Youth Sports Issues
More than 40 million American children engage in youth sports. (See References 5) According to Familyresources.com, several youth sports issues exist. (See References 1) Moreover, these issues can manifest in the following ways:
coaches and parents putting too much pressure on children who do not understand the sport or competition;
burnout resulting from beginning competitive sports too young,;
injuries and age regulations where parents, and sometimes athletes (See References 4), will lie to get a child into a particular sport. (See References 1)
Other People Are Reading
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Burnout
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The starting age for children in organized sports is 5, with youth soccer leagues beginning at 4 years. (See References 1) The definition of burnout in youth sports is is the athlete’s natural response to ongoing chronic stress. (See References 1) Burnout results from a child’s introduction to sports before she understand the concept of competition and the concept of effort versus ability in sports. (See References 1) Familyresources.com suggests that to avoid burnout, a child should wait to specialize or dedicate her time to a particular sport until entering high school. (See References 1) Some former youth sports players who have dropped out of athletic programs say that they were yelled at, sometime struck and that all the fun disappeared from the sport. (See References 3&5)
Injury and Health Risks
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Research says that while youth sports have fewer injuries than adult and professional sports, 48 percent of all youth athletes will be injured during a sports season. (See References 3) These injuries result from adolescent growth spurts, development of motor skills and different adolescent growth between bones and tissue. (See References 3) Other factors that cause health risks include training errors and inadequate instruction, hazardous conditions for practicing and playing, and poor nutrition and declining levels of fitness among youths. (See References 3)
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Age Fraud
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Age fraud is another issue related to youth sports. The New York Times reported that the problem is serious enough in youth baseball programs that Major League Baseball is developing a program that will fingerprint and monitor youth baseball players under the age of 18. (See References 4) Moreover, The Center for Kids First suggests that lying about age occurs in all youth sports. (See References 5)
Parenting and Coaching
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Parents tend to have the best interests in mind for their children. However, parents and coaches can place a great amount of pressure on their children to excel in sports. (See References 1) This form of pressure often translates into the child training and practicing for her sport year-round. (See References 1) Most problems in youth sports are from people older than 18 who are setting bad examples of sportsmanship, instilling a win-first attitude to youth, and applying professional sports development models and programs to youth sports. (See References 2)
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit youth soccer 2007-007 image by John R. Amelia from Fotolia.com
