Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Parental pressure on child athletes
Factors affecting sport performance
Athletics skills and academic performance
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Parental pressure on child athletes
My parents always allowed me to chose what sports I wanted to pursue. Growing up my parents both wanted me to go far in wrestling, but I ended up not liking it. My parents both supported me even though my dad grew up wrestling also. Even though most successful athletes got there by their parents pushing them, kids should be able to make their own decisions in sports; without that, kids would have self- esteem issues, trouble pursuing what they want, and it can cause resentment to their parents. Parents pushing their children can cause the child to have self-esteem issues. Most parents don't really even know what it can do to their child. “Some might not even realize that their child isn't as gifted in sports, and they actually will push …show more content…
Stress can lead up to many mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, anorexia and many more. When a child is playing a sport under a lot of stress it is easy for them to lose focus and become at risk of an injury. Every parent wants what's best for their child. Unfortunately, many parents are too upset about the game that they unleash their anger out on the kid because of their performance. The most important time to give your child space is after a loss, or a bad game says Braff. That is the time they are most sensitive, mainly because they feel they have failed to make you happy. Many children get stressed because they are nervous for what comes after the games. The long car rides home when the child gets brought down, or at dinner the same night of the loss. This whole time the kid is taking everything the parents say right to heart. When someone feels like they are not pleasing their own parents it really damages the child. You want to always make sure to compliment your child in a positive way that will make your child feel comfort and relaxed; instead of anxious and nervous. Kids will look up to the parents in more ways than they think, so parents should always influence their kids in a positive way, instead of pushing them in a negative …show more content…
They look at adult behavior and think it’s okay to act the same way. It's clear that you can't bribe your kids to play or guilt them into playing. Some athletes have gotten where they are now without their parents. Some would argue on the other hand that they couldn't have done it without them. If a kid watches their parents on the sidelines scream at you, they could end up thinking it's okay to make their own kids feel the same way. The trend would continue. Athlete’s parents spend tons of money to try to get their kids to be involved. Some parents hope for their children to get scholarships so they put all their time and money into travel sports, tournaments, coaches, and more over time activities in hopes for their child to become better. Except sometimes it doesn't always work. Some kids just naturally aren't as gifted as others. All the extra practices and coaching won't do the child any good if the child just doesn't enjoy the
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 sport 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.
Kids are playing in a pressure pot full of stress and this is dangerous. They feel over-responsible toward team mates, parents and coaches and in consequence, are playing with chronic pain and even concussions.
Every year there are a number of children who withdraw from participating in youth sports. While countless leave sports to pursue other interests, a significant number detest their experience in sport. From the intense practices to pressure-filled competitions, young athletes can feel a considerable amount of stress. If this stress remains for an extended period of time, children experience “burnout” and lose their desire to continue playing. There are two ways parents can avoid youth sports burnout for their children: making sure the children have a healthy balance in their lives and giving the children input into decisions. While sports require dedication in order to achieve a high level
I have been playing sports for as long as I can remember, from taekwondo to swimming to basketball to everything. Every time a game or tournament came up I knew that my parents would be at those events, criticizing every one of my moves. I vividly remember one time, I was at my taekwondo tournament, after performing I looked over to my parents at the sidelines to see their reaction on my performance and I remember them being upset and angry at me. At that moment, I was not looking forward to the car ride back home because I knew that I was going to get an earful. The rest of the event was ruined for me because I simply did not have any interest left due to what was going to happen later on. Needless to say, parents should skip out on attending their kids’ games/events unless they can be supportive and quiet.
With that being said, I believe that early sport specialization is not the right choice for some children. A recent study of issues and concerns related to present-day school sports revealed that the coaches, athletic directors, school principals, parents of athletes, and also the athletes felt that there was a pressure to specialize in a single sport and to do so at an early age (“Journal of Physical Education,” n.d.). The pressure was said to come from parents, coaches, and the young athletes themselves (“Journal of Physical Education,” n.d.). Which seems to be very typical in today’s youth sport world. It is not uncommon for the parents and the children to observe how each other act towards a certain sport, how much encouragement they get, or how much they enjoy a single sport in general. The people who are connected to the school sports, including coaches, principals, athletic directors, etc. are not the only ones voicing their concerns (“Journal of Physical Education,” n.d.). “Journalists and sport scientists have also become worried that young athletes are becoming specialized too early and that this early sport specialization can lead to a number of undesirable effects. It is said that sport specialization in
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.
More specifically, children are also increasingly pressured--again, usually by parents and coaches--to specialize in one sport and to play it year-round, often on several different teams (Perry). Now, if sports specialization is such a great idea, then why are kids being “pressured”? As stated before, sports specialization can result in severe injury or even retirement from sports all together. Evidently, parents would not want to risk their athlete’s entire athletic career just because of an overuse injury. Knowing this, a diversity in sports activities is the solution to the problem. Additionally, a specialization in sports can lead to the young athlete not experiencing a sport that he or she may truly enjoy in their life. If a parent already makes a child decide on a sport to play, how will the child know if that is the sport they truly want to participate in? As the child ages, they could realize that the sport they play now is not one that they love anymore, so they could just quit. Deciding at such a young age is not only a hasty decision, but also a terrible one. Finally, this specialization can also create social problems. If a child is already so competitively involved in a sport, then their social lives and relationships with friends are at risk. The clear choice here is to let the child live a normal life by allowing them to make friends and play, rather than taking over their lives with competitive
Winning is the main goal in competitive sports, and coaches really press players to do their best, and preferably, to win. According to Livestrong, “children sometimes develop a bad attitude while playing sports when they are frustrated or disappointed. Children may also act in an unsportsmanlike manner when imitating the actions and attitudes of teammates or professional athletes”(Richards, Rebekah. "How to Deal With Your Kid's Bad Attitude in Sports."LIVESTRONG.COM. Leaf Group, 11 July 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2017.). Children can develop these bad habits, and they can not only be rude during games and practices, but they can show these habits outside of sports. This will cause a hard time for children in school, at home, and in the real world, in general. Parents can also develop poor attitude when their child’s team loses or isn’t playing very well. This will cause a hard time for other parents of the sports team. According to NBC News, “Parents -- and coaches -- who push too hard too young, particularly when they emphasize winning above all else, can easily wipe out a child’s motivation to play, says Dr. Henry Goitz, chief of sports medicine at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo.” (Stenson, Jacqueline. "Pushing Too Hard Too Young." NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, 29 Apr. 2004. Web. 12 Apr. 2017.). Sometimes it’s not the
Many parents will argue about whether kids should be allowed to play sports at such a young age. In my opinion, I think kids shouldn’t be allowed to play sports at a young age. When they grow older, I think that kids should be allowed to play sports. When a young athlete gets injured, coaches may not be trained for an injury and the child can suffer more serious injuries just from that. Kids want to skip practice so they will often fake an injury, serious coaches will use shaming techniques and call athletes “ladies” or man up, and athletes might not have the best protective gear, making them more likely to have a concussion. Worst of all, coaches
At this early stage of the child’s life, it is nearly impossible to believe a child could make a split second decision to make the winning play. The brains of these children are simply not yet wired to make those decisions. It’s through experience that the necessary connections are made in the brain and in turn create the possibility of those amazing plays. Most parents are simply observers during games, and thus it is far too easy to allow expectations for their child to be the star player run rampant. The parents have most likely been alive for three times longer than their child, which means they’ve had considerably more experience both within and outside the realm of sports. The failure to realize that their child lacks experience and thus can’t always act in the same way that the parents would have creates an environment that harms a child’s sense of worth and
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
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.
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.
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...