Professionalization Of Amateur Sports

Eddie Matz’s article “The Kid are Alright” examines the effects of our counties’ increasingly professionalized amateur sports system. The article illustrated how pervasive professionalism has become in amateur sports thru surveys, examples, and the personal experience of a father and son. Elements of professional sports such as specialization, branded equipment and accessories, and prolonged practices have become more prevalent in amateur sports in recent years. In fact, practices and games occur so common and lengthy that many compare the time and effort commitment to that of a full-time job. The appropriateness of allowing professionalism to pervade itself within amateur sports has been debated contentiously since the advent of the phenomena.
Realizing one’s peak performance level because it affords the athlete the best opportunity to monetize their efforts on the field in the form of an athletic scholarship or a professional career. Opponents of professionalism in amateur sports argue that professionalized amateur sport robs children of a ‘normal’ childhood and will invariably lead to burnout and apathy from the participants. I personally tend to agree with those who oppose the professionalization of amateur sport. The two main reasons why I oppose the professionalization of amateur sports is because I believe travel teams and organizations like the AAU take the fun out of sports and because I believe that too much strenuous training at an early age can lead to stunted mental and physical
Fun and camaraderie are two aspects of the amateur sport experience that I believe today’s young athletes are being robbed of, due to the previously unforeseen rules and pressures put forth on them by their travel teams and leagues. Athletes in youth sports today are held to way higher standards than those in years past. It seems that so much pressure is put on athletes to succeed both individually and as a team, that even if they fall just a little short of these goals, they’ll deem themselves a failure. Some proponents of the professionalization of youth sport may counterpoint that this professionalization of sport is beneficial because it encourages youth to specialize in a single sport. This specialization, they would argue, leads to greater on-field success and camaraderie with like-minded peers. Unfortunately for proponents of this cause, studies have shown that the opposite exits. According to a study mentioned in Matt Wixon’s article on youth sport burnout, “sports specialization for kids ages 6 to 12 led to increased burnout and higher rates of injury than for kids who played multiple sports”. (Wixon) Overall, I believe the professionalization of youth sport should be discouraged because it positions amateur sports away from the premises on which it was built: fun and