Monday, March 14, 2011

Are There Problems In Youth Sports?

In American Sport in the 21st Century, we discussed some of the problems in youth sport.  Some of the problems that we discussed was that there is an over-emphasis on winning, there are pressures by significant others to achieve success, it instills unrealistic goals of being a star or being a pro, overuse injuries, over-training, and burnout.  All of these are major problems for some children that participate in sports.  It is not fair for kids to have to be put through these tough situations that young.

One thing that really bothers me about young kids playing sports is that the coaches are too hard on them sometimes.  They cannot really expect a young athlete to be fully developed and completely understand the game.  Then, those kids are punished for not knowing stuff that they should not be expected to know.  I think some youth sport coaches definitely take it way too far.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/93625-problems-youth-sports/
I found this article on Lance Armstrong's Livestrong website.  It explains how sports can be an amazing experience for a young kid but at the same time can be horrible do to certain situations and scenarios.

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