Many adults wish for their kids to play sports professionally. Enthusiasm from parents, encouraging their kids to play professional sports to earn a scholarship or a high pay, perhaps, like the millions a good basketball player in the NBA can. Maybe the goal is fame, autographs, or non-technology related activities. Is the pressure from parents allowing kids to work harder and become better sports players? Or are kids’ sports causing many problems? Sometimes professional kids sports are good for kids, encouraging them to improve, but they can also be very problematic. One example of pressure, the over-enthusiasm from parents, is called “achievement by proxy distortion”. When kids feel successful, parents also feel successful. But according …show more content…
According to the NCAA, “roughly 1 in 168 school baseball players will get drafted by a Major League Baseball team, and 1 in 2,451 high school basketball players will get drafted by a National Basketball Association team”. Financial worries are yet another problem. An example of this is Carlos Barcenas, a father of two kids, Melanie, 9, and Xzavier, 8, who both play travel soccer. In order to pay for the travel fees, Carlos needs to work 12 hours a day. The parents of a girl who plays volleyball spend $20,000 a year. According to TIME Magazine, parents pay 10 percent of their income on registration fees, travel, camps, and equipment. There is another side to the argument as well. Though kids who play sports professionally can cause financial worries for parents, these sports can also lead to memorable experiences, and other benefits, like fame. Parents bond over the traveling to the game, and kids can also make new friends. Joey Erace, in the Little Leagues at the age of 10, who “has talent that scouts covet,” has over 24,000 followers on Instagram and has once been asked for an autograph and many times been asked by companies to sell or advertise their stuff. So, though there are many cons about pro kids’ sports, parents and kids can benefit a lot
On average 35 million children play youth sports each season and 85% of coaches are parents coaching their own kids. Whether basketball, soccer, baseball, or softball; furthermore, involves players, parents, referees, and a ball; additionally, if it is played as a game, in a tournament, is practiced, it will require a coach. This single figurehead will often be the deciding factor as to the level of satisfaction everyone involved receives from the experience. Coaching youth sports can be a balancing act between developing good players and cultivating great kids.
I agree with the point that the focus of sports has shifted just to winning the game as the world has turned into a big rat race where everyone is trying to bring the others down. These types of sports should not be a part of children’s life. They have a hazardous effect on the development of a child’s body and personality. Due to the demanding nature, the children are affected mentally and physically. Their bodies are not developed to take this much of pressure. Jessica puts it rightly when she says that the inability to perform physically leads the children to develop mental health
Each year, parents are spending thousand of dollars on team fees alone not including all the extras like coaching, equipment, and uniforms. Parents are spending all this extra money to one-up each other and to have the better kid. Rosenwald acknowledges, “Parents now start their kids in sports as toddler, jockey to get them on elite teams, and spend small fortunes on private coaching, expensive equipment, sway and travel to tournaments” (Rosenwald). It is like a game for the parents now too. One parent will spend this much money and then the next parent will go spend even more money and it just keeps going. The public refers to these youth sports as the new keeping up with the Joneses. Parents are spending big bucks now to believe the more money they spend now, the more likely their kid will get a college scholarship later on. The article reveals, “The number of children playing a team sport is falling, with experts blaming a parent-driven focus on elite travel clubs, specialization in one sport, and pursuit of scholarships for hurting the country’s youth sports leagues” (Rosenwald). Although this money spending train has made youth sports a large industry, many children are starting to hate sports because of the amount of pressure their parents put on them. The author adds, “Many of the adults trying to fix the problem remember a simpler, less expensive time in youth sports. There was no travel
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.
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.
When parents pay for these high costing activities, then they don’t have that money to pay for other, vital family necessities, such as food, bills, taxes, plumbing, etc. In the article “High Cost of Youth Sports” by Visualnews.com , it claims, “...Many parents are having to reach deep into their pockets to cover the rising costs of equipment, and sports related activities...In the United States, parents spend $671 on average to cover the costs of uniforms and the hefty fees charged for registration, lessons, and coaching, and at least 1 in 5 ends up spending over $1,000 per child, every year…Youth sports are no longer an excellent opportunity for social involvement determined by passion and skill, but by the family’s financial resources, sustaining a $5 billion a year industry.” This quote says that youth sports are no longer teaching
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
It may be the child of the parents that’s playing the sports but the parents of the child are who pays for all of the equipment and who gives the final decision on if they’ll let you participate in that sport. Parents are a big part of a youth sports program. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases otherwise known as NIH; “More than 38 million children and adolescents participate in organized sports in the United States every year.” If you think about the parents of those 38 million children and put it as two parents each, that’s 76 million parents total. But that’s also 76 million parents that have to pay the fees for the sport or sports their child chooses to play and gets to make the decision on if they are even allowed to play.
