Unexpected Reward
Organized youth sports are excellent programs that every town in every state should offer to young people of their community. These programs help children to find their interests, build confidence, and make friends. All of these things are important in the development of a child. These are a few of the reasons that interested me in volunteering my services as an assistant coach of a Pop Warner football team, The Plymouth Vikings.
I coached children ages nine to eleven. I would help them with the fundamentals of football such as the proper way to hold the football when you run, the difference of pass blocking and run blocking, and how to tackle properly. It really made me feel good to know that I was helping kids improve their skills at a game they loved to play.
There was one boy that attended every practice, and seemed to be tuned in to every bit of information I gave the team. The boy’s name was Gregory; we all called him, “Goody.” Goody was the starting quarterback. Greg reminded me of myself when I was his age. He was always having fun when he played, he was always trying his best, and he was somewhat mischievous. Greg was just a normal eleven-year-old that loved to play football. He was the best player on the team. Goody could play any position; he could throw, run, catch, and play defense.
He had a great deal of potential on the field, but he was struggling in school. You hold a “C” average in school to play Pop Warner football. Greg was just barely making the grade. I didn’t want to see a kid with so much love for the game to be kicked off the team because he was not doing well in school. I began to talk to him about the issue and I would explain to him the importance of working hard in school just like he does on the football field. I told him that he should keep professional football as a dream, but to make school his first priority. At the time I really did not know if he listened to me or if he even cared what I had to say, but I knew I had tried to help him. I even offered to help him with homework. Goody never asked for help on his homework, but assured me he was doing better.
In football the entire team is needed for success or victory. Everyone needs a team, as Lemming says: “No player is bigger than the game” (52). Players have to depend on their team mates, and no one can win alone. Michael becomes a better football player when he joins a team and understands his position. He is an inexperienced football player until he joins a team and they help him. When Michael starts out he has no idea what he has to do as a member of the team (100). Once his role in the team is identified, he has a chance to support his team. He and his teammates work together and win the state championship (203). Michael goes from being unskilled player to someone pulling him aside and telling him he could be the best lineman ever to come out of Ole Miss (405). Michael goes from being useless on the field when joining the team, to becoming incredibly good through his team.
Kids just want to have fun. In a bygone era, parents wanted kids to play sports for fun and camaraderie. However, a new attitude is developing among coaches and parents, which is mopping-up fun from youth sports. Now it's all about the team and the game. The team must win the game at any cost.
Youth Soccer has evolved into a fiercely competitive arena. More and more children are leaving recreational leagues to play in highly competitive select leagues. Select leagues are made up of teams, which players must tryout or be selected to play for. I had the unfortunate task of being an evaluator at such a tryout. Fifty ten-year-old boys had come out for a three day tryout in which forty five of them were placed on three teams. Cuts were made on the field and for those boys who had made a team it was a very exciting, but for the five boys who were cut it was absolutely heartbreaking. Had the children been older they might have been able to deal with the disappointment better, but for most of them it was their first real experience with public "failure". Select leagues have the potential to teach and promote important life skills such as hard work,...
In the short story Big Boy by Jesse Hill Ford, Hake Morris allows his son, Big Boy, to play football in Somerton because he believes it will give him something to be proud of, when it in fact does the exact opposite.
By knowing your sport, you are on the path to gaining your players and parents trust. As a youth coach I have vast experience: 1 season coaching basketball, 2 seasons coaching softball, and 10 years coaching soccer.
First, a new theme in the story is that everyone has off days - from professional quarterback Tom Brady to the protagonist Nate Brodie, the state football star. The text states, “Second interception of the game. First time that had ever happened to Nate Brodie in his life.” (Lupica, 60) Although Nate does not have his best game against the Bears, he learns to shrug it off and that it happens to everyone in sports. “All week long he had tried to make a joke out of the Blair game, at least when he was with his teammates…” (Lupica, 92) This shows a new lesson in the story - that everyone
Youth sports can be a learning experience or it can be a health risk to the athletes. Youth sports can teach young children the value of hard work and discipline or it can be emotionally and physically damaging. Three main points are how sports keep you healthy, how they build character, and the values that they will learn from sports and how they will use in the future. These three ideas prove that youth sports can be healthy, they build character, and can teach them the value of hard work and discipline for your kid.
When he was 7 coaches noticed that he was soon to be a football star. In his teen years he was not only in football, but boy scouts, he was also in the choir at church, and in the marching band at his church. As much as he liked playing football, school came first, he spent many times reading books, and studying. In Jr. High Walter didn’t really want to play football, he usually went to his brothers games and practices. One day when practice was over, Eddie’s coach asked Walter to try out for the team, Eddie’s coach realized what talent he had, but was confused as to why he wasn’t going out. So the next day Walter tried out, at the end of the practice, Coach came up to Walter and said, “ Congrats you made the team”, Walter didn’t know how to react because he was scared and excited at the same time.
Growing up, my brothers participated in many sports activities. They played hockey in the winter and baseball in the summer. Practice was held once a week and a game was scheduled for the weekend. The coach was usually a volunteer teacher or a parent of a teammate. In my brothers’ free time, they simply played whatever sport or game they wanted to play. Youth sports have changed in the pas...
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.
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.
Children who participate in sports are developing rapidly in sports skills, sportsmanship, and psychologically, but does this come from organized sports are just nature’s process. Children develop emotional and social benefits from participating in sports. Children experience character and leadership development through peer relations leading to an increase in self-esteem and a decrease in anxiety levels. Children will get opportunities to experience positive and negative emotions throughout their practice and games trials. It is important for the coach to understand the “psychology of youth sports and physical activity participation” (Weinberg & Gould, 2011 p.516).
positive role models, kids will grow and blossom from their sports experience. The true purpose
The game of football is an essential determining factor that turns boys into men, and every boy at some point should learn to play the game. Not for the game itself, but for the things it teaches about working hard to achieve a goal and how to find another way to reach that goal if failure ensues the first try. The fundamentals of football were drilled into me as a three year old, along with tremendous off season workouts and being able to coach little league football and passing down my knowledge to others, are the key factors that lead to my breakout season and being one of the best players on the team.
The involvement in team sports builds good character and social development skills in children. According to LHSAA executive director, Kenny Henderson “Children who participate in sports have heightened self-esteem, social skills, ability to work well with others and more respect.” Young adults who have played team sports are less likely to take illegal drugs. Adults who played sports as children have better social and leadership skills. Sports provide children with experiences and interactions necessary to grow into an adult with good character and sufficient social skills. Team sports in grade school can offer children and teenager an outlet for stress and negative emotional build-up. Coaches, practices, games or meets and traveling all have a large impact on a person’s charter. Most children who have played a team sport at some time have character traits found in highly successful adults.