Athletes Of All Ages And Genders Essay

Being a professional athlete is one of the most commonly heard dreams of a young boy or girl who currently elementary school. Whether it is realistic or not, these kids will be participating in the sport that they wish to thrive in. But, time after time we hear adults complain about their child’s insane soccer schedule, or how they have to spend their whole weekend traveling for games. The parents complaints shouldn’t be the topic of discussion, in fact the only opinions that matter are the children. The question shouldn’t be asking whether or not youth sports are too intense, it should be asking if it is worth it. If a child loves what they’re doing then they have every reason to continue playing their sport, but if they are not all in, he or she has to question whether or not all the craziness is worth it.

It is often said that “practice makes perfect”, but what kids participating in competitive sports find out is that “Perfect practice makes perfect” (Three quotes). Hard work pays off and repetition builds skills. Practice may not be everyone’s favorite part of a sport, but doing something over and over again will make it become an instinct. Regardless of the type of sport that is played, there are some basic fundamentals that are learned and then practiced repeatedly. With each practice, athletes can gain more confidence in their ability (Kuchenbecker 37). Repetitions enable the players to develop skills and become more confident that they can perform when the time comes rather than being worried about failure. The level of discipline and focus developed by these kids helps them throughout their lives in a wide variety of ways.

Concord AYSO (Adult and Youth Soccer Organization) is a predominantly a volunteer based organization which provides soccer lovers in the community of Concord, California with facilities, games, and coaching in soccer. The age ranges of those who enroll in the Concord AYSO program fall into three categories: children ages 4-19; adults 19 and over; and mentally or physically handicapped children starting by age 6. My first three observations were with volunteer coaches: Armando Rivera, Fan Yang, and Brian Johnson, all of whom were working with groups of children and adolescents under the age of 19. My last three observations were with volunteer coaches: Larry Durham, Yoni Dahan, and Mark Hansen, working with the adults over 19. The specific training routines and drills of each class run by each instructor tended to vary in some details though there was a solid amount of consistency between the regimen that one instructor followed and the regimen another followed.

The Social-Reinforcement analysis was based on a high school boys’ soccer team. The ages of the players ranged from 15-18 years and despite of the age difference everyone appeared to have similar abilities and skills, which consisted of dribbling and stopping the ball, as well as having a modest speed to make passes. The focus of the practice session observed was playing out. In the session, players were coached on how to make passes and how to communicate during those passes. In addition, the coach focused on creating a game environment by having parents observe the practice and have the players compete against each other to find areas of improvement on each player.

As a parent, it can be difficult to motivate a child properly, what drives us as adults may not inspire those we wish to mentor. Youth sports is observed as children being the age of 5 through 17 and culminates at the end of an individual’s high school career. Organized youth sports inspire young athletes to have self-motivation and discipline. The healthy competitive environment encourages children to look within themselves for the desire to win. Children quickly realize that to be an above average athlete like they have to prepare themselves by training hard mentally and physically, be disciplined and committed to training and competition. This perseverance is considered as a positive character trait. Without these positive values, they will not be considered successful athletes in their own sports.

For my first observation I observed my four year old nephew’s soccer practice at an elementary school which lasted about a half an hour. They met on the empty field at the elementary school, there were about 3 other teams practicing at the same time but everyone was spread out. The coaches set up cones and pop up goals for the children. There were about 12-15 children there, I think they said a few kids weren’t there. There were about four coaches or helpers working with the children. The first thing they did with the kids was a few warm up activities, the first being some sort of running activity where the children ran around following the coaches, next, they hopped in place being silly. Then the kids each got a ball and began a kicking exercise were the had to go around and try to kick the ball at the cones and knock them down. Then the kids got in a line with their ball and followed the leader around while dribbling the ball with both feet. In the next activity, the children got to practice kicking a stationary ball into the goal. After that, they played a 7 min practice game.

