Graduation Speech: Possible Change In Competitive Sports

According to the NCAA, only 3.3 percent of high school athletes will play at the Division 1 level and after college, only .05 percent of athletes make it to the professional level. Parents feel that they have invested so much in their child that they expect a rewarding return. The pressure to encourage their child to be successful can be the reason why parents can be aggressive toward their

This notion is supported by Dr. Daniel Gould, who believes that “Children who participate in sports have increased educational aspirations, closer ties to school and increased occupational aspirations in youth” (1). People against the funding of high school sports think that parents and society are placing more emphasis than ever before and, “[P]ressures athletic personnel to deviate on winning from the athlete- centered educational and personal development mission” (Gould 1). However, athletes strive to do better in class. Michael Lorenc, a high school basketball coach believes that “those who seem to have an overwhelming schedule where they’re playing maybe multiple sports, and high academic schedules, they tend to do better than those who don’t do anything extracurricularly” (Gray). Balancing sports and school makes athletes put more effort into keeping up grades while playing the sport they love.

Summary “Children Need to Play, Not Compete,” by Jessica Statsky is a thoughtful insight on the competitive sports for children. She is of the view that the competitive sports can ruin the enjoyment that games are supposed to provide. These methods of playing the games like adults can prove to be lethal for physical and psychological health. The author quotes from an authentic source that “Kids under the age of fourteen are not by nature physical.” (Tutko)

Sadly, my enjoyment of baseball was short-lived. As I transitioned into middle school, the sport became more competitive than enjoyable. Rather than hearing cheers and

More and more often you hear about young kids quitting sports due to being burned out. Julianna W. Miner reports, “According to a poll from the National Alliance for Youth Sports, around 70 percent of kids in the United States stop playing organized sports by the age of 13 because ’it’s just not fun anymore’”(Washington Post). This can be caused by the fact that parents are playing select ball at early ages such as 7 or 8 years old. Playing competitively in any sport at such can early age can take a huge emotional toll on kids. At such an early age, kids should play these sports for fun and entertainment, not competition.

The Director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports,Daniel Gould in his Article, “Are High School Sports Good For Kids” suggests that high school sports are an integral part of American society. He supports this claim by first saying how sports have educational benefits, then talking about their effect on the child as a citizen, and finally claiming that sports give adolescents increased aspirations. Goulds purpose is to illustrate the benefits of children taking part in school sports. He adopts a analytical tone an older audience.

Children have strived for years to make their parents, teachers and coaches proud of them. Kids have come to practice Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday, and Friday to get better, while their academics are suffering. Students have pushed their bodies to the limits, causing extreme injury that will hold them back from sports in the future. Student athletes are not getting the opportunity to play multiple sports during the year, because they are expected to spelize in one sport and focus on it year round, leaving no opportunity to play other sports or do other activities. Youth sports are becoming too intense for young children to keep up with.

Dr. Frank L. Smoll states, “All children and youth need vigorous physical activity as part of their daily lives, and sports provide the benefits of exercise and the potential for acquiring a sense of accomplishment.” (Smoll 1/2).

Introduction A. Attention gaining device: Many know about the aspects of sports on the field, but do you know their contributions off of it? B. Relevance Statement: Sports are involved in many facets of life that either affect us or the people around us, which makes it important to understand the contributions sports have made. C. Credibility Statement: I am a huge sports fan so I have always been interested in things like statistics, players, and sports history.

The amount of children participating in competitive sports has been on a steady decline in the past decade. Between the years of 2008 and 2013, the total number of children participating in competitive sports has dropped by approximately 2.6 million. This is mainly due to the many negative impacts that young athletes face when partaking in these sports. Competitive sports involve sports where competition is encouraged, and where winning is more important than anything else. Competing in these sports causes the children to be vulnerable to many risks and many other negative impacts.

Children are playing just to win and the real spirit of the game fades out. (Word count: 196) Response I strongly agree with the point of Jessica Statsky in “Children Need to Play, Not Compete”. The way Statsky explains the facts by referring to other people is not questionable. The parents forcefully ask their children to join sports for the development of their bodies and mind.

“In the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year” claims Stanford Children’s Health. It’s definitely true that competitive sports can cause all sorts of injuries from big to small. The media teaches people simply that sports leads to horrific injuries and can cause stress, but what the mainstream media hardly discusses are the great benefits of competitive sports. While there may be some negatives to competitive sports, that’s just life, and to add on to that; there are plenty of benefits which are sure to override to media’s facts. Kids should play competitive sports because competitive sports teach children powerful life lessons, contributes to their social and mental stability, and because of the physical gain competitive sports provides.

In recent years studies have found that some kids have been steering away from sports. Numbers in kids playing sports has gone down nearly 4 percent from 2009, according to a widely cited survey by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. Total sports played have plummeted by nearly 10 percent. People were curious why this was happening, so studies were conducted to find out. The researchers found out that there have been added pressures by three main sources, parents, coaches, and self pressure.

Young Athletes See Things Differently Just like the big guys, kids play competition football. They start in pee-wee leagues all the way through high school. They have winners and looser, divisions and playoff games leading up to the final game of the year, but why are more children turning their backs on organized sports, like football that involve major rivalries?

Parents have many reasons why they don’t want their kid to play baseball, but there are better reasons why they should. A lot of websites say that it’s better to play baseball than football with lots of evidence behind that statement. Therefore, children should play baseball because it helps them socially and keeps them healthy. One reason that parents should let their kids play baseball is the social/mental process in this sport.