Keeping Perspective In Youth Sports Essay

I selected the article Keeping Perspective in Youth Sport as it related to Chapter 3: Sports for Children in our Kinesiology textbook. In this chapter, I learned about the relationship between sports and children and found it very interesting. As I read this AASP article, I noticed how the author included similar topics that were related to the textbook’s chapter. Additionally, I personally felt connected to them since I participated in basketball as a leisurely activity during the weekends as a child. Although my parents were fully involved in my experiences with basketball, I did not once feel like I was being forced into playing. Despite this, I had a few teammates that were forced upon their parents to play as they had specific goals for their child to achieve. If these goals were not met appropriately, the child would receive some type of punishment.
While both the article and text agree that relationship between sports and children is beneficial, it can easily become disadvantageous with outside influences, namely parents. Youth sports are mostly used as a preventive measure to help children stay out of unnecessary trouble. Additionally, these sports are believed to give children the opportunities to have fun while learning adult values. The author of the article, Larry Lauer, suggests that parents …show more content…
In the article, this type of behavior leads to warning signs that demonstrate these parents develop an unhealthy perspective of youth sports. The associated signs are: a child overly nervous when competing in front of parent, a child looking for approval by parent during activity, and frequent discussions at home on the child’s performance. During my time on the basketball court, I noticed these signs in some of my teammates. However, I ignored them as I thought that it was a way for them to cope with being