Adolescents Should Not Participate In Competitive Sports

Jordan D Metzl, an orthopedic surgeon in New York City, recently diagnosed a nine-year-old-girl who suffered from a pelvic stress fracture over the course of training for her soccer team. The girl’s training sessions were scheduled for two to three hours per day for five to six days a week. According to Metzl’s findings, the major contributing factor for the stress fracture was the severe training that she had undergone, repeating the same techniques, slowly burning her athletic ability out. However despite this, there has been a skyrocketing increase in the number of injuries caused by competitive sports. Children and adolescents must not participate in competitive sports due to the increased amount of sport-related injuries, and because …show more content…
Dr. Henry Goitz, the chief of sports medicine at the Medical College of Ohio, demonstrates how the pressure involved in competitive sports can be overwhelming for many children and can hurt them psychologically when they do not achieve the win that their parents expect from them. “ Parents -- and coaches -- who push too hard too young, particularly when they emphasize winning above all else, can easily wipe out a child’s motivation to play,” states Dr. Goitz. Effectively, he depicts that the competition in organized, competitive sports can drift a child’s mindset to not be actively engaged in sports at all, wiping out all motivation or desire to play a sport. However regardless of the issues stated in the paragraphs above, some people defend the idea of participation in competitive sports due to health benefits provided by …show more content…
Still, Dr. Drake who is a researcher at the Geisel School of Medicine, having written articles concerning health and diet in the journal of Pediatrics, emphasizes that competitive sports are not the only form of strenuous exerciseto keep children physically active. “...but there are other ways — like playing intramural or club sports, or joining a dance or gymnastics team — for children to get strenuous exercise,” says Dr. Drake, clarifying that competitive sports are not the only measure of strenuous activity to lead a healthy lifestyle. In doing so, he indicates that there are unique ways to substitiute for competitive sports and despite the pressure and injuries obtained by the majority of participants, competitive sports are not a