Pushing Too Hard

Problems in Youth Athletic Problems in Youth Athletics One of the greatest feelings a parent can experience is watching a child excel in an activity. Rightfully so, many parents encourage children to perform well in sports. The problems start when the encouragement begins to go too far. Many parents and coaches toady exceed the boundaries of encouragement, and enter a realm of abuse. A lot of this behavior will start when a parent of coach believes that they are mentoring the next superstar athlete.

When parents and coaches start to look at children as major prospects the problems in youth athletics begin to become major issues. In the 1950’s youth athletic programs began to grow quickly all over the United States. Today millions of children participate in organized youth sports programs. These programs were set out to help develop the skills of the youth not only in sports but in life as well. Also, an important focus of the youth leagues was for the children to have fun. In the past few years, the focus of the youth leagues has been changed by the parents and coaches due to the focus on performance and winning.

Children are being introduced to competitive play at an earlier age than ever before. Some of the youth leagues have children competing as early as age four. Today many children are expected to play one sport all year long through various leagues. A commitment of this level is not good for young children. There are many problems that come along with pushing children too hard in competitive sports. “Burnout” is one of the biggest problems a young athlete can experience during youth sports. Burnout is also known as overtraining syndrome.

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According to the Childrens Memorial Hospital, “burnout, or overtraining is a condition in which an athlete experiences fatigue and declining performance in his/her sport despite continuing or increased training. ”(2002). There are many factors that can lead to burnout in a young athlete today. Burnout can be caused by pressure to perform at a high level, from parents and coaches. Parents pushing children through excessive training will also contribute to burnout. Excessive training can be seen as parents pushing children to play only one sport, and play that sport all year long.

Burnout does not just mean that a young athlete does not want to play sports any longer, but also has other repercussions. Childrens Memorial Hospital states that symptoms of burnout can also include muscle and joint pain, fatigue, and weight loss among other symptoms. (2009). For many young athletes burnout will cause them to quit sports all together. This is becoming a major issue with children in their early teens. Cary stated that some eighteen million children stopped participating in team sports in 2002. (2004).

This is a very disappointing number considering how many of those children loved the sports they played at one time. Burnout causes many talented players to quit playing just because they do not enjoy sports any longer. As parents and coaches continue to become more aggressive toward youth sports, injuries to the participatants are on the rise. The old saying, practice makes perfect may be true but, overuse can also cause injury to young athletes. As more children are pushed into participating in just one sport, and often on a year round schedule, doctors are seeing more overuse injuries.

The National Alliance for Youth Sports stated that Dr. James Andrews, and orthopedic surgeon, is seeing four times as many overuse injuries than he did in the last five years. (2010). A good example of overuse is in youth baseball travel teams. A talented pitcher is asked to pitch in thirty or more games in a season. They would also have the young child practicing year round. The pitchers at the professional level are not asked to pitch that much in a season to prevent injury. The children are not protected from overuse but the professionals are.

When a parent or coach asks a young athlete to perform at a level that even the professionals are protected from, it is just a matter of time before a child will sustain an injury. When youth sport began the programs were brought about with great intentions. Children were supported by positive role models and learned teamwork, but most of all had fun learning to play a game with their friends. It has been shown that parents and coaches are taking the fun out of youth athletics. Many of the parents want to believe that children will have more fun if they are the best at the sport they play.

Overtraining a child has shown that children stop having fun and no longer care to play sports. The schedule and intense training that many children are being pushed into are causing many children to give up on sports. Most children want to start participating in youth sports because “They want to have a good time, make friends, and learn something new. ” (Stenson 2004). “Avery Faigenbaum, an associate professor of exercise science at the University of Massachusetts in Boston asks kids who have quit why they are no longer interested in sports their typical response: “It is not fun anymore. ”. (Stenson 2004) This helps prove that pushing kids too hard in sports will only take the fun out of the game. When the children do not want to play any longer then all of the time invested in over training children will not benefit anyone. When parents and coaches take the fun out of sports the children will not learn teamwork, and will have lower self-esteem. Children should be able to enjoy sports and gain all of the benefits from playing games they love. Actions must be taken to resolve the problems in youth sports. The children are the ones getting hurt in the process of parents and coaches pushing too hard in youth athletics.

