy. Girls were usually disregarded and ended up sitting in the stands watching their sibling’s ga...
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Lazar K., Gardner J. (2009, October 19). Police Investigate Ball Field Violence. Retrieved November 1, 2010, from Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/19/wilmington_parent_injurei_after_spat_with_pop_warner_coach
Sink M. (2002, January 31). HOCKEY; Youth Game Postponed After Fight by Parents. Retrieved November 1, 2010, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/01/sports/hockey-youth-game-postponed-after-fight-by-parents.html
Stein G., Raedeke T., Glenn S. (1999). Children’s Perception of Parent Sport Involvement: It’s Not How Much, But to What Degree That’s Important. Journal of Sport and Behavior, 22, 591-601.
Gatz, Margaret, Michael A. Messner, and Sandra Rokeach. Paradoxes of youth and sport. Albany: State University of New York, 2002.. 12-13.
Parents in the U.S. today are becoming too involved in youth sports and are getting out of control. In the July 24, 2000 issue of Sports Illustrated, there is an article by William Nack and Lester Munson about a father in Massachusetts who killed another father over a little dispute about youth hockey. On July 5, 2000 Thomas Junta, a father of two, got into what seemed to be a minor shoving match with Michael Costin, a father of four, over a play in a hockey practice. After a while the fight was broken up and Junta left the ice arena. A little while later Junta returned with "clenched fists" and pinned Costin to the ground. With Costin's children standing just a few feet away and pleading with Junta to stop, Junta pummeled Costin with punches to the face and slammed Costin's head into the hard rubber mats that covered the floor. By the time someone was able to pull Junta off of him, Costin's face was so badly beaten that even his own children could barely recognized him. Costin was left in a coma and died two days later. This shows that p...
One Generation Later, by Huffman, S. Tuggle., C & Rosengard, D.S, explores the relevant discrepancies in media coverage. The authors assert that more boys than girls indulge in sports activities in school. Studies have examined the impact of Title IX on media coverage given to female athletes as opposed to male athletes to determine if there has been a shift away from negative social stereotypes that are traditionally associated with women’s sports participation toward a more socially accepting view of the female athlete.
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Heffernan, L. E. (2013, October 10). Parents Ruin Sports for Their Kids by Obsessing About Winning. Retrieved April 28, 2014
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
(Callender, n.d.). With this participation gradually increasing in the U.S. adolescents, sport specialization including year-round sport specific training, participation on multiple teams of the same sport, and focused participation in a single sport is also claimed to be increasing in frequency in predolescent children across the world (Mostafavifar, n.d.). Children have been involved in little leagues since the 1800’s, and with the rising problems of obesity in today’s children, I believe it is important to encourage involvement in physical activity. This could be either a positive or negative viewpoint on early sport specialization, depending on how it is looked at. It is estimated that between 18 and 28 million American children are to be involved in some type of organized sports participation.
Pallerino, M.J. (n.d.). Parental violence at youth sporting events in increasing. Retrieved February 10, 2011 from www.collegesportsscholarships.com: http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/youth-sport-violent-ugly-parent.htm
Youth sports parenting can be very impactful for children depending on the parenting style. In the article of “Why Kids Quit Sports” the author discusses the major roles that parents play in their kid’s youth sports life. He discusses a personal experience that he had before with a young player from his little league discussing a conversation with one of his team players. He says that a young athlete had told him that she did not want to do sports anymore because her dad kept on coaching her in the car and sidelines of each game. She stated, “I can’t play when he is around, and he insists on coming to every game, every road trip, you name it. It’s like it’s more important to him than it is to me” (“Why Kids Quit Sports”). Parents are the main
Rowley, S. (1986). The role of the parent in youth sports. In G.R. Gleeson (Ed.), The Growing Child in Competitive Sport, (pp. 92-99). London: Hoddon and Stoughton.
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.
In an interesting article titled “Fatherhood and Youth Sports”, Lucas Gottzen discusses the challenges and advantages of having a father involved while participating in youth sports. Gottzen believes that, “men are expected to be emotionally present and involved in their children’s everyday lives” (Gottzen 640). It is believed that the competitive aspect of sports participation, with its emphasis on performance pursues fathers to be more challenging and demanding. For example, if a father expects his child to be more athletic than they actually are, a deranged father may develop. This eventually pushes the child to no longer be interested in the sport. Gottzen believes that fathers give their child that source of competitiveness that a mother will not be able to provide. Men have a way of fathering their children through sports in which they may learn everyday lessons that will help them get through
The lives of a family involved in sports are undeniably different than those who don’t. Tight schedules, competitiveness, and frequent road trips create an interesting family dynamic. Perhaps the only thing more interesting than the child athlete themselves is the parents. Parents crowding the sidelines and yelling as their children chase and try to kick a ball through a square. In my experience I have noticed these parents can be divided pretty easily into three categories. The first main category of soccer parent is the over bearing ever present parent, followed by ever present cheerleading parents and finally the never present parents.
The results concluded that the adolescent’s view of their relationship with their parents was directly related to their involvement, positive and negative, in the teen’s sports career. The teens whose parents were overbearing and put too much emphasis on winning were less likely to think positively about their relationship with their parents, peers, and their involvement in sports (Sukys et al., p. 1514). The lack of a correlation between sport participation and peer attachment quality was mentioned throughout the
Mintel. (2010). Family ties key for children’s sport . Available: http://academic.mintel.com.atlas.worc.ac.uk/display/552523/?highlight. Last accessed 2nd January 2014.