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... ... middle of paper ... ...al-violence-and-youth-sports.html Lauer L., Gould D., Roman N., Pierce M. (2010). Parental Behaviors That Affect Junior Tennis Player Development. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 11, 487-496. 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.
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.
Leff, S., & Hoyle, R. (1995). Young athlete's perceptions of parental support and pressure. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 24(2), 187-203. Retrieved November 18, 2013, from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01537149#page-1
Heffernan, L. E. (2013, October 10). Parents Ruin Sports for Their Kids by Obsessing About Winning. Retrieved April 28, 2014
(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.
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
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.
Price-Mitchell, Marilyn. "Playing the Game: The Truth About Youth Sports." Roots of Action. N.P., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
Within each family, children may receive a psychological influence while participating in sports. Either if the child feels as if they aren’t good enough, or even either pressured into playing a sport, the child may have a sense of anticipation. Parents may even cause their children to lose the love for the sport they once enjoyed participating in. Believe it or not, this happens within a multiple amount of families all over the world. Whether playing the sports runs within the family, or even if the child is pressured into being a prodigy, family issues may develop. Being on a team teaches teamwork, discipline, and sacrifice. Parents influencing their child to play for the reason that they played it, may cancel three of those out. It’s more than just playing the sport. Whether you’re running up and down of a field playing soccer, or even hitting a tennis ball across the court, it’s important that you love what you’re doing.
Youth sports are a very important part of a child’s development. Youth sports allows kids to grow as a people and to learn important life lessons. Youth sports also allow kids to interact with people as well as work together with others as a unit to achieve a goal. However, kids are being forced, and pushed in sports at too young of an age by their parents. The number of kids who play youth sports is at an all time low in the country, and parents are a major cause of the problem. In the U.S. by age 15, 80 percent of children who play a sport quit the sport (Atkinson). Kids are being pushed too hard at a young age; children are also being forced by their parents to “specialize” in a single sport in a hope for the child to become a professional
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