If you have close friends around you that you can talk to, do so it will help you get your confidence up. Or it might take the butterflies out of your stomach. Sometimes before a game you will start to think about all of the bad things that could go bad in the game. But if you talk to your friends it usually will take the thoughts of messing up in the game away and you will feel better about. When athletes allow their focus of concentration to jump ahead to the future, or drift back to the past, the result is always an increase in their nervousness. If you want to stay cool and calm in the clutch, then you have to train yourself to keep your focus in the NOW — especially during your games, matches or races! This means that leading up to the

Matches are the focal point of the sport, the release of built-up willpower, tension, and training in a dizzying ensemble. They are what the herds of raucous and anxious spectators come to watch, and what newscasters and television channels come to capture for millions to see. However, they are but a fraction of the bigger picture. In preparation of an average game, we would practice on average five times for a few hours each. And that was just at a more amateur level. At the professional level of soccer, players practice multiple times a day, nearly every day. It is where skills pertinent to winning are gained and how the necessary physique needed to perform physically is maintained. Albeit, this is not the only important aspect of practicing. Bonds are formed among players as well as between players and coaches. Mutual respect and trust are forged, which are just as crucial to have as kinetic training or equipment. Soccer is a team sport, one in which you will not get far without working as such. Teammates, much like warriors and soldiers, must have absolute trust and confidence in their peers. They must be wise and selfless, knowing when to pass the ball or make the shot themselves, or

Multiple professors from departments such as kinesiology and health sciences from different universities in Sweden and the United States conducted a study on the performance of NCAA female soccer players after high-intensity training sessions and the amount of recovery days. Researches hypothesized that female soccer players at the collegiate level show better improvement on tactical and individual skills when working on high-intensity intermittent interval training; this means with resting time in between every drill. On the other hand, high-intensity interval training; where there is less resting time after every practice drill, focuses on and

Subjects used in this study were 10 male soccer players. The agility test that was chosen to best simulate this sport was the 5-0-5 agility test. This was due to the quick, snappy change

Playing sports at a young age teaches kids life lessons that can help them in their adult lives. When playing a team sport one learns about teamwork. Athletes are taught that there is “no I in team”, and that even if they feel like they are the

Stress levels are going to be high so the athlete will be fully focused and wanting to perform at their highest level which will affect them positively if they want to win the match.

There are 347 division 1 schools among 23 sports there are 420,000 athletes. Most days of Americas 420,000 athletes D1 athletes include of multiple interactions majority involving something to do with the sport they play. Waking up at 5:30 am for a 6:00 am practice for about an hour, then going to classes through the day which student athletes have to be full time students in order to be eligible to play so they are taking up to 4, 5 classes. Not to mention D1 athletes also have individual workouts throughout the day they have to attend also treatments for their body and still managing to eat throughout the day. But that’s just half the day until practice for about 2 hours in the evening or maybe even the night, so that leaves no time to study or even do homework, unless throughout the day you had to go to study hall which last for about 2 hours. Well over half the time of your day is dedicated to the sport you play, doesn’t that sound like a full time job, as to why college athletes should be paid not only because the time commitment but the revenue college athletics make and also the risk of injury while playing a sport.

All tests (pre and post intervention) were done at approximately at the same time of the day, to limit the effect of circadian variations in the test results. The pre test was conducted 24 hours prior to the first day of training, while the post test was recorded 24 hours after the final session of training. All tests were conducted in the same order for each player during the pre and post tests.

Athletes play sports for the competition and fun of it knowing they will get hurt or develop a disease overtime, but still choose to participate because of the rush certain sports give. A disease associated with athletes is Amyotrophic Lateral sclerosis (ALS) which is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, it is a disorder in the nervous system that causes death of nerve cells and destroys Motor neurons. Another disease associated with many athletes is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which is an irreversible brain disease caused by multiple hits to the head triggering tissue degeneration. ALS disease usually develops between the ages of 55-75 for non athletes and in their 30s for athletes. It is more common for men to develop ALS than