As children begin to quit playing sports they become more susceptible to bad influences and poor decision making. Without playing sports, children will become less physically active. Children that are not physically active will have a greater risk of becoming obese. Kids that are obese at a young age have more health risks as they get older. When the children that have dropped out of youth athletics get older the poor decision making can really take effect. Without the positive influence that a team sport can have on children, they will be more likely to try using drugs.

Children using drugs will only lead to more problems and other illegal activity. Parents are a large problem in youth athletics. Many parents have turned watching their children play into something more serious that it really is. According to Parade, there was a case where a woman assaulted an eleven year old boy who was rooting for the team her son was playing against. (2005). There have been many time that parents and coaches have made children continue to pitch in a little league baseball game even though the child was complaining that their arm was hurting.

One of the worst cases of parents going too far over youth athletics came at a hockey practice. Two parents were involved in a fight and one of the men was beaten to death during the altercation. Children should never be witness to these kinds of actions, especially during participation of a sporting event. Coaches can be just as big of a problem as parents in youth athletics. Many youth coaches want to win no matter what it takes. Coaches have been seen screaming at children when they make a mistake. They have been seen pushing and even hitting kids during a practice or game.

Coaches are the ones who set out overly demanding practice schedules. It seems as though many coaches have forgotten what it really means to be a coach. The focus of youth athletics today needs to shift to fixing the problems in Youth athletics. Parents and coaches have to stop trying to live their dreams through the children they mentor. There are a few people who understand that changes must be made in youth athletics. Some organizations have begun to start up with the vision of teaching parents and coaches how to be positive role models in children’s sports.

The National Alliance for Youth Sports has certified over two million youth coaches. (Cary 2004). The Positive Coaching Alliance is a training program that teaches parents and coaches to be positive. The famous National Basketball Association coach, Phil Jackson found the ideas of the PCA to also be effective at the professional level. (Cary 2004). These programs are just a good beginning to changing the way youth athletics are ran across the United States. One of the best programs to improve youth athletics started in the state of Maine.

The program is called Sports Done Right. According to Parade, it is a program led by Duke Albanese and Robert Cobb. The SDR program marks parents and coaches as the two biggest problems in youth sports. The program requires that parents of children in youth athletics go to training sessions on behavior at sporting events. The parents also have to sign a compact to abide by a higher standard of sportsmanship. (2005). If improvements are to be made in any youth sports program has to be a main focus. The Sports Done Right Program is on coaching as well. Sports Done Right recommends compensation based on their level of training. ”(Parade 2005). Coaches that are trained in the correct ways to motivate and teach children see improvements in their abilities. As parents and coaches receive proper training in dealing with youth athletics, the children participating will have more fun playing sports. As with many things in life, youth sports have drifted away from the original intentions. Youth sports organizations began as a way for children to stay busy and stay out of trouble. Sports gave children role models to look up to.

Children will always benefit from the physical activities required by participating in organized sports. It is a shame that children are overworked too early and too often in sports so parents and coaches can try to relive their childhood dreams. The parents should let the children work on their dreams at their own pace. Youth athletics can have a major impact on a child’s life. It is the responsibility of the parents and coaches to ensure that the children they mentor are having a positive experience when participating in youth sports.

The parents should focus on youth athletics is a fun experience with an opportunity to learn new skills and life lessons. Everyone knows that winning is fun, but winning should not be the number on goal in sports. It is time to take back youth sports for the children, and just let them play. References Cary, Peter. (2004). U. S. Fixing kid’s sports: rescuing children’s games from crazed coaches. News and World Report. Retrieved From http://www. alcdsb. on. ca/~regiath/cats/articles/FixingKidsSports. df National Alliance for Youth Sports. (2010). Overdoing it. Retrieved From http://www. nays. org/fullstory. cfm? articleid=10303 Parade. (2005). Who’s killing kids’ sports? Retrieved From http://www. parade. com/articles/editions/2005/edition_08-07-2005/featured_0 Stenson, Jacqueline. (2004). Pushing too hard too young. Retrieved From http://portal. northbayyouthsoccerclub. com/Clubs/portals/InnisfilSoccerclub/Medi a/Image/Articles/tt_pushing. pdf If you need to type anything after the reference list then start it on this page

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