Have you ever wanted to know if competitive sports help or hurt youth athletes? My argument is that competitive sport help youth athletes with higher self esteem and more confidence. This is really important for youth athletes because it will help them handle pressure on tests or competition when there is only one spot left in a job. My reasons are; Competitive sports help build confidence and self esteem, confidence and self esteem help kids learn many life goals, and when athletes fail self confidence and esteem help them conquer what they feel about the game.
According to research, competitive sports help build self confidence and self-esteem. This helps kids when they fail …show more content…
or do something wrong it can bring them back up, such as some youth athletes have missed shots, not caught the ball, or missed a tackle. This makes the youth athletes get better and make sure they do it the next time. This builds confidence and self-esteem by finally doing what the kids were trying to do in the first place. The kids know that they have got better and that boosts confidence. (Taylor, NA,https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201009/sports-building-confidence-part-i ). Some people disagree saying that missing shots or failing will make the youth athletes lose confidence or self esteem. But I argue that when they fail it makes them try harder to succeed. After this most kids grow more confidence because they know that they can do this and succeed. One of my personal experiences are last year during my football season, I let up a touchdown for the other team because I missed a tackle and my coaches got mad at me. Missing the tackle taught me to get better and get more confidence in myself to hit hard and get the tackle. The next game I made some game winning tackles. Another reason is that one adult mentioned that her kid plays baseball and has been striking out every time he goes up to bat. His parents took him to the batting cages and practiced with him every day. When the game came around the mom told her son to have confidence in hitting the ball. He hit the ball and had the confidence to run to first and he did not get out (Cohn, 2010, http://www.youthsportspsychology.com/youth_sports_psychology_blog/what-hurts-young-athletes-confidence-in-sports/ Comment Seven). This example shows that when you have the confidence from practicing you will have the confidence in the game. The confidence in hitting the ball is the thing that made him better.
To prove my argument even more, my second reason is that confidence and self esteem help youth athletes to learn many life goals.
Many children just come to the last game to get a participant medal and ribbons, and they are just doing the sport so they feel better about themselves. However, the kids who went to all of the games and practices should get the medals because it builds their confidence and self esteem. They worked for this and got something better than the people who did not work at all (Ways to build real self-esteem in Youth Athletes article). Competition and confidence go well together because if you are really competitive and win a game, you feel like you did a good job and that boosts your confidence. But on the other side if you lose you want to get better and that boosts your self esteem (From building confidence and building self-esteem). Some parent have their kids put in a lot of work when they are losing almost every game. Some kids even put in their work and make really important plays for the team so they win and that boosts their confidence and self esteem (Cohn, 2010, http://www.youthsportspsychology.com/youth_sports_psychology_blog/what-hurts-young-athletes-confidence-in-sports/ Comment
32).
My last reason I will be proving is that when athletes fail, confidence and self esteem help you conquer what you feel about the game. When youth athletes mess up confidence helps them be better next time. Then if you have high confidence you won't get down on yourself for messing up (From Taylor, NA, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201009/sports-building-confidence-part-i And competitiveedge.com, NA, https://www.competitivedge.com/self-confidence ). Some youth athletes have never lost, so their esteem and confidence are really low. These are the people than make a big fit when they lose and are really upset (From my personal experiences). Some athletes don't get as much playing time as other people. But they know that they have the potential to be better and have the confidence to get it done. Then if they do good in practice and the coach recognizes them they get more confidence and get better until they can play (From Self-Confidence article).
These ideas support why competitive sports help youth athletes. Confidence and self-esteem are both really important for youth and you can get these both by playing competitive sports. I believe that competitive sports do more good than harm even though some kids might get hurt. These things will help you through your life, no matter how old you are.
Taylor, J. (NA). “Sports: Building Confidence: Part 1” Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201009/sports-building-confidence-part-i
Cohn, P. (June 9, 2010) “What Hurts Youth Athletes’ Confidence in Sports?” Retrieved from http://www.youthsportspsychology.com/youth_sports_psychology_blog/what-hurts-young-athletes-confidence-in-sports/
Goodes, J. (NA) “Ways to Build Real Self-Esteem in Youth Athletes” Retrieved from https://breakingmuscle.com/learn/7-ways-to-build-real-self-esteem-in-youth-athletes
Competitiveedge.com (NA) “Self-Confidence” Retrieved from https://www.competitivedge.com/self-confidence