Robert King

AP Literature
Mrs. Wilson
May 13, 2016
Impact of Organized Youth Sports
Thesis: The positive effect on the development of children through organized youth sports by
improving self-esteem, academics, leadership qualities, health, outweighs the possible negative
impacts by teaching many other transferable skills that bring success in all different aspects of
life.
I.
II.

III.
IV.
V.

Youth Sports Throughout the Years

Positive Impacts
A. Physically
B. Academically
C. Redeeming Qualities
Possible Negative Impacts
A. Bad Coaching
B. Injuries
Decreased Involvement in Youth Sports
A. Statistics for Proof
B. Rise in Obesity Rate
Conclusion

Impact of Organized Youth Sports

Without sports, children would be lost, not having any sense of discipline, responsibility,
social skills, or physical well being. With the recent discussion involving concussions, sports
have come under fire, with many parents keeping their children out of sports. Sports allow kids
to develop positive skills that will be used for the rest of their lives. The positive effect on the
development of children through organized youth sports by improving self-esteem, academics,

leadership qualities, health, outweighs the possible negative impacts by teaching many other
transferable skills that bring success in all different aspects of life.
The history of youth sports is diverse with many ups-and-downs. Even though children
were playing sports before 1865, it was only after the civil war that children had the opportunity
to be active in organized youth sport ran by parents who were representing various organizations
(Wiggins). Organized youth sports have been around 150 years, or so, and have stayed a main
presence in a childs life, standing the test of time. In response to all the major changes occurring
in the United States during the second Industrial Revolution, progressives, known as Muscular
Christians, started organized many different recreational and sport activities to teach children
morals and principles needed to live healthy lives in the quickly evolving world (Wiggins).
Organized youth sports got its start from a religious and political group to teach children the
positive values of a good life. Sports were not about winning or success, but were used as a tool
to get kids active in an activity that will have a positive impact on their lives. By the 1920's a
large percentage of organizations were sponsoring youth sports programs to curb juvenile
delinquency (Wiggins). When they were founded, sports programs main job was to shape a
childs life positively and keep them out of trouble, and it still is: Longitudinal studies have
shown that children and youth participating in sport, when compared to peers who do not play
sport, exhibit more restraint in avoiding risky behavior. (Psychological and Social Benefits of
Playing True Sport). Participating in sports takes a lot of time with team practice, personal
practice, games, and team activities leaves little time for youth to be involved in other activities,
therefore, dropping the likelihood that they will be involved with troublesome endeavors. The
YMCA was gaining much attention from a lot of youth for their competitive sports by the later
years of the nineteenth century (Wiggins). With the founding of the YMCA organized youth

sports took off. The YMCA offered many different sports that allowed children to compete
against each other with a team atmosphere.
Exercise and sports come hand in hand. Participating in sports allows children to get out
and run around and burn calories. With practice being usually once a week that is at least of hour
of exercise and also a game once a week is another hour or more. Physical fitness is vital to the
development of children because it reduces the risk of many diseases and improves physical and
mental health (Kreitzer). Children will have a higher well being if they are fit and active. They
will feel better about themselves, if they participate in sports and stay fit, in turn leading to a
higher well being. Overall physical fitness has a large impact on a childs health: Regular
physical activity benefits health in many ways, including helping build and maintain healthy
bones, muscles, and joints; helping control weight and reduce fat; and preventing or delaying the
development of high blood pressure. (Facts: Sports Activity and Children."). Just the exercise
experienced is enough to improve a childs current and future health. Also, keeping weight down
lessens many other risk factors such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. The overall factor of
physical fitness has an impact over all aspect of a childs current and future life. It does not just
impact their weight and their fitness but has a resounding impact on well being, mental
soundness, and low risk of having health related diseases. While the physical impact of sports on
a child is important to their development, it is not the only factor that makes organized youth
sports an overall positive experience.
The positive academic impact on children who play sports is a big sign that sports are key
into the development of a childs life. Youth sports help kids to establish and enhance cognitive
skills, shown through a study that followed children from kindergarten through the fourth grade
(Piche, 2014). (Facts: Sports Activity and Children). Getting involved in sports early one teaches

