Youth Sports Are Too Intense

Football, although fun and exciting, plays an immense role in many long term health issues especially for people who start at a young age. The sport’s injuries include long term health issues such as chronic encephalopathy, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia; it also can be a reason for domestic violence, and on some occasions, unnecessary death. There are many factors that can persuade parents to believe that football is a safer sport than it was before, but the long term effects of a simple injury from the sport outweighs it all. In Ed Riley’s article, High School football’s benefits outweigh risks, Riley talks about the concerns that any parent would have when it comes to their child playing football.

Summary 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.

Youth sports are an intricate part of our society. They teach kids from a young age how to work together as a team, which they can then build on and use in other facets of their lives. Concussions in youth football are at an all-time high, only because they weren’t (B3)kept track of until recent years.

Summary “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)

“On average for every 1,000 times a student played boy’s football in practice or in competition, he was injured 4.36 times. The data is part of the U.S High School. Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study.” (“Analyze” para 2) When kids or even adults play sports the injury rates are very high and you can get hurt playing any sport at any age. Time spent on social media because of sports has gone up over the years.

The importance of children’s athletics is for kids to have fun. When the child stops getting enjoyment out of the sport, then it is the parent’s job to take them out. Sports can have many positive effects on a child’s life, but it is important to remember too much of a good thing can make it a hurtful thing. As the culture of youth athletics spirals out of control, it is the parent’s responsibility to save the child from short-term and, unfortunately, long-term damage. Parents need to evaluate how far they are willing to go for youth athletics and when they will have taken their obsession too

Youth Sports Need Reform According to Safe Kids USA, about 3.5 million children fourteen years old and under are treated for sports-related injuries each year. Nearly half of those injured were deemed preventable (“Half of Youth Sports,” 2011, para. 3). In recent years youth sports have become extremely more advanced as today’s young athletes compete at higher levels. These athletes compete in sports that involve rigorous training, which often comes with risk.

Dr. Frank L. Smoll states, “All children and youth need vigorous physical activity as part of their daily lives, and sports provide the benefits of exercise and the potential for acquiring a sense of accomplishment.” (Smoll 1/2).

This is where the training of coaches comes into play. From a parents perspective the individual that is coaching their kid is very critical to the process. For example, one in every four coaches is considered less than good as seen by parents of the athlete (Aleshire, 2003). In an observational and interview

2.6 million sports related emergency room visits a year; 25,376 children under 19 sent to the emergency room for traumatic brain injury each year (Merkel). Contact sports, a sport in which the participants necessarily come into bodily contact with one another, like football have become more popular among children and they have started to play the sport at earlier ages as well. Although physical activity is beneficial in many ways, contact sports creates many health risks: concussions, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, brain damage, broken bones, and broken growth plates. Because of all of these risks, contact sports should be banned for people under 18. To begin, contact sports should be banned for children under 18 because of the risk of

In this day and age with professional athletes being at the top of the social spectrum, youth sports have gotten very popular. “More than 26 million children ages 6 to 17 played team sports in 2014(Rosenwald).” Youth sports are very popular because it brings the great feeling of being on a team. When you are on a team you feel like you can do anything together, and nothing is stopping you. There are also many flaws in youth sports.

Children have strived for years to make their parents, teachers and coaches proud of them. Kids have come to practice Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday, and Friday to get better, while their academics are suffering. Students have pushed their bodies to the limits, causing extreme injury that will hold them back from sports in the future. Student athletes are not getting the opportunity to play multiple sports during the year, because they are expected to spelize in one sport and focus on it year round, leaving no opportunity to play other sports or do other activities. Youth sports are becoming too intense for young children to keep up with.

Health and contact sports are something parents worry about as over 500 deaths in the past 3 years from contact sports alone are making parents stand out against these sports and if the government doesn 't do anything about it the number of 7% overall contact sports drop will just keep getting lower and lower each time. Dr. William Speight also had this to say “Many other kids have suffered paralyzing spinal injuries”(Pennington). Kids being paralyzed is the fear for many athletes these days and the number f kids getting paralyzed has increases 2% which is equivalent to about 8,000 kids each year which is crazy to think about kids can 't play sports for the rest of thrie and maybe not be able to live their life because of it so next you hear mom or dad i wanna play sports your answer should be a simple NO. Kids under 10 need to stop playing contact sports because 45% of kids under 10 getting hurt are from contact sports and 5% of the time its ending that kids chances to play sports in the feature, Not to mention contact sports can also make kids go to their fullest and being burned out and although contact provide some kids will useful tools in life most of the time there is more negative than positive. Health, Age, Contact, parents, are some of the many reasons contact sports can be very dangerous for the youth.

Children who participate in competitive sports at a young age experience more serious negative impacts than positives, including a risk of severe injury, losing

“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.