Pushing Too Hard
Problems in Youth Athletic
Problems in Youth Athletics
One of the greatest feelings a parent can experience is watching a child excel in an activity. Rightfully so, many parents encourage children to perform well in sports. The problems start when the encouragement begins to go too far. Many parents and coaches toady exceed the boundaries of encouragement, and enter a realm of abuse. A lot of this behavior will start when a parent of coach believes that they are mentoring the next superstar athlete. When parents and coaches start to look at children as major prospects the problems in youth athletics begin to become major issues.
In the 1950’s youth athletic programs began to grow quickly all over the United States. Today millions of children participate in organized youth sports programs. These programs were set out to help develop the skills of the youth not only in sports but in life as well. Also, an important focus of the youth leagues was for the children to have fun. In the past few years, the focus of the youth leagues has been changed by the parents and coaches due to the focus on performance and winning. Children are being introduced to competitive play at an earlier age than ever before. Some of the youth leagues have children competing as early as age four. Today many children are expected to play one sport all year long through various leagues. A commitment of this level is not good for young children. There are many problems that come along with pushing children too hard in competitive sports.
“Burnout” is one of the biggest problems a young athlete can experience during youth sports. Burnout is also known as overtraining syndrome. According to the Childrens Memorial Hospital, “burnout, or overtraining is a condition in which an athlete experiences fatigue and declining performance in his/her sport despite continuing or increased training.”(2002). There are many factors that can lead to burnout in a young athlete today.
Problems in Youth Athletics
One of the greatest feelings a parent can experience is watching a child excel in an activity. Rightfully so, many parents encourage children to perform well in sports. The problems start when the encouragement begins to go too far. Many parents and coaches toady exceed the boundaries of encouragement, and enter a realm of abuse. A lot of this behavior will start when a parent of coach believes that they are mentoring the next superstar athlete. When parents and coaches start to look at children as major prospects the problems in youth athletics begin to become major issues.
In the 1950’s youth athletic programs began to grow quickly all over the United States. Today millions of children participate in organized youth sports programs. These programs were set out to help develop the skills of the youth not only in sports but in life as well. Also, an important focus of the youth leagues was for the children to have fun. In the past few years, the focus of the youth leagues has been changed by the parents and coaches due to the focus on performance and winning. Children are being introduced to competitive play at an earlier age than ever before. Some of the youth leagues have children competing as early as age four. Today many children are expected to play one sport all year long through various leagues. A commitment of this level is not good for young children. There are many problems that come along with pushing children too hard in competitive sports.
“Burnout” is one of the biggest problems a young athlete can experience during youth sports. Burnout is also known as overtraining syndrome. According to the Childrens Memorial Hospital, “burnout, or overtraining is a condition in which an athlete experiences fatigue and declining performance in his/her sport despite continuing or increased training.”(2002). There are many factors that can lead to burnout in a young athlete today.
References: Cary, Peter. (2004). U.S. Fixing kid’s sports: rescuing children’s games from crazed coaches.News and World Report. Retrieved From http://www.alcdsb.on.ca/~regiath/cats/articles/FixingKidsSports.pdf National Alliance for Youth Sports. (2010). Overdoing it. Retrieved From http://www.nays.org/fullstory.cfm?articleid=10303 Parade. (2005). Who’s killing kids’ sports? Retrieved From http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2005/edition_08-07-2005/featured_0 Stenson, Jacqueline. (2004). Pushing too hard too young. Retrieved From http://portal.northbayyouthsoccerclub.com/Clubs/portals/InnisfilSoccerclub/Medi a/Image/Articles/tt_pushing.pdf If you need to type anything after the reference list then start it on this page