As a parent, all you ever want your kids to do is grow up and be something great. Parents expect their kids to have dreams of becoming a lawyer or majoring in topics like business and medicine. They don’t realize that some kids have goals like playing baseball in the major leagues or becoming a great fisherman that is on television. Not all kids have the same mind-set. People of all ages, all around the world, enjoy either watching or playing sports.
These days, there is too much pressure on children who participate in organized sports because of the unnecessary parental involvement they experience. A growing concern amongst those involved in youth sports is that certain aspects of parental involvement become detrimental to the development and experiences of young athletes. Early emphasis on winning, making money, and the disruption of education can exceedingly affect ones desire to further participate in a sport later on in his/her life.
Adults and coaches can easily discourage young athletes to continue their career by pushing them too hard too soon. Statsky explains, “The spirit of play suddenly disappears, and sport becomes joblike” (para. 5). Children want to go out and have fun, especially young children. They are not out playing the game to be the best one on the field or court, but to learn the fundamentals of the game and to see their friends. Adults or coaches who are too overbearing may discourage the child and make the child less interested in playing.
Some of the effects can turn into very serious issues. Sports are a great thing to watch, but on the other hand everyone needs a childhood not just of sports ”We have a generation of children that have been pushed to achieve parental dreams instead of their own, and prodded to do more, more, more and better, better, better. The pressure and anxiety is stealing one thing our kids will never get back; their childhood” (The Race to Nowhere in Youth Sports). Childhood is one thing every kid needs to experience at a young age, sports can happen any time during childhood however don’t let it take over your childhood. If they want to play sports at that age that’s the parent 's choice although “Today’s athletes start earlier than ever, with kids as young as 2 or 3 taking sports lessons and joining leagues by age 5. About 26.1 million children, more than half of all 6 to 17 year-olds, suit up and play a team sport” (Hyman). At the age of 2 or 3 toddlers can get hurt way too easily. At that age, most don’t have a concept of what is going on during the game. Children need a say of what they want to play “Parents have too much control in our sports, the two and three year olds don’t need to be playing yet. It’s the parents that force the kids to play at that age” (Hyman). Not every kid will play college or even professional, but yet if we start them even younger the more we burn them out and no longer want to play. Sports can cause
Syzygy is defined as “a pair of connected or corresponding things” ("Discover the Story of EnglishMore than 600,000 Words, over a Thousand Years." Home: Oxford English Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.) The word syzygy was first introduced 359 years ago to predict the event that would occur on July 21, 1656. A total solar eclipse would take place when the moon intervened the sun and earth. The origin of the word comes from Late Latin and Greek and is frequently used as an astrology term, but has multiple other uses. It can also be used in subjects of anatomy, biology, and mathematics. In anatomy “the nerves that carry the sense from the brain to the whole body are defined as syzygies” ("Discover the Story of EnglishMore than 600,000 Words, over a Thousand Years." Home: Oxford English Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.) Used
According to statistics gathered by youth sports organizations, “Up to 50 million kids play youth sports in America, and 73 percent who begin playing a sport quit before they turn 13” (Binns). The children could have quit because they did not like the disappointment of losing, or because they are exhausted from their parents pushing them too hard. But parents have their reasons for pushing their children into sports. “Studies show that kids who play sports are less likely to become obese, abuse drugs or alcohol or to perform poorly in school” (McCormick). If children are not active, then they will most likely become overweight, and if they have nothing to do in their pastime, they may turn to drugs and alcohol, which usually leads to a decrease of grades in school. A parent putting his/her child in sports gives the child something to do and keeps them fit. Parents also put their child in a sport hoping that he/she will get success out of it “Eager to nurture the next A-Rod or Michelle Kwan, parents enroll their 5- or 6-year-olds in a competitive sports league or program” (Stenson). While not all parents are pushing for future Olympians, the fight for a sports college scholarship is competitive and parents may feel that their child will have a better chance of gaining one if he/she starts competitive sports early. Parents push their children to succeed, and children--not wanting to disappoint their parents--push themselves, sometimes harder than they should. If done right, pushing a child into sports can have a positive effect on the child’s interaction with other children while teaching them commitment and healthy competition. However, focusing on winning and earning a scholarship versus having fun may backfire, because the cons...
Many parents put their children into sports for the wrong reason. They try to live their past dreams of sports glory through their kid. They can push and dem...