“Come on Mike, throw strikes!” For everyone’s knowledge, Mike is trying as hard as he can to throw strikes. The pressure parents put on their children in youth and amateur sports are at an unprecedented high. Parents are living vicariously through their children in the sports they choose to play. Alterations must be made to ensure children are not driven away from the segment of their life that is supposed to be pure pleasure.
According to a CNN article which sites the book Fair Play, more than 75 percent of children who play organized sport will quit before they reach 13-years-old. Kids are being pushed to their limits and early burnout is becoming more prevalent and widespread. Kids are forced into excess participation and lose their amusement of the sport.
The probability of playing at higher levels of competition, such as college or even in a professional capacity, does not favor your child. Hence, it is essential for them to relish the experience and take away certain life lessons from participation. If your child is talented and blessed enough, he or she will be noticed.
It starts with the parents feeling as though they have a personal investment in their child. Mommy and daddy feel that their son or daughter stands out and is more talented than the others. Therefore, parents crave to give their child the best opportunity to play at a high level. Practices are held daily for hours and children are signed up for travel teams that cross state borders. The problem is that a percentage of children are not given any say about these decisions.
In steps the pressure of the child to succeed. If a youngster is not performing as well as a parent would like, they can be bellowed at from the sideline. Frustration, disappointment and rage set in. Children feel less capable than their peers and team members, resulting in utter embarrassment and shrunken self-esteem.
In addition, young kids will feel a sense of fear when playing the game. They will become afraid to make a mistake on the field, frightened of being snapped at. This can result in stunting a kid’s ability to grow and take chances on the field.
Along with discontentment on the field comes playing time complications. Parents can disapprove of their child’s playing time. When their kid was younger, they were the starting shortstop and batted fourth. As their child gets older, parents feel as though this shouldn’t change. However, the competition becomes fiercer and the most elite players play.
In youth and low-end amateur sports, winning shouldn’t be put on a pedestal. Hard work, dedication and knowledge of the game need to be heavily emphasized instead. If a child can experience being part of a team and working towards a common goal, this will produce a further and more lasting benefit in life than winning. Most importantly, youth sport is meant for kids to simply have fun.
Changes need to be implemented. This will start with awareness and education of the crisis in youth sport. Clinics must be held, requiring all parents and coaches to attend before being able to participate in a youth league. The seminars will preach ways to deal with disappointment, winning and losing. Contracts need to be endorsed by the league stating that parents will be removed from the team with excess amounts of negative commotion.
Some parents need to realize their childhood is over. Instead of taping their child’s performance on the field, they should instead tape what comes out of their mouth. Their child’s sport experience needs to be embraced with an outlook of pleasure and entertainment.
Tim Shanahan can be reached at tshanahan@spartans.ut.edu.
…and so, what would you have done differently if you’d been given the choice?