“About 60 million children and teens from age 6 to 18 participate in organized sports each year,” says the article “Participation in a Single Sport: Is It Good or Bad for Kids?” At a young age, children show their competitiveness through sports. Children and their families contribute much of their time and money to sports. The pressure of being a successful athlete includes non-stop games, practice, and conditioning. These kids no longer have time for themselves. The problem is that youth sports are becoming too intense for children and teens. Our culture of youth sports today puts an excessive amount of pressure on young athletes. This intensity from coaches and parents can lead to injury, mental health issues, and burnout in young athletes. …show more content…
Children’s bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments are still growing, making them more likely to become injured. Parents push their children to be the best, so they sign them up to play on travel teams and other leagues at a young age. In an article, Dr. Peter Fabricant says, “We see kids as young as 10 years old on four soccer teams.” “The problem is that playing the same sport intensively all year round puts athletes at high risk of overuse injuries.” As children get older, they might continue the sport just to please their parents. When these athletes start playing high school sports, it becomes even more intense on their bodies physically. Stretching and resting are very important when it comes to preventing injury, especially for older athletes who are training like professionals. Many times my coaches have overlooked stretching and would rush us so we could start practicing. Most high school coaches are so focused on winning and being the best that they forget how important it is to properly warm up and stretch. Parents also forget how important it is for athletes to allow their bodies to rest. Injury can be excruciating and disheartening to young athletes. For some athletes, the psychological response to injury can trigger serious mental health …show more content…
On top of that, younger generations are pressured to meet unrealistic standards. They feel like they have to be “perfect” and to do that, they participate in as many activities as they can. Spending all these hours training and competing can lead to physical and mental exhaustion. According to the article “Sports and Their Effects on Mental Health”, it states that “Adolescents can be severely affected by the pressures that their coaches, parents, and even their own brain places on them, which can then, in turn affect their mental health to a more extreme level.” Some people may argue that physical activity is good for mental health because it helps relieve stress. However, it isn’t the activity that is hurting their mental health; it is the intensity of the activity and the pressure for the player to become the best. If this stress continues for a while, the athlete may start dreading going to games and practices that they once were excited to go to. Their feelings for the sport might change because they are so physically and mentally exhausted, this stage is called
Athletes’ mental health is becoming increasingly popular. Mental health can be defined as “a person’s condition regarding their psychological and emotional well-being.” Mental health can affect how individuals feel, act, or think. This is becoming a controversial topic in the sports industry. As someone studying in this field, I find this topic extremely important.
(Assertion However, many people feel that the overexhaustion athletes may experience can be avoided with proper strength training and finding the right opportunities to succeed. Millions of Americans are unaware and often misunderstand the opportunities available,as it was found by the American Academy of Orthopedic surgeons found that “Youth sports in the United States is now a $15 billion industry. There are seemingly endless opportunities for club-level teams, personal coaches, and training technologies to help kids excel at their chosen sport” ( Lewis 1). The results of this study provided how fortunate Americans are to have access to such a unexpectedly successful youth sports industry. One of the main solutions Americans seem to take for granted in preventing overexhaustion is strength training.
Stressed out people block off their basic communication skills and become unreceptive to ideas, suggestions and even tender, loving care”(Sydney). Stress is unhealthy; the negative effect stress puts on the body can affect how an athlete’s perform. When athletes are performing at their peak it makes for a much more exciting game, which essentially would lead to colleges making more money. Athlete 's from any sport, at any level of play put their bodies on the line time after time. Too many colleges view the athlete 's body as an asset, a way for them to make more money.
Why College Athletes are Overworked College student-athletes are overwhelmed and overworked. Their intense sports schedule has left them little time to do anything else and resulting in many becoming depressed. Studies have shown that their coaches are having them practice more than double the time they are allowed. These intense environments have led to health problems, and even worse, death. College athletes are overworked with long practice hours, frequent travel, and their lack of time off, this is leading to many mental health issues.
