Informative Essay: Contact Sports Are Not Worth The Risk

Arnav Chamunya

Contact Sports Are Not Worth the Risk

According to Stanford Children’s Health, 30 million kids play organized sports each year, with 3.5 million of them requiring medical attention each year. Sports have been a favorite pastime since ancient Greece, and many young adults consider their participation in sports as their future career. However, sports, specifically contact sports, are seeing a decline, regardless of the perceived benefits. Contact sports, which involve physical contact with other players, have been associated with the highest level of injury. Since the risks of injuries are very high, many parents are worried about their children's mental and physical safety. Despite the positive effects, contact sports are not

This viewpoint can be supported by professors. According to Dr. Marika Lindholm, a professor at Northwestern University “Sports psychologists are in high demand because parents, coaches, teams, and schools put undue pressure on young athletes to perform well every time they step on the field, court, or track” (Lindholm 2). Letting children participate in contact sports while already under massive amounts of pressure due to academics can have disastrous mental health consequences. Pressure can easily manipulate athletes with the best mental health. They can turn into scared, helpless individuals that feel that everyone is against them. Thus, contact sports are not worth the risk of becoming distant from everyone else you love. Many experts also agree that contact sports can weaken the confidence of kids. According to Dr. Marika Lindholm, “Too often, a win-at-all-costs mentality devastates young athletes” (Lindholm 2). Allowing children to tie their mental health to sports can seriously harm their well-being. Whenever a kid who loves to win loses, it can destroy their self-esteem. They might blame themselves for their team losing and would experience a great deal of sadness and depression and perceive themselves as a failure, especially if it is a big game like a championship. In the end, this would destroy any happiness they feel and they would always feel like they are less compared to others, (which

Research confirms that sports can prevent children from falling into depression while also healing from their trauma. According to Dr. Molly Easterlin, “...kids who had participated in team sports were significantly less likely to receive a diagnosis of depression or anxiety and less likely to test positive for depressive symptoms” (Neilson 2). Based on this information, it might be concluded that sports are good for children because it lets kids stay happy and have a lower chance of slipping into depression. Unfortunately, in reality, it is more likely to further injure a child’s well-being by destroying their mental and physical health. If an athlete is constantly being hit in the head, they can develop serious illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s, CTE, and Parkinson’s disease- all very serious terminal illnesses. Additionally, there is also the risk of broken bones due to the impacts of other players in contact sports. Also, the mental trauma experienced from pressure from the crowd, coaches, other players, and their parents might be overwhelming. This in turn can reduce an athlete’s mental well-being even more, putting them at risk for future traumatic injuries. Contact sports are still not worth the risk despite the numbered positive effects claimed by their