Children Should Not Play Competitive Sports

“Are Competitive Sports Bad for Kids?” Mar 31, 2011 | By Rachel Nelson, Web, 20

In “Children Need to Play, Not Compete,” Jessica Statsky argues that younger children should not be involved in overly competitive sports. Statsky wrote that organized competitive sports were to the disadvantage of children both physically and psychologically. In youth athletics, some parents and coaches put their own dreams in front of their children 's’ well-being by stressing winning. Statsky concludes “all organized sports activities” to be remade as a more enjoyable game regardless of each athlete’s ability and athleticism. The author states many issues that kids have when they are forced to play a sport just to win or that they don’t enjoy. Some kids just don 't enjoy sports, but their parents force it on them. Certain organized sports programs promote winning over physical skills and self-esteem. Statsky brings up valid points that early childhood shouldn’t involve intense physical competition, which is associated with the risk of injury to the body and mind.

The first reason I think kids should play competitive sports is communication. Communication is one major skill you will need in order to get a job, and what is convenient about this is that competitive sports can teach you this life skill. Coaches who mainly focus on communication are teaching youth athletes how to maintain and start relationships such as, family, friends, etc. Communication is mainly (in sports) taught through “games” if you are playing a game such as soccer you will need to communicate with your team members in order to work together.. But communication is not only taught through sports it is also mainly taught through school from working on group projects to something as simple as recess or lunch. LIke I said before understanding communication and how it works is key to getting a job. In a Career Quest article “Why Communication Skills are Essential to Your Future Career” says in a employee survey that communication skills almost

Competitive sports in some cases are becoming very unhealthy for children. Most children would rather play on a losing team than sit on the bench of a winning team. Youth sports are a great idea to get children up and active, as well as improve their social skills. Just like every other thing in life it is important to practice and work hard to achieve success. However it is unhealthy to push for results over the needs or wants of the child. Aside from the mental stress that young athletes may experience from intense training and physical play long lasting injures is now a growing concern. Fact is competitive sports is a double edge sword if done right it is the greatest thing world, but if done wrong it can be very unhealthy for a child.

That isn’t the case for most kids. For a lot of kids in competitive sports, it doesn’t matter how careful you are, you are bound to get hurt once or twice a year. When kids play competitive sports, they can get hurt pretty badly. A lot of kids break bones, get concussions, or other injuries while playing in competitive sports. Also, since kids are growing more, they seem to have more troubles with injuries than adults do, and according to the NCBI, “Due to the rapid expansion of bones while growing and slowly elongating muscles, tension develops across the growth plates, the apophyses, and the joints. Most injuries happen during practices, and competitive sports teams have more practices than non competitive.”. (NCBI). Concussions are very dangerous, and according to Prevacus Inc., “There are between an estimated 1.6 and 3.8 million sports-related concussions in the United States every year,” (Prevacus). Also, USA Today said; There may be a lot of concussions, but there are also a lot more injuries too, “Sprains and strains, fractures, contusions, abrasions and concussions top the list of sports-related ER diagnoses for kids ages 6 to 19 — at a cost of more than $935 million each year.” (USA Today). Which is why competitive sports are very

Children are the future. When they are harmed, the future becomes less and less healthy. Injuries from sports are especially risky for children, because they’re not finished developing and are susceptible to brain damage that could stop their brains from growing. Mental harm, at times, can be more dangerous than physical injuries. For example, low self-esteem can lead to serious psychological impairments and conditions like depression. While it may be true that physical fitness is important, there are still options and activities that cause a lot less harm and fewer risks are necessary. Parents and coaches both should work harder to keep children safe and out of harm’s way while in sports. Parents should get their children check up on at the doctor’s when something seems wrong, and act accordingly. Coaches should have breaks for rest and to prevent strain between practices and put the players’ health and safety as a top priority, above

An issue that is hotly debated is, should kids play competitive sports or not. It’s clear that the overall people feel that competitive sports are good for kids. Competitive sports teaches kids life lessons, makes them more responsible and teaches them healthy habits. Millions of American children and teenagers are overweight. This obesity epidemic has made the early onset of health problems such as diabetes, are more common. Over forty millions of boys and girls were participating in organized competitive sports in 2008, and this will help bring down the obesity rate.

