Explain Why Children Should Not Play Violent Sports Essay

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.

Even though, kids should play sports because they need to know that instead of sitting on the couch and do not play sports.

America’s baseball diamonds, soccer fields, hockey rinks, and basketball courts have never been so busy with children. The number of kids involved in an organized sport is not what is so groundbreaking. It’s the way in which children are playing or how their parents are arranging for them to play that may be cause for concern (Ferguson). Much controversy surrounds youth sports with the biggest disagreements coming over parental involvement and the intensity of play. Although there are many benefits for team participation, there is a growing fear that the negatives are starting to outweigh the positives.

Jessica Statsky, in her essay, “Children need to Play, Not Compete” attempts to refute the common belief that organized sports are good for children. She sees organized sports not as healthy pass-times for children, but as onerous tasks that children do not truly enjoy. She also notes that not only are organized sports not enjoyable for children, they may cause irreparable harm to the children, both emotionally and physically. In her thesis statement, Statsky states, “When overzealous parents and coaches impose adult standards on children's sports, the result can be activities that are neither satisfying nor beneficial to children” (627). While this statement is strong, her defense of it is weak.

Video games also play a big role on promoting violence. Even though most adults don’t play video games, our children do. And if we let our children play violent video games, wouldn’t you say that they are going to become violent? Kids learn by their surroundings. So playing a video game that teaches them about punching and kicking others they will do the same with their friends at school. And then we ask ourselves why the kid next door took a gun to school and shot his best friends?

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

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.

College, professional, and high school sports can highly competitive. The environments athletes play in can be very aggressive and violent, especially in contact sports such as football, basketball, and hockey. Results from one study suggest that the participation in aggressive high school sports is one of the multiple developmental pathways leading to relationship violence (Forbes). Contact sports teach athletes physical aggression and dominance, extreme competitiveness, physical endurance and strength, insensitivity to others’ pain, and a tolerance for pain. Through sports athletes are taught to use force to settle conflicts. Many sports have become more violent due to advances in safety equipment. In some sports, after a violent play that helps the team gain an advantage in the

game.” If the child’s aggression is increased by the violence in these games, then his or

What makes Jessika Statsky’s “Children Need to Play, Not Compete” an effective piece in the arguments on whether the competitive sports may harm children both physically and psychologically, is her use of clear thesis statement and a full forecast of the reasons she offers to justify her position. Statsky carefully picks her key terms, such as by sports, for example, she means to describe both contact and non-contact sports that emphasize competition. Also she clearly defines to her audience that she is mainly concerned about children of age six to twelve years old.

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).

Football is America’s most popular sport; however, recently controversy has been arising pertaining to the injuries and violence connected to football. Within the last five years the topic of allowing youth to play football has blown up. Though the injuries vary dramatically, what has really been the key subject is head related injuries, typically concussions. Parents around the country are debating whether or not their children should play the sport, specifically contact football. Although football and most sports in general have injury related risks attached with it, there are still arguments why kids around the country should be able to enjoy one of the most liked sports. Reasons such as building teamwork, physical activity and free will can lead to why many believe that there should not be a dispute regarding football.

Sport is what modern society makes it. When it comes to an individual being violent, obviously the nature of using verbal or physical actions with the intention harming another person, it communicates a strong message. Through sport, that violent message can be carried out and as a society, it is often accepted. Aggression is a big part of violence in sport. Often times, playing aggressively is something coaches look for and spectators notice. Playing aggressively can lead to violent behavior. The violent behavior can be a reflection of the social settings.

children away from the focus of the game (Kohn and Nelson, 1990). It is also clear that

In ancient times, sports was a kind of military training with purpose to maintain body shape and develop new skills for war. Today, we see sports as entertainment and a social activity that brings communities together through friendship and fair play, whereas for those who involve in sport, sports is their job to compete and win. Sports are not meant to do anything with violence. Violence in sport is the use of excessive physical force, which potentially causes harm or destruction. According to ‘Aggression in sport’ (2013) In sport, aggression has two categories which are hostile aggression and instrumental aggression. Hostile aggression in sport defined as to cause serious injury to your opponent whereas instrumental aggression is using aggression to achieve a goal. Example of violent sports