Problems With Youth Sport

On February 13th, 2013 in class, we discussed youth sport and if youth sport programs are worth the effort. As we discussed in class, there are a total of 47 million children that participate in youth sport, and that number has increased 25% since the year 2000. With this many people participating in youth sports, it is necessary to look at the pros and cons of participating to determine if it is worth it for children.

Pros of Participating in Youth Sport

• Develops and maintains fitness
• Preparation for adulthood
• Opportunity to learn values
• Teaches interactive skills
• Provides opportunities for leadership

Whenever there are that many people participating in something, that number is eventually going to drop, and as we learned in class, it is no different when it comes to youth sport. A large number of children end up dropping out of youth sport. One-third of participants drop out every year and 70% of participants quit by the age of 13. The two main reasons children quit are because of negative parents and coaches. In addition to negative parents and coaches, there are other problems in youth sport today that we discussed in class.

Problems in Youth Sport

• Overemphasis on winning
• Pressures  by significant others to achieve success
• Instilling in unrealistic goals of stardom and professional status
• Overuse injuries, over training, and burnout

An article written in the USA Today, by Michele Healy on August 6th, 2013 brought the problem with injuries in youth sport to light. The article basically goes on to talk about the problem with injuries in youth sport and backs up its claims with statistics. According to the article, 1.35 million children faced an injury while participating in youth sport that was severe enough to require a trip to the hospital. The most common injuries found were sprains/strains, fractures, contusions, abrasions, and concessions in children from the age of 6 to 19, according to the article. The most common injuries were to the ankle, head, finger, knee, and face in that order, according to the article. Statistics like these definitely support the notion that more precautions need to be taken with kids participating in youth sports. Coaches need to know when they are pushing the kids to hard and when they need to rest them. A 14 year old kid should not be throwing 120 pitches in a baseball game. Instances like that happen every day in youth sports and nothing is ever going to change unless we become more educated on how to be safe while participating in sports.

Little League Baseball has instituted a "pitch count"
rule to protect the player's arms.

Connecting to the text, Jay Coakley discusses the problems in youth sport in his book, Sports in Society:  Issues and Controversies on page 139. He states that one of the problems with youth sport is, "Overemphasized early sports specialization that often leads to burnout, overuse injuries, and a hyper-competitive culture and organized atmosphere focused on travel teams." Also in his book, a grade of a C+ was given in the area of Health and Safety in youth sport, which is a lot lower than it should be.