Teaching And Coaching. Differences Between Teaching And

Today there is an ever growing debate on whether competitive sports are beneficial or harmful to children. While many people believe that they can be harmful, in this article I will show you some of the many ways they can be helpful to kids. There are three reasons I decided to outline here; there are life lessons can be learned, sports help improve health and they help to build self-esteem and confidence.

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.

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.

Each year in the United States, more than 36 million school-aged children participate in an “organized sport” (“Youth Sports Statistics”). Especially over the past few years, many studies have proved or disproved the idea that sports are beneficial for young kids. Those studies have found that youth sports have both positive and negative effects on young children, and research shows parents and coaches have the greatest effect on a child’s experience.

Sports can be viewed as a learning environment that helps individuals learn life lessons, foster strong work habits and develop core values all the while learning a sport skill. Youth sports that truly benefit young athletes should be structured to emphasize participation more than just competition. Children enjoy a sport more when they are able to have fun (Humpries). Despite many excesses some sport programs still manage to promote important virtues like self- confidence, teamwork, personal responsibility, coping skills, and persistence. Through sports kids can learn to stay organized and learn how to prioritize (Ferguson). Sports enables development of physical skills and increasing proficiency makes kids feel good about themselves. It teaches kids that failure is something to overcome and and not to fear (Meyerhoff 8-9). Youth sports has many aspects that are truly benefiting for children, but these benefits are slowly being clouded by the negatives that are prominent in today's youth sports.

The teacher does not play a stand out role in Sport Education, as the aim is to focus on student centred learning and increased responsibility. However, it is important to realise as a teacher you must not lose the overall control. You must be an effective planner, able to teach students the necessary skills and be able to give helpful feedback (Australian Football League, 2012). From the start the rules of the season must be laid down and the important aspects stressed. Once this is done the teacher can observe from the background and still be in a position to continue delivering instruction, assist and assess the students (The New PE, 2012). The amount of autonomy given to the group depends on the age and developmental level of the class.

In the essay, “Children Need to Play, Not Compete” Jessica Statsky puts an argument on how competitive sports activities for children between the age of six and twelve can leave a negative impact on their well-being; both physically and psychologically. She mainly focuses on the damage that occurs due to the involvement in non-contact as well as contact sports, at every level from local to that organized nationally.

In the past 30 years, the direction of sports within the youth has drastically changed. In the past, young athletes aimed to play in several sports. Now, athletes focus themselves in one single sport and year-round extensive training has been encouraged by most adults in a young athlete’s life whether they are a parent or a coach. Allowing the youth to participate in sports is frequently considered “a great way to develop leadership skills” and “an appreciation for individual and team accomplishments” (Sailor). Along with the rise of Sport Specialization, concerns pertaining to a child’s physical and psychological health have begun to increase as well. Early Sport Specialization may lead to greater risks in a child’s life such as injuries,

Not only that, but Physical Education also provides hobbies for participants to follow on later in life for recreational purposes, as professionals or amateurs. After school activities are on offer in many schools as extra-curricular activities, providing something for pupils to take part in. Subsequently this can reduce levels of crime in communities. Sports and Physical Education helps draws away negative energy, redirecting it into sport, reducing crime, improving community safety and increasing participation in sports with schemes to prevent children turning to crime.

It’s been debated that having kids participate in sports can be either a positive or negative factor in a child’s development. Is participating in sports a positive outcome in a youth’s development? Through my own personal experience and through the research that I have conducted I believe that participating in sports is a true benefit to a child’s development. Participating in sports can contribute to a healthy individual, developing problem-solving skills, social interaction, promotes following direction and rules, goal setting and creating plans, promotes self-esteem, reduces stress, helps academic success, and a higher quality of life.

When the demands exceed a child’s cognitive and physical development, the child may develop feelings of failure, leading them to become more frustrated. Even if coaches are available to teach rules and skills, children may not be ready to learn or understand what is being taught. Furthermore, many coaches are not equipped to deal with the needs or abilities of children. Most youth sports coaches are volunteers with little to no formal training in development, although educational programs are available for youth sports coaches. Many basic motor skills, such as, catching, kicking, and hitting a ball, do not develop sooner simply as a result of introducing them to children at an earlier age. If these are taught or expected before the child is developmentally ready, it is more likely to create more frustration than success in the sport. Nonetheless, coaches may still try to teach what often cannot be learned and blame resulting failures on the athletes or themselves

Sports and child development have a lot in common with each other, they counter cross and when a child is in a sport they have to monitor them to make sure they are learning and doing things correctly. Being a child that is in sports is hard because they have short attention spans and therefore having a child in sports will not only teach them great teamwork but it will also teach them to listen a follow instructions.

Coaching differs from other development methods such as teaching and instruction. Training and instruction is on the trainer imparting knowledge to the coachee where coaching is on the coach to ask the questions to allow the coachee to explore their own resources, solutions and help the coachee move forward.

Sports can help improve children’s self confidence. Some people against youth sports might say that children can get made fun for lacking skill in that particular sport. However I believe this is false because all the children work as a team. It doesn’t matter if children win or lose, all that matters is that they’re having fun. I believe that participating in sports can improve children’s self confidence. Sports can improve feelings about themselves by 85% (Doc 1). When adolescents play sports they feel as though they are a part of something important. As a result children are left feeling self-confident.

Children who participate in sports are developing rapidly in sports skills, sportsmanship, and psychologically, but does this come from organized sports are just nature’s process. Children develop emotional and social benefits from participating in sports. Children experience character and leadership development through peer relations leading to an increase in self-esteem and a decrease in anxiety levels. Children will get opportunities to experience positive and negative emotions throughout their practice and games trials. It is important for the coach to understand the “psychology of youth sports and physical activity participation” (Weinberg & Gould, 2011 p.516).