children a hard work ethic that then can be applied to their school lives. School and sports are
similar because it take hard work and practice to experience success in both of these aspects of
life. A child can start sports before school, giving them an advantage over other children that do
not participate in sports. Many of the qualities that are taught in sports such as, working well
with others, work ethic, and responsibility, are vital to having an enjoyable and successful school
career. It is proven that being involved in sports and physical activities improve students
everyday grades and even standardized test scores: Physical activity in general is associated
with improved academic achievement, including grades and standardized test scores. The
correlation between school and sports is shown through studies that prove kids that participate in
sports experience better academic achievement and test scores than children who do not play
sports or are active in any physical activities. The lessons and skills learned through playing
sports are invaluable and transferable to all aspects of life, including school, jobs, career, and
relationships. Also, in middle school and high school, students have to keep their grades up in
their classes to be eligible to participate in sports (Silverman). Many students realize their
athletic talents in middle school and that sport(s) becomes most important to them at that point,
so they understand that grades and school must come first just to be able to play the sport.
Schools promote the idea of academics before athletics by making kids who are failing classes or
who exhibit bad behavior ineligible to participate in sports for that year.
Sports teach children many valuable lessons and redeeming qualities such as, how to deal
with failure, social skills, preparation, discipline, and how to make sacrifices. Dealing with
failure is something that is hard at first, but in the long run will teach a child valuable lessons,
key to having a successful and meaningful life. In sports defeat is a failure that a child will
experience. It is how that child will overcome the defeat and persevere to continue their sport.

Sports teach children that one defeat or failure is not the end, there is always next time or next
game to overcome their defeat. Overcoming a defeat in sport can be transferred to everyday life
or school. In school one bad grade will not determine the success in that class or school year,
there are many other grades to do improve on. A child must practice or do something to help
them improve the failure. Once they work on that failure and get a positive outcome, they will
see that it is possible to experience failure and overcome it to have success. It is not possible to
have success as an athlete if a person is not willing to deal with failure (Goldberg). It is a good
thing for a child to go through failure to teach them that they need to persevere and get over that
failure. A child will never be able to get the full experience from sports if they do not go through
failure. If there is not failure, a child wont have any challenges to get over to know not to stop at
the first sign of failure.
Social skills are developed in sports by the children being together on a sports team and
going through challenges faced in organized youth sports: In the right environment (e.g. playing
for a youth sports coach with the right values) a boy or girl can really come out of their shell
and express themselves through sport. (Langlois). Kids are able to express themselves through
sports. Some children have problems with making friends and sports are a great tool to help
children interact with other kids their age and come into their own. Children learn that they must
work with their teammates if they want to have enjoyment and success in what they do. They
learn to listen to adults by having a coach. The kids learns that the coach knows more than they
do about the sport they play. This helps to teach them that they must always listen to the adults in
their life because they are smarter and have more experience. They also develop friendships
through sports, and that will help them create more relationships outside of school. Sacrifices are
a big part of social skills. Through team sports children learn that they must make sacrifices for

their teammates sometimes to get the full enjoyment out of the game. They have to sacrifice their
own success for their team to have success.
Preparation and discipline go together when talking about sports. Children learn
discipline through sports because it is a must to have a lot of discipline to overcome struggles
faced in sports to keep working and training hard. So, discipline is necessary when preparing for
a game. Preparation includes team practice, independent practice, and eating right. Preparation is
important to success not only in sports but in all aspects of life. Preparation is needed in school
to get ready for quizzes and tests. Preparation is needed in jobs to be ready for every kind of
situation that is possible in a hectic work day. Preparation in free time is a hard thing for people
to understand that it is needed. Team practices are not enough to perfect the craft. Just like with
school, more preparation is needed than just paying attention in school; Studying outside of
school is necessary to fully understand and comprehend every aspect of what is being taught
during the school day. The connection between discipline and preparation is that it takes much
discipline to understand that preparation is needed outside of practice, and to go through with
practices and perfecting the skills outside of the game. It is not just about physical preparation,
but also health and mental. Eating the right food for the sport that is being played is important
because the body responds differently depending on the types of food that is consumed. Also it is
important to be in the right state of mind before the games. It is necessary to want to go out there
and give all the effort possible. The ultimate goal is not to win, but to have fun and give the game
all of the effort that is possible.
Bad coaching is a major issue when talking about youth sports. Having a bad coach can
completely ruin a childs experience in organized youth sports: At their worst, coaches can push
the psychological, emotional, and physical limits of their players to the point of harm, create a

