Should Kids Be Allowed To Play Competitive Sports Essay

“I’m a big football fan, but I have to tell you, if I had a son, I’d have to think long and hard before I let him play football (President Barrack Obama)”. American Football is a full contact sport played by two teams of eleven players move the ball forward by running and passing . What makes it so dangerous is the amount of hits players receive during the match and during training. Letting their kids play football is a rising concern for many parents due to the amount of injuries and even deaths that happen on the field. Chris Borland, a professional player, retired from football aged just 24 due to concerns about his head injuries. Therefore, one may argue that parents shouldn’t let their kids play football for fear of injuries and concussions occurring on the field. Quite oppositely, kids should definitely be allowed to engage in playing football which will make sure kids stay in shape and do better in school.

Contact sports are the reason kids are getting hurt. Contact sports are good for kids.

“Children Need to Play, Not Compete,” by Jessica Statsky is a thoughtful insight on the competitive sports for children. She is of the view that the competitive sports can ruin the enjoyment that games are supposed to provide. These methods of playing the games like adults can prove to be lethal for physical and psychological health. The author quotes from an authentic source that “Kids under the age of fourteen are not by nature physical.” (Tutko) This means that the games for children need to focus more on their pleasure and enjoyment rather than on the competition. Competition only makes children bound to be winners. It also discourages sportsman spirit. Instead of being a source of healthy growth, these competitive sports have started becoming the source of depression for children when they don’t fulfil the expectations of their parents. These sports should enhance the sportsman spirit in children and must be beneficial for their mental and physical health. Concentrating on winning or losing spoils the fun that games hold. In addition, equal chances should be provided to every child to participate. Competitive nature can assist the children in their life later on, but the focus should be on better mental and physical health. (204 words)

So, you're a high school football star. You're playing a match, you've caught the ball thrown to you, then get tackled. Your head hits the ground with a loud, audible thump. And now, you have a concussion. This kind of thing happens to football stars all across the U.S. and other countries. In the 2005-06 season, over half a million head injuries were sustained by high school students, nationally. I am not say removing the sport from schools as a whole. However, it's understood that there are ways to attempt to make the sport safer, all while having it still be just as fun/entertaining. Updating the "armored" pads the athletes wear, making amends to some of the rules, different methods of training, are all ways to make things even just the slightest bit safer than they already are.

Concussions - what are they? How do they happen? Why is it so important to try and prevent them? Concussions are becoming a huge issue in today’s world of football due to the problems that come along with them. When a player suffers a concussion, their brain is brutally shaken and bounced off of the walls of the athlete’s skull. Many organizations, such as the NFL, have put millions of dollars into research and trying to make the game safer, but as of now, things have only gotten worse. Some believe the National Football League isn’t doing enough and others believe they’re doing too much. One thing is for sure: concussions are not a light matter and something needs to be done to help prevent medical issues.

According to Jessica Statsky’s essay titled Children Need to Play, Not Compete, most children under the age of 12 do not need competition in sports. Claiming that organized sports are not “satisfying nor beneficial” for young children, Statsky expresses her concerns over a few issues. Supporting her thesis, Statsky discusses the negative physical and psychological effects of competitive sports. She further asserts that most children do not enjoy competition by citing a study about how most children would prefer to be on a losing team that allowed everyone to play rather than a winning team that may bench them due to performance. Also, she states ‘scorekeeping, league standings, and the drive to win bring(s) out the worst in adults’. Illustrating

It seems that every week players are getting injured and carted off the field and statistics show that concussions had risen 32 percent between the 2014-2015 seasons, that is 271 concussions in the 2015 season compared to 206 in 2014. There was also an increase of ACL and MCL injuries between the 2014-2015 seasons, although the change was not as drastic. These statistics from ESPN show that there might be a better way to play the game but the leagues and programs insist that the players know the risks of what they are doing. As hundreds of thousands of sports concussions continue to happen every year, the issue has gathered people who say that the leagues/programs should do more and others who say that concussions and getting injured are just

