Sports: The Negative Effects Of Sports On Children

Naval Officer Robert Ballard once said, “Follow your own passion- not your parents’ not your teachers’- yours.” In today’s society, what a parent thinks affects what a child thinks. Children often values a parent’s happiness over their own. More than twenty-six million kids play sports around the world starting as young as age six. Forcing a child into doing a sport can damage a child’s well-being, physical-being and can cause them to not have any interest in the sport. Research has shown that children that are forced into sports can be affected negatively in a physically, mentally, and emotionally way due to parent performance expectations. Sports is an important aspect of American culture. Some parents value sports more than they do

Many children who are pushed into a sport will involuntarily injure themselves so they do not have to continue participating (Stenson). Over 3.5 million children and teens ages six to fourteen are injuring themselves purposely participating in sports they do not want to participate in. The highest rates of injury occur in sports that involve contact and collisions. More severe injuries occur during individual sports and recreational activities (Sports Injury Statistics). Although playing the sport can injure the child, so can the practices. Practicing day after day will physically mess up the child’s growth (Merkel). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, sports activities and games have been the common cause of injuries for kids ages five to fourteen

Some kids will play rougher and more physically than others trying to do better than kids on the opposing team. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports, over the past thirty years “fractures increased by fifty-six percent in girls and thirty-two percent in boys” (see figure 1). Children and kids often continue to play sports even after injuring themselves or after being injured by another person because of the fear of their parent and or coaches expectations(s) for them to win and continue playing (Muller). Parents often do not like to see their child fail in a sport they want them to succeed in (Wallace). Furthermore, parents will also push their child into sports frequently for their own enjoyment as well as pushing them into sports to keep them in shape. Frequently parents push their child into sports to keep what they perceive as the “American Dream” of an intact family alive: A Happily married family, with smart children and who succeed in sports.
Studies have shown the fundamentals of youth sports are supposed to provide kids with fun, keep a child focused and fuel the basic. The fun aspect of the fundamentals are: decreasing injuries, increasing enthusiasm and eagerness, and prolonging the involvement in sports. The focus aspect of the fundamentals are: exercising, making new friends, learning sportsmanship, and developing social and sports skills. Lastly,