hostile and unfair environment, and turn young athletes away from sport forever. (The
Importance of Coaches & Coaching). A bad coach can create an environment in which a child
will not get anything out of participating in youth sports. While a good coach can help a child
develop into a physically and mentally strong person, in the same way a bad coach can hinder a
childs development. Bad coaching is a major problem, however, if the parent pays attention to
the coachs way of handling the team, they will be able to spot that he is a bad or good coach and
take the appropriate action to ensure their child gets the full youth sports experience. The parent
must be heavily involved in the childs sports endeavor. With the parents help bad coaching can
easily be handled to keep a childs youth sports experience positive and enjoyable. As long as the
parents in involved, they can intervene at any point where they feel uncomfortable or feel that
their child is uncomfortable with the coach. There are many measure to be taken against bad
coaching from the stance of the parents. They can mention to the coach the problems they have
with how they are coaching the team, then if that does not work, they can be asked to move to a
different team in that league, or they can leave that program completely a move to a different
league. While it can be a nuisance to have to deal with a bad coach it is not an unsolvable
problem, and is definitely not a big enough issue to keep a child out of youth sports.
Risk of injury is becoming a highly debated topic in the United States these days. The
most common injuries happening to kids in youth sports now are overuse injuries (Kids' Sports
Injuries - the Numbers Are Impressive). It is common to see overuse injuries in kids who start
playing sports at early ages. Overuse injuries come about when the practice or involvement in a
sport is a lot in a small span of time (Kids' Sports Injuries - the Numbers Are Impressive). When
coaches, parents, or the athletes themselves push the athlete too hard within a short amount of
time the risk for overuse injuries increases. While there are many other sport related injuries that

can happen, the overuse injuries are the most common, but also the most avoidable. Broken
bones or concussion during practice or games are random and can happen at any time, but the
overuse injuries come from things that can be fixed. These injuries used to be seen in adult
athletes, but since kids are now getting into sports in the early years they are now showing up in
adolescents (Kids' Sports Injuries - the Numbers Are Impressive). Since kids are now being
brought into sports at younger ages they are getting pushed hard before they are ready for it.
Parents and coaches need to learn a childs physical limit and respect that. The overuse injuries
can be easily avoided by bringing down the intensity level of practices and games. Also getting
the right vitamins can strengthen the bones in the body to lower the risk of these nagging overuse
injuries. While it seems that the overuse injuries are dangerous, they are easily avoided by
getting a child the right vitamins and bringing down the intensity of a training for a sport. The
risk of the injury does not outweigh the life lessons and values that can be learned by a child
when they participate in youth sports, that can then be transferred to every aspect of their current
and future life.
In the past eight years, the number of children participating in youth sports has dropped
significantly:
In 2007, according to SFIA, 44.7% of youth ages 13-17 were active three times a week
in any sport activity, organized or unstructured; by 2014 that number had dropped to
39.8%. The trend was more pronounced among 6-12 year olds, falling from 34.7% to
26.9%, with most sports seeing a dropoff in total participants. (Facts: Sports Activity
and Children).
With the technological advances experienced over the past eight years, many new devices have
been created for kids to keep their attention. Many of these devices keep children more interested

in playing games in a virtual world instead of actually experiencing real world activities. One of
the reason there has been a decrease is because parents are worried about bad coaching, risk of
injury, the cost, and many other factors (Facts: Sports Activity and Children). The parents are
keeping their kids from getting the early developmental process from youth sports because of a
few minor obstacles that are easily dealt with. Little do these parents realize the harm they could
be doing their child by keeping them out of sports early on.
Obesity and weight related diseases is a prodigious problem in the United States. An
enormous percentage of children today are obese: The percentage of children ages 6-11 who are
classified as obese increased from 7% in 1980 to 17.5% in 2014; among children ages 12 to 19,
that figure grew from 5% to 20.5% (Facts: Sports Activity and Children). With the obesity rates
more than double in the 6-11 ages and quadrupled in the 12-19 ages, there needs to be an
increase in youth sports participation. The drop of participation in youth sports is a contribution
to the rise in obesity rates. Getting kids involved in youth sports sets a foundation for the rest of
their lives. If they get in a habit of exercising while they are young, they will keep that habit.
With obesity comes many struggles such as diabetes, heart disease, and psychological issues.
Parents have to realize that keeping their children out of sports early on negatively impacts not
only their current lives, but also their future.
The positive impact of organized youth sports on young children, far outweighs the
possible negative involved with sports and the negatives of keeping them out of sports. The
issues concerned with youth sports are easily fixed and highly avoidable. Allowing children to
participate in youth sports sets up a foundation that will be kept throughout their lives, improving
their ability to experience success in every aspect of their life possible.

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