Negative Pressure In Sports

Children today are under a huge amount of pressure when it comes to sports. From score rankings, grades to play, parents yelling and coaches saying the play. Madison, a ten-year-old girl on my sister’s basketball team, complains that, “I hate when parents tell us to do the exact opposite of what the coach says.” The child has to decide whether they are going to listen to the coach or their parents because the parents will be mad if they didn’t do what they said. Nevertheless, the coach could be always have the child sit out because they didn’t listen to what he or she was saying. Another girl on the basketball team states that “Sometimes parents try to coach when they are not trained as a coach or walk off the court with a lot of drama and

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

When I play sports I try and block out all the cheering around me “When we kids are focused on the action on the field, we don’t hear Mom and Dad cheer for us, no matter how loud they are” (Wolff and Goehner). Cheering is okay, but not yelling so much. When Mom and Dad yell it just makes us even more nervous because what if we mess up. What if we don’t do the right play? My parents know not to say anything after a game to me if I had a bad game, “Kids feel uncomfortable and embarrassed when parents yell at them because they didn’t do the correct play” (Mansfield). All parents want us to go far with our sports, however we all make mistakes even on the field and court. Once parents know that it makes us feel uncomfortable, parents will only cheer. The yelling should be left for coaches, not the parents.

While pressure from coaches is an expected part of athletics, adding parental pressure can cause an athlete to burn out too soon. If children don’t please their parents, parents aren’t happy and the child doesn’t want to play anymore. Putting too much pressure on kids can cause many bad things like not wanting to play