Analysis of “Children Need to Play, Not Compete”
Sports for children in the United States have increased dramatically over the past three decades. Many believe that parents and coaches are becoming too involved in youth sports practices. In the essay “Children Need to Play, Not Compete” by Jessica Statsky, Statsky states her opinion that children should be focused on playing the game and having fun, instead of focused on winning the game. She also states and supports how parents and coaches are becoming too involved and not letting the children play. This is resulting in physical and mental harm to the child. Statsky’s essay is convincing and very well structured. She does an excellent job supporting her opinion throughout her essay.
Statsky believes that children should be focused on having fun, instead of winning the game. In her essay, she states that “winning and losing may be an inevitable part of adult life, but should not be a part of childhood.” Instead of making the children focus on having fun and playing the game, adults tend to pay too much attention on the result of the game. She claims that too many adults are beginning to lose sight of what really matters and making winning the most important goal. Parents and coaches play a major role in contributing to this because they often apply adult standards to a children’s sport. This harms children physically and mentally. The adult standards applied force children to do physical actions that are bad for their growing bodies, sometimes resulting in lifelong injuries. Mentally, the stress adults put on children about winning seems to gradually get worse as time goes on. Statsky believes that children are mentally beginning to break down, and she gives examples of how some are even beginning to fake injuries because they actually fear becoming hurt.
Statsky implies that childhood is a time for making