Youth Sports Benefits

The youth sports organization will lead to many health benefits outweighing the risks for the children as they grow. As youth sports become more extreme, the benefits increase and allow the youth to learn from mistakes. While youth sports can arguably be considered dangerous, there comes many health benefits to playing a sport at a young age. One study reveals, “Physical activity, and sports in particular, can positively affect aspects of personal development among young people, such as self-esteem, goal-setting, and leadership” (The Aspen Institute, 2015). These facts are proving the health benefits a youth may gain from playing a sport at a young age. A well rounded character is important to have when beginning in the real-world. Skills
including teamwork can be a key component looking for a job as employers will look to see how one works with others. Being able to work through problems easily and be resilient to situations is a significant characteristic that youths acquire from playing a youth sport.
There may be many risks to playing a sport at a young age; however, the benefits a child gains from playing a sport will outweigh the risk. On the whole, the well rounded character a youth will gain from playing a sport is a key
benefit. According to Men's Health, failure is something not every kid has experienced and it is not an easy task to face, but playing a sport will teach children that they may never be able to withdraw or avoid failure (Brooks, 2005). Failure is a part of one's everyday life. One may chose to face it and others will walk away. Failure can be defined as “the lack of success”. In youth sports one of the greatest feelings a child may acquire is the feeling of success. With success comes failures. The youth who have experienced these failures are well more prepared than the youth who will turn their back on the failures they come across down the road. Although some may argue that “ Youth sports programs are no longer about meeting the educational, developmental, and recreational needs of children but rather about satisfying ego needs of adults” (Gerdy, 2005). However, “The fact is, if organized athletics is ever going to meet its promise of developing the leadership, organization, and decision-making skills of participants, parents, coaches, and administrators must place their egos on the shelf and give the children and young adults the freedom to exercise and develop those skills” (Gerdy, 2005). The youth do not have a say in how their parents may act and parents do not realize the damage they can cause to their youth. Unquestionably, while the youth grow up they will reflect on the health benefits they have acquired from the youth sports organization.
Youth sports are putting an enormous amount of pressure on the youth leading them to drop all sports and burnout.
The youth sports organization has become too much too soon. Children are now specializing in one sport, practicing daily and overtraining. These specializations are putting too much pressure on the youth and leading them to dropping sports. Researchers have found that the youth comes to a point where there is insufficient motivation both mentally and physically. They have found that specializing a sport can cause burnout from too much stress and overdoing (Kaufman, 2014). This research proves that pushing the youth into specializing one specific sport will cause them to exhaust the sport completely. Sports have become a big thing for today’s youth that their sport is leading them to overtraining. Overtraining affects the youth mentally and physically. Children are left with many injuries as well as a stress overload. These youth sports are growing rapidly continuing with specialization; however, the burnout rate continues to increase in the children today. Another way specializing youth sports is the injuries in children at young ages specializing in a sport versus a kid who plays in numerous sports. Wixon argues,“The 2013 research brief, which drew from the findings of more than 50 research papers and books, found that sports specialization for kids ages 6 to 12 led to increased burnout and higher rate of injury than for kids who played multiple sports” (Wixon,
n.d.). Wixon realizes how much damage specialization is putting on the youth physically. The children who specialize their sport are more likely to get injured from overuse of the same muscles. The overtraining is being overlooked as parents are more worried about their ego and want their kid to be the best. Aside from the mental exhaustion of overtraining it is important to give the youth a break physically as they are still growing. Not only do they get endless pressure from their parents and coaches, but the stress that is put on their bodies is leading the youth to burnout and exhaust sports for the rest of their life. Critics argue that spending more time on one sport will only increase the success of that sport with the repetition of the mechanics. (Champion Physical Therapy and Fitness, n.d.). In spite of this, most of the youth today are having to drop the sport due to the “repetition of the mechanics”. The repetition is causing the youth various injuries at such a young age. Alongside with being injured at a young age they are mentally exhausted and can not handle the pressure being put on them to be the best there is. Without a doubt, specialization is leading to burnouts from the great amount of pressure put on the youth sports organization.