Statsky specifies that sports played from six to twelve years of age could have long-term negative and degrading effects in terms of health and the interest and attitude towards the sport for the child as both a player and a fan. Statsky states many reasons for her opinion, which include the risk for physical and psychological harm, and parents who are more worried about their child winning rather than participating in the game. In my opinion, I agree with the argument made by the author that competitive sports encourage children to engage in physical actions. Some of the sports activities are most thrilling and energetic. Players, driven by the desire to win are likely to act in a careless way causing physical injuries. Hence, young children are at great risk of sustaining injuries in the course of competitive sports. Though in football injuries are common, instances of injuries for 12 year olds are severe since the body structure of these children has not developed fully. Competitive sports have two results, either a loser or a

The first reason that kids should not play competitive sports is that they are stressful. Kids who play competitive sports often experience stress from wanting the recognition involved with winning. According to LiveStrong, “The mounting pressure to play well can increase stress and make children feel bad and lose confidence should they make mistakes or lose” (Huggins 2017). This shows that kids want to win and be the best player on the team, which can result in stress or pressure. When kids are put on the bench or the team loses, the players may experience low self-esteem. Also, participating in a competitive sport also takes up time because of the intense training schedule that is demanded. Because of that, kids may stress about schoolwork or other activities. This can develop failing grades or other consequences. Time.com states, “Student-athletes tend to take easier classes and get lower grades than non-athletes” (Square 2015). This is important to notice because the intense schedules that the athletes have may not allow enough time for schoolwork. The schoolwork may not be completed or fully understood, which can lead to lower academic excellence and poor grades. Competitive sports are unhealthy to kids’ minds. They can cause stress and pressure, and may lead to poor grades and other academic issues.

Jessica mentioned in the essay that competitive sports are psychologically damaging to children. Kids tie their ability to win and their performance to their self-worth and self-esteem. Her suggestion for fixing this issue is to not allow any competitive sports that allow scoring between the ages of six thru ages nine. One of the works that she cited said that children are more survivalist in nature and not physical. I would argue that from the moment of birth we are competitive in nature. Children below the age of twelve think more on the survivalist spectrum. However, a crying baby is trying to survive by competing with the mother for her attention. This competition leads to survival. If this is not fostered and groomed properly by the adults involved within and outside of the sports arena then it can cause psychological harm, no different than a neglectful

There has been disagreement about if children should play competitive sports, I am writing to tell you that kids should play competitive sports. Competitive sports bring many benefits to young children. By participating in competitive sports at an early age, kids develop life skills. They learn that when they see others being successful, that it is due to the hard work they put in and not just by chance. 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 when practiced repeatedly. With each practice, athletes can gain

My first reason is the risk of injuries. Injuries in competitive sports injure more people than car crashes annually, that is over 2.5 million children being injured per year! So why are we putting our children through this? Well, many people claim that competitive sports are getting safer, but is safer actually safe enough for children? For example a 10 year old boy took a blow to his head during football practice. The boy said he fell asleep and couldn't remember what happened. He did not go to the doctor but instead practice kept going. Many days later the boy went to the doctor and was shocked he had a concussion. This is significant because children have long term effects if they are concussed because their brains are still in the process of developing. Also the 10 year old boy and his parent did not even know he had a concussion. If they never would have went to the neurologist then things could have been extremely worse with his injuries and brain. Competitive sports are getting safer but safer is clearly not safe enough. Even the 10 year

Would athletes want to get a big fat shiny golden athletics trophy, but receive it for doing absolutely nothing but participating in your team’s activities? Personally, I wouldn’t want a trophy for prancing about, fooling around, and not even paying attention to why I joined the Basketball in the first place. Kids should have a passion for a sport. The can’t just sign-up for a sport, just to get the trophy at the end of the season. This controversy has been on the uprising throughout the years.

Kids who don't try, participate, and play in sports are given awards. They call them participation trophies, and they should not be allowed to hand them off to kids. To begin, kids in sports should not get trophies in participating because those who don't try are given an award anyway and some kids may think that they will always get one for everything they do. Although some parents may think that everyone should get a trophy, once they grow up they wouldn't be ready for how it is playing sports professionally. When you play professionally, you don't get a participation trophy every time you play a game. If kids at a young age learn now and don't get a trophy every week, their hearts won't be broken later in life. Next, some parents believe

You are worried about your child going to get injured in his first game of football. Little did you know, there's nothing you should be really worried about. In fact, sports to young children or teens might seem dangerous. But on the other hand, it is just a fun sport for young children and teens to play. Sports also makes kids and teens active in a fun way and sports makes kid entertain themselves. Although sports seems dangerous, teens and young children should be allowed to play sports because sports makes them healthy, higher scores in school, and makes kids less depressed (sad).