As stated by source 2, many high school athletes don't have a full developed body. Inexperience and lack of knowledge of techniques could leave the athlete's body prone to injuries. Football is a high contact sport, where athletes could get hurt at any moment. Improper techniques in tackling and tackling too high could lead to brain injuries. "Over 517,726 football related injuries occurred in 2005-2006 across high schools in the United States", claimed by source 2. However, sports injuries are rare and typically do not put the athlete sports put athletes in harm's way. Source 2 claims that, many schools in the nation have a highly advanced training staff and coaches or at least trying to replicate how the NCAA handles equipment and injuries. With proper training and coaching, athletes lower their chances of getting injured in sports. Overall then, despite the possible injuries, the benefits of sports simply outweigh the potential

Frances is a field hockey player for her school team. One day, she got her report card and saw she got a C+ in Spanish. The next day at practice, her coach told her she was off the team--Even though Frances had been trying her best in Spanish. Frances thought this was unfair and ceased putting effort into Spanish. This is an example of how a child could be negatively by the No Pass, No Play rule. The No Pass, No Play rule requires students to acquire excellent grades to play sports. Children in the same situation as Frances could be discouraged to try in school or even drop out of school.

The amount of children participating in competitive sports has been on a steady decline in the past decade. Between the years of 2008 and 2013, the total number of children participating in competitive sports has dropped by approximately 2.6 million. This is mainly due to the many negative impacts that young athletes face when partaking in these sports. Competitive sports involve sports where competition is encouraged, and where winning is more important than anything else. Competing in these sports causes the children to be vulnerable to many risks and many other negative impacts. Children who participate in competitive sports at a young age experience more serious negative impacts than positives, including a risk of severe injury, losing

Have you ever wanted to live an active and healthy life, as well as an improvement in grades? I believe youth sports will help all of those problems and many more. Most sports are team sports that also teach your child teamwork. Playing youth sports is a terrific experience for you or your child.

“In the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year” claims Stanford Children’s Health. It’s definitely true that competitive sports can cause all sorts of injuries from big to small. The media teaches people simply that sports leads to horrific injuries and can cause stress, but what the mainstream media hardly discusses are the great benefits of competitive sports. While there may be some negatives to competitive sports, that’s just life, and to add on to that; there are plenty of benefits which are sure to override to media’s facts. Kids should play competitive sports because competitive sports teach children powerful life lessons, contributes to their social and mental stability, and because of the physical gain competitive sports provides.

In “Children Need to Play, Not Compete,” Jessica Statsky tries to demonstrate the negative effect of organized sports on the physical and psychological health of growing child. She claims that the games are not festive but they end up in the wrong development of a child’s brain. The coaches and parents have high hopes for their children that result in the pressure building. This changes the purpose of sports from teaching tolerance, teamwork and sportsmanship to merely winning by all means. The writer further explains that the idea of winning sometimes causes severe injuries that may prevail for a lifetime. In these games, a child may crash into one another accidently that creates a fear of getting hurt. Just to protect themselves some children back out of many games and are left behind when it comes to the development of their bodies. The rest of the children who are part of these games are in a constant pressure from their parents and coaches that cause the stress and anxiety. Furthermore, the writer states that this “sport becomes job like”. Children are playing just to win and the real spirit of the game fades out. (Word count: 196)

Naval Officer Robert Ballard once said, “Follow your own passion- not your parents’ not your teachers’- yours.” In today’s society, what a parent thinks affects what a child thinks. Children often values a parent’s happiness over their own. More than twenty-six million kids play sports around the world starting as young as age six. Forcing a child into doing a sport can damage a child’s well-being, physical-being and can cause them to not have any interest in the sport. Research has shown that children that are forced into sports can be affected negatively in a physically, mentally, and emotionally way due to parent performance expectations.

The turf is lit up by the blazing sun. A crowd of parents and family fill the bleachers with cheers in their mouths. The play starts. All the players form a perfect positioning and hand off the ball. Going going gone. A boy cheers with a childish grin on his face. He falls over in joy. Youth sports is a hot topic in today’s world. With so many kids participating it was bound to become something of discussing. Should kids play competitive sports? While some parents believe that the competition can harm kids, I believe that sports can greatly help kids. Making them experience healthy competition and become more well rounded contributing members of society.