Youth Sports in America

How many of you played a sport when you were younger? I played a few including T-ball, soccer, and basketball. For me they were all a great learning experience. It taught me what sport I was good at and what ones I should never try again. When you are involved in a youth sport, there aren't many rules, no officials, no penalties or anything like that; it’s all for fun! Even though I was never on a winning team as a child, I still had more fun than I ever had playing varsity football or community run baseball teams in high school. I wish all sports could be that way but as you get older, the whole competitive nature kicks in and you no longer play for fun, but to better yourself as an individual and most importantly, win. As sport continues to grow and more kids become involved at younger ages, things start to get out of hand. Parents are getting too involved and winning is starting to become the primary focus with these young kids. When you think of youth sports you got to remember that we are talking about little kids around the age of 5-12 depending on where you are or what you consider youth. I like to consider youth sports in that age because of my involvement with youth sport throughout my life. At these ages, the game should be played for the fun of it, the learning experience, and the socialization between kids their own age. The interaction is great for young children because it helps with many of the cognitive and social skills they develop in theses growing years. What the real problem is with the youth sport in America is how seriously parents are taking the games. To them it isn't about the team effort, it's about the individual performance of their own child. Now I understand that every parent wants the best for their children and wants to see them succeed. It's very understandable to get a little upset when your child doesn't perform up to the level of expectation but they shouldn't be running onto the field attacking each other, coaches, or officials over something they didn't agree with. When I was about 8 or 9, I played soccer for my local community and parents started to get really out of hand. As a result, they passed about lollypops to every spectator in honor of the "keep your mouth shut day." I also umpire youth baseball ages 9-14 and they had a similar problem with the same solution. The community was trying everything possible to make sure there wasn't confrontation because of a recent on field fight between a coach and a parent. This is truly childish behavior by people who are supposed to be mature adults! The kids on the field have better behavior than their own parents who are 30 years older than them! "The adults are spoiling the fun! The first Youth Sports National Report Card, prepared by a group called Citizenship Through Sports Alliance, issued low grades for parents' behavior and a win-at-all-cost mentality fostered by the grown-ups who oversee kids' sports." It seems like every parent has dreams of professional sports for their child when they grow up and by yelling and screaming during competition, the kids get a negative outlook on the sport. When they think of baseball they remember when dad ran on the field and speared the umpire into the ground for calling their child out at 3rd base. For the rest of that kid’s life he is going to look down on the sport and remember how his father not only embarrassed his child, but himself and his entire family. There’s not much you can do to combat these crazy and savage parents of today, but all we can hope is the children are getting some kind of a positive experience out of all that they see at such a young age. Let me know what you think about this post and fill me in with some negative experiences of youth sport when you were younger!