Over the last two decades the development of youth sports has reflected the popularity of professional sports in our society. Sports are highly popular with American children. At least 25 million American girls and boys participate in at least one organized sport each year. Critics estimate that as many as 73 percent quit sports by age thirteen. Most teens quit because they aren’t having any fun anymore. The reasons why is the parents and coaches putting extra pressure on them over competitiveness. Children join sports at a young age, and it is usually the parent who decides what sport the child will play. Parents are often very involved in their child’s sport Some parents get more involved with the sport than the kid is. There isn’t any pressure on competition and children all have an equal chance to play. They are able to play with their friends outside the school and simply have fun, which keeps children interested and involved in their sport. As children get older they come up to a higher level in their sport, for example, from T- ball, to little league. During this time the pressure starts to kick in at the games that the parents and peers are attending. At this age the parents and coaches are starting to look at winning and they forget all about the learning experience that this is. Most coaches nowadays look for the talented kids to play for them to make them look good and make them out to be good coaches since they are winning and the parents are getting excited at the games like it is a professional sporting event held at a local stadium. Parents and the coaches should focus on the kids who are involved in all this. The leagues aren’t held for the coaches or the parents , its held for the kids. This experience is to help the youth out on their athletic skills and on their skills to handle pressure. Parents and coaches should teach the kids that the reason that they are in the league is to have fun not to turn it into a battlefield.
By means of sports, children learn to contend with losing as well as winning without gloating or excessive celebration. Kids now think of losing as a sign of humiliation. But losing can benefit children. Losing can be used as fuel for persistence and the determination to work harder so that you won’t be in the same position again. Like high school basketball. It doesn’t feel so good when your team is at the end of its season and you know that you aren’t making the tournament and others are making a run at a title while you have to sit in the audience looking at teams that are in the tournament that you know that you could beat but have to sit there and “wait until next year”. That feeling is a feeling that no person who has ever been in that situation will ever forget. That feeling would drive you to practice during the off-season and it would cause you to encourage your teammates to practice with you so that you won’t have that feeling again come the following season.
Participating in organized sports can benefit children. Well-organized athletic programs can provide and safe place where children could enjoy their free spare time. Instead of roaming the streets and basically looking for trouble, the children would be in school doing something that they are more comfortable doing and it is supervised. They don’t have to go home and sit and eat junk food and play video games all day or they don’t have to go to a job that they are only at because they want money to buy some clothes or to save up to buy a car. They can do something that they enjoy doing and it uses exercises with it also. Organized sports help children intimingle, provoke mental and physical development, build self-esteem and strengthen family bonds.
