Major Trends and problems in Youth Sports Today

Not just all benefits, the ugly truth

 By: Brandon Akins

    



Source: Youth Sports

On September 20 & 25, 2012, we spoke about the major trends and problems associated with youth sports in today's society. Now one would believe that because youth sports is at an all time high there is not much room for improvement, but there is research that proves youth sports is not as peachy as it seems. I myself was one that believed in there is much room for improvement for youth sports. After the discussion in class I began to link my own experiences with youth leagues in my hometown and saw that they hold true. In the article "A closer look at some trends in youth sport participation" by Ronald B. Woods, he provides a list of trends/problems in youth sport that go hand in hand with the trends/problems that Dr. Higgs provided us with in class.


These Lists consist of (coinciding points from both class discussion and article):

1. The over emphasis on winning - as time goes on there is an increasingly pressure on kids to  have tunnel vision on winning which takes away of the fun aspect of the game.

2. The pressure of external factors such as parents to achieve success - now days parents try to live vicariously through their children and hold dreams of stardom and push professional

endeavors.

3. Increase in the participation of alternative sports - kids have been moving away from the more traditional sports and have been engaging in skateboarding, in-line skating, snowboarding, and many other action sports that are based on individual success.

4. Increase in injuries - because America is a violent society it makes sense that football is now America's past time. So sports will naturally go with the trend and also become more intense, physical, and injury prone.

On page 127 of Coakley's text he talks about major trends that he saw where in youth sports, and on pages 142-147 he talks about some the issues he sees with youth sport also. Mr. Coakley and Mr. Woods saw eye to eye on a couple points. They both share common ground when they make the point about the increase in the participation in alternative sports. Mr. Coakley goes on to say that this means that many young people prefer unstructured, participant-controlled sports such as skateboarding, in-cline skating, snowboarding, BMX biking, Frisbee, jumping rope, and other physical activities that have local or regional relevance in their lives. Today's youth leagues or any league for that matter are heavily based on winning so they take any measure to achieve the sensation, so that means some might not get the opportunity to play. That's when they turn to these sports where competition is individually driven and actual participation is decided by them and not a coach. Mr. Woods and Mr. Coakley also agreed on the expenses it is costing the parents to have their children to participate in these youth sports. In the text it spoke on how some families can spend up to thousands of dollars for their children to participate in sports. Now personally I think this is an absurd amount of money just for your kids to participate in youth leagues but when you think about it if they didn't spend the money no one else would and you would see a massive decline in  sports. Its like a domino or chain effect sports wouldn't have any one to look forward too because they had to give up sports when they were young because their parents couldn't afford to keep them in it. Honestly, it could get better but studies show it will only get worse for youth sports.  Where do you see the future going for youth sports?