Modern, American youth sports emphasize the importance of competition and winning. Sports have shifted away from the pure enjoyment of physical activity, teamwork, and fun with friends within a community to expensive, time-consuming, and over-competitive activities. This is because in recent decades, there has been in large shift from public, player-controlled sports to elite private sports, which has sadly had a huge impact on the meaning given to sports. Rather than participating in sports to create friendships, have fun, and stay in shape, parents place their children in high-performance sports that are extremely labor-intensive and very expensive. Therefore, I firmly believe that there needs to be a change in the organization and of youth
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However, in order to do so under a structural theory, changes must be made to the overall structure and organization of youth sports, which in this case, would be increasing tax dollars allotted to community sport programs for children. Various studies have proven that youth and adolescent sports based on performance ethic and those that had highly competitive atmospheres caused athletes to have negative sport experiences. In March of 2009, Dr. Jessica Fraser-Thomas of York University and Jean Côté of Queen’s University studied the positive and negative effects of sports on adolescent swimmers. Through many interviews, Fraser-Thomas and Côté determined the leading factors that had an effect on the athletes’ experiences. Overall, when these athletes experienced a challenging psychological environment, it was primarily due to the highly competitive atmosphere of their sport. For example, “Six athletes discussed the mental and emotional struggles they experienced in the competitive sport environment… often leading them to “crash” physically (i.e., burnout, dropout, injury, illness) or “meltdown” psychologically” (Fraser-Thomas & Côté, 2009). This evidence proves how damaging a …show more content…
This list was referenced in Jay Coakley’s 2016 version of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies. The recommendations listed are: ask kids what they want, reintroduce free play, encourage sport sampling, revitalize in-town leagues, think small, design for development, train all coaches, and emphasize prevention. Each of these recommendations are powerful and would definitely help transform youth sports to a better state, however, it is extremely difficult to simply change all youth sport programs across America. What makes it even more difficult is that there is not an all-encompassing, governing body for nationwide youth sports. Therefore, it would not be possible to legally enforce the recommendations listed above. However, changes in youth sports can be made within local governments. For example, local governments can increase the amount of local tax dollars allotted to a city’s Park District sports fund. By increasing funding for public, youth sports, nicer facilities can be made, a better coaching staff can be hired, and the sports leagues could be made larger to accommodate for more players. The intention of increasing funding for community-based youth sports is to improve the programs overall, therefore, making in-town sports more appealing than expensive,
However, in order to do so under a structural theory, changes must be made to the overall structure and organization of youth sports, which in this case, would be increasing tax dollars allotted to community sport programs for children. Various studies have proven that youth and adolescent sports based on performance ethic and those that had highly competitive atmospheres caused athletes to have negative sport experiences. In March of 2009, Dr. Jessica Fraser-Thomas of York University and Jean Côté of Queen’s University studied the positive and negative effects of sports on adolescent swimmers. Through many interviews, Fraser-Thomas and Côté determined the leading factors that had an effect on the athletes’ experiences. Overall, when these athletes experienced a challenging psychological environment, it was primarily due to the highly competitive atmosphere of their sport. For example, “Six athletes discussed the mental and emotional struggles they experienced in the competitive sport environment… often leading them to “crash” physically (i.e., burnout, dropout, injury, illness) or “meltdown” psychologically” (Fraser-Thomas & Côté, 2009). This evidence proves how damaging a …show more content…
This list was referenced in Jay Coakley’s 2016 version of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies. The recommendations listed are: ask kids what they want, reintroduce free play, encourage sport sampling, revitalize in-town leagues, think small, design for development, train all coaches, and emphasize prevention. Each of these recommendations are powerful and would definitely help transform youth sports to a better state, however, it is extremely difficult to simply change all youth sport programs across America. What makes it even more difficult is that there is not an all-encompassing, governing body for nationwide youth sports. Therefore, it would not be possible to legally enforce the recommendations listed above. However, changes in youth sports can be made within local governments. For example, local governments can increase the amount of local tax dollars allotted to a city’s Park District sports fund. By increasing funding for public, youth sports, nicer facilities can be made, a better coaching staff can be hired, and the sports leagues could be made larger to accommodate for more players. The intention of increasing funding for community-based youth sports is to improve the programs overall, therefore, making in-town sports more appealing than expensive,