Sports Specialisation 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.

At a young age, children tend to start participating in sports as a way to get active and learn both athletic as well as life skills. Their parents might start them off with one sport and then before you know it the child is juggling a handful of sports to see, which ones they like. As these young athletes get older, they tend to get stuck at a crossroad. The athletes are posed with the same decision: to specialize in one sport or to continue playing all the sports they love. However, do athletes that specialize in one sport perform better as they grow up compared to those that continue playing multiple sports? It is important to resolve this question because there has been a rise in early youth sport specialization over the last few years due to pressure put on athletes by their coaches and parents, rather than a logical rationale (Myer 2015).

Research shows that early specialization in a single sport while eliminating others can have adverse effects. From the intense practices to pressure-filled competitions, young athletes can feel a considerable amount

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.

Throughout the sports world today, injuries a very common. An injury is “as any significant condition limiting function that caused an athlete to seek medical care by a trainer or physician, caused a practice or match to be discontinued, and resulted in lost time from athletic participation for 1 or more days” (Pasque). It is not uncommon to hear of a player pulling a muscle, tearing their ACL, getting a concussion, etc. Certain sports have a higher probability of getting certain injuries than others. For example, in football, wrestling and hockey, “injury to the brachial plexus, or brachial plexopathy, is one of the most common upper extremity injuries” (Kuzman). Football and wrestling are two high impact sports that have high risk for both

However, the days of simply playing ball with your friends are over. It is a different world for young athletes. Sports at a young age should be fun and a great source of physical activity. Yet, many children are specializing in one sport early- playing year-round, joining competitive clubs, or travel teams and participating in special training programs- believing they’ll put themselves on the fast

Anne Hutchinson, a Puritan settler, gets exiled from the Puritan Settlement because of her actions. Similarly, Hester Prynne’s sinful action results in her confinement in prison, away from the town people. In the 1850’s, Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter. Set in a Puritanical Society, The Scarlet Letter tells the story of how one simple act of passion upsets the very basic thread of society. In the novel, Hester Prynne personally transcends the judgments of society through her discoveries in nature, while she lives a simplistic life and becomes more self-reliant.

Youth sports are a regular part of any parent's life, over time, the more talented kids emerge and are picked for travel teams or special training. Travel teams usually come with year long commitments forcing children to quit their other sports. Although when you think of a sport related injury you usually think of kids colliding, or falling and banging their head, although, more than 50% of sport related injuries are overuse injuries. Most overuse injuries occur when a young athlete focuses on one sport, playing it year round. This puts stress on the same muscle all year, instead of just for one season. An athlete that plays multiple sports exercises multiple muscles, giving other muscles a break. Without giving other muscles a break, the one muscle becomes tired and weak, and eventually snaps. Youth sports are a highlight of childhood, but the risk of injury has rapidly increased due to

Sports are a popular pastime among all ages and types of people. People not only participate in them for fun, but also for money, physical fitness, rush of competition, and for many other personal reasons. Playing sports is especially common among young people in schools. Athletics are great and enjoyable for many reasons, but there can be a point where sports participation can go too far and become negative for children and adults. Sports specialization for young people is an increasing trend that results in sports having a negative impact on individuals and society.

If kids don’t try other sports, how do they know whether or not they might like those sports more or be better at them? For many athletes their bodies are not completely developed. By playing at the speed of the higher conditioned and developed players in the professional league, young underdeveloped athletes run the risk of suffering an early career ending injury. These opportunities, though, come at a cost. While young athletes are participating in intensive sporting education, their academic education may be neglected. Age effects take a greater approach to the physical side of the sports people body, as the older the sports person is, the more mature and developed their body is and the younger the person is the less developed they are. Training and traveling all

Côté et al (2009) further describes the intense training as serving the ultimate purpose of improving performance as opposed to the enjoyment of the activity. In the United States, participation in organized sport has increased from approximately 9 percent of children 6 years and younger in 1997 to 12 percent in 2008 (Malina, 2010). The increasing trend in early sports specialization is supported by the growing number of 7 and 8 year olds participating travel leagues (Metzl, 2002) as well as a surge of young Olympic athletes (Wiersma, 2000). A 2011 study of 519 U.S. Tennis Association junior tennis players found that 70 percent began specializing at an average age of 10.4 years old (Javanthi et al., 2011). As demonstrated from the data, the prevalence of early sport specialization is on the rise in the United States. Anyone could argue that early sports specialization can play an important role in the development of athletes and can optimize the opportunities to expand athletic skills, however, the question becomes at what

Being involved with athletics at a young age is typically looked at as being a good activity that gets children involved and gets them out for their 60 minutes of play a day. Little do many people know, there are many benefits to youth sport than just a child’s daily exercise. Along with there being many positives and benefits to youth sport, there are also negatives that can come about. Many of the benefits include physical, psychological, intellectual, and social benefits. Some of the negatives that can occur from youth sport are the possibilities of loss of self-confidence, frustration, burnout, and injuries. There are many ways to try and make sure that the youth reap all of the benefits from sport at a young age and there are certain elements that coaches, parents, and teachers should take to maximize the befits of sport.

1.Farrey and Sagas argued against the mentality that early sport immersion and early specialization will lead children to successful careers as athletes. Early specialization was described as children around the age of six choosing only one sport and concentrating only on that specific sport’s performance and practice (Sagas,2013). People in society might presume that specializing children at young ages will help guide them into becoming great athletes, however, “early specialization can have significant negative consequences on the development of an athlete over time” (Sagas, 2013, p.2). Some evidence that Sagas’ (2013) mentioned in his article to dispel the myth of early specialization included multiple studies where it showed children that were early specialized had an increase of dropping out of sports, burnout, social isolation, physiological imbalances, and limited range of motor skills. Farrey also presented evidence that early involvement and early specialization in sports doesn’t lead children to greater success. One argument that Farrey made was that early specialization can cause mental exhaustion and overuse injuries which made the “AAP now formally opposes specialization before a child reaches puberty” (Farrey, 2008, p.58). This evidence proves that overtraining children at young ages will inevitably have negative effects. Farrey also discussed the data that was found from surveying the training patterns of U.S. Olympians. From this data Farrey concluded that “many [U.S. Olympians] played multiple sports as teenagers, dispelling the myth of early specialization” (Farrey, 2008, p.191). Overall, Farrey and Sagas proposed several valid reasons that early immersion and early specialization in sports has negative impacts on children rather than helping them to achieve success.

They say this in this paragraph “Young people who are fairly well-organized and can balance the demands of school, family, friends and other activities can usually slot sports into their lives without much trouble. But as youth sports have become more sophisticated, such as year-round training programs for high school students and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) leagues that keep kids playing sports, such as baseball, soccer and volleyball for months on end, the ability to juggle all those demands becomes increasingly difficult.”(James Roland) even though that happens they provide something to do so you are healthy and feel healthy so you do better in school. And because you do better in school you will feel less anxiety about your

Practicing a sport can be highly beneficial to children, until it’s taken too far. Often called training now, children as young as six years old are participating in sports that require too much time. At that age, sports should be something fun to do and a favorable source of physical activity. However, whenever an athlete shows a hint of a talent, child exploitation occurs (Bean 10234). Between the ages of 7-12, adolescents should be learning identity, motives, beliefs, and values, but nearly all athletes are practicing 5 days a week with games every Saturday. This leaves no time or energy for hanging out with friends, homework, family time, and relaxation. Dr. Shane Murphy reports that if a coach or trainer sees talent in a young child, immediately they are convincing the