This means that the games for children need to focus more on their pleasure and enjoyment rather than on the competition. Competition only makes children bound to be winners. It also discourages sportsman spirit. Instead of being a source of healthy growth, these competitive sports have started becoming the source of depression for children when they don’t fulfil the expectations of their parents. These sports should enhance the sportsman spirit in children and must be beneficial for their mental and physical health.
Repeated concussions can can result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy which, in turn, can cause more severe symptoms including but not limited to memory loss, dementia, and depression (Belson). This research has resulted in more people questioning whether or not school-age children should be permitted to play these intense sports. There are many who feel that children should be prevented from playing certain sports since their brains are still developing. For this reason, it has been shown that younger athletes take longer to recover from a traumatic injury and also suffer a greater severity of symptoms. As a result, some feel that the risks are too great and it is absolutely necessary to protect these children.
More and more often you hear about young kids quitting sports due to being burned out. Julianna W. Miner reports, “According to a poll from the National Alliance for Youth Sports, around 70 percent of kids in the United States stop playing organized sports by the age of 13 because ’it’s just not fun anymore’”(Washington Post). This can be caused by the fact that parents are playing select ball at early ages such as 7 or 8 years old. Playing competitively in any sport at such can early age can take a huge emotional toll on kids. At such an early age, kids should play these sports for fun and entertainment, not competition.
Kids are being burned out and it 's affecting their health. While many researchers focus their attention towards contact sports Injuries from contact sports are becoming more normal for kids, Dr. William Speight ,a
Furthermore, the competitive nature of football breeds a culture of pressure and immense stress. Athletes face enormous expectations from themselves, their coaches, and their fans, often from a young age. This stress can have serious consequences for one's mental health, causing anxiety, depression, and even self-harm. The constant scrutiny and performance demands on players can erode their emotional well-being both during and after their
Injuries are very common and sports have been known to cause them. In an article called “Many Kids are Overdoing it When it Comes to Sports, and That’s Dangerous,” the author, Ryan Basen proclaims “Overuse injuries are…common,” and “A study…found that high school athletes who played one sport for more than eight months in a year were nearly three times as likely as others to suffer overuse knee injuries.” While sports may be fun, they do have increased risks of injuries. Because they are so common, many parents believe minor league sports should not be played; however, sports are constantly changing for the safety of children. Sports have evolved so much since when they were first created.
This is a huge reason why kids quit sports and are no longer interested in them. For example, some kids who play sports want to play the sport to make friends and have fun not to tire themselves out. The article “Pushing too Hard too Young” states “When Faigenbaum asks kids who've quit why they're no longer interested in sports, their typical response: "It's not fun anymore. " They wanted to have a good time, make friends and learn something new, he says. But make the game all about hard-core training and the final score, and many kids will sideline themselves.”
Children who participate in competitive sports at a young age experience more serious negative impacts than positives, including a risk of severe injury, losing
“In the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year” claims Stanford Children’s Health. It’s definitely true that competitive sports can cause all sorts of injuries from big to small. The media teaches people simply that sports leads to horrific injuries and can cause stress, but what the mainstream media hardly discusses are the great benefits of competitive sports. While there may be some negatives to competitive sports, that’s just life, and to add on to that; there are plenty of benefits which are sure to override to media’s facts. Kids should play competitive sports because competitive sports teach children powerful life lessons, contributes to their social and mental stability, and because of the physical gain competitive sports provides.
In this day and age with professional athletes being at the top of the social spectrum, youth sports have gotten very popular. “More than 26 million children ages 6 to 17 played team sports in 2014(Rosenwald).” Youth sports are very popular because it brings the great feeling of being on a team. When you are on a team you feel like you can do anything together, and nothing is stopping you. There are also many flaws in youth sports.
Elite athletes are constantly striving to be the best athletes they can be. For this to occur, athletes tend to risk their health just so they can come out on top with regards to their performance. Taking risks is socially constricted and one may habitually answer to risk. Athletes always crave to do their best, but in doing so, it occasionally leads to other issues. The more one trains the more stress that is put on the body.