Sports and youth today
Recently it was announced all over the news that a good number of well known major league baseball players were suspected of using performance enhancing drugs. It made me wonder how activities that were supposed to be fun got to this point. In my opinion, it starts in childhood.
Sports are good for children, and can promote many things including health, exercise, sportsmanship and fair play. Many of our children start out in leagues where all kids play and scores aren’t kept. The kids play and the kids have fun. It’s that simple.
As the children start growing older, things change. Things get a little more competitive. Before you know it there are tryouts, heart broken children not making teams but playing with more heart than the kids that make the team, coaches picking A and B teams, and more frequent practices. And that’s only some of what’s in store for your child. Remember your child? You know, he’s the one who played just because he wanted to have some fun. To me there is no good reason that any boy age 8-10 should have to spend every night practicing football, and not have time to play with friends. That is no fun. We know a boy who hates the constant practice because he has little time for anything else.
I sometimes feel a little outnumbered when I go to one of my son’s basketball games. There are parents there that yell and scream at their kids while they’re still in play. I’m not one of them, because I feel they are doing their child a disservice. I have been known to cheer for both teams. Recently one of the boys glanced up to one or both of his parents in the stands in outrage while holding his arms open with palms up as if to say “who me?” because the ref called him for traveling. Why didn’t he look to the coach? Why didn’t he just listen to the ref’s explanation and learn from it? I want my son to learn that it’s great to win but also that it’s ok to lose as long as you have tried your best and had some fun. I encourage learning. Everyone can always learn from mistakes. Why must there be an A team and a B team? Why not pair stronger kids with weaker kids and both of them might learn something.
If kids are constantly pushed to and beyond their limits they’re getting the wrong message. The message they’re getting is that performance is the important aspect of sports. Maybe some of those kids grow into young adults and enter professional sports where the pressure is even greater. Maybe some of the players turn to performance enhancing drugs because they’ve been taught all their life to perform, not play. Let’s bring play back into our youth sports.
I agree there is way too much pressure put on children in sports today. When I was in high school they started to ban parents because they used bad language during games.
It’s sad that parents put so much pressure on their own children to preform well, but don’t know how to behave in public.
How true Holly. Some parents do not know how to behave in public. What a good example they must set for their kids.