...of four children whom either play or want to play sports, I often find myself asking the question if being involved in sports beneficial to children. Some believe that the risk is not worth the reward. Sports are very physical and can potentially cause harm to children and their bodies. Many parents and coaches put a lot of emphasis on winning, which can lower a child’s self-esteem if they do not win. It would be safe to say that there are several negative aspects to children playing sports, but past experience and research shows that the positives of children playing sports far outweigh those negative aspects. Sports can have a positive impact on a child’s life and can help them grow as an athlete and a person, and a child that plays sports can benefit mentally, physically, academically, and socially. Playing team sports can provide mental and emotional benefits for a child in many ways. Playing sports as a child can build mental and emotional capacity through improving self-esteem, introducing teamwork, and teaching a child to be unselfish. Growing up as a person who played sports as both a child and adult, I have experienced these mental and emotional benefits and understand the value in playing sports. My mother once told me that it does not matter what you do in life as long as you are good at it, and it brings joy into your life. This quote has always stuck with me throughout my life, and I first used it when playing sports. The first team sport I started playing was baseball...
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...Benefits of Youth Sports“Sports do not build character. They reveal it,” said John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach. Playing sports not only provides physical activity, but also other positive benefits. This is especially true for children. A well-structured and organized youth program will provide benefits and positive experiences for young athletes. While children are having fun participating in sports they are also building character, learning to work as a team, and playing fairly. Most people think the only benefits of sports are physical. Sports are more than just developing hand-eye coordination and burning calories, youth sports provide many developmental benefits, physical benefits, and psychological benefits. In addition to improved physical health, sports play a positive role in the development of youth. Studies show that the five “Cs”—competence, confidence, connections, character, and caring—develop positively through the participation in sports at a young age (Luxbacher 2). Each one of the five “Cs” are important components of youth development. The skills that are learned through playing sports, such as the discipline of training, learning teamwork and following the leadership of coaches provide athletes with lifelong skills. Important lifelong skills also include goal setting, time management, the value of planning ahead, honesty, respect, and an appreciation for diversity (Wood 3). At a young age, sports help teach youth how to handle adversity by showing...
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...Teamwork is a skill that is extremely important for many working adults and sports are an excellent way to start building this skill. Sports are all about working as a team and coming together with your teammates to accomplish something. Even more individual sports such as track help build teamwork because you still practice with others and get better and improve together. The marine corps website states that “Working as a team to reach a common goal helps children develop communication and problem solving skills that will benefit them on the field and off.”(5 reasons why). The marines put tons of emphasis on teamwork so them saying that sports can help your child develop these skills shows how effective sports can be at teaching kids these...
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...Children Should Play Contact Sports Med Prep/ mod 3 The benefits of sports are immeasurable, participating in a sport, whether it is a contact sport or not can benefit a child in every aspect of their life. Participating in a sport keeps a child fit, reduces their stress, teaches them teamwork, gives them a skill, helps them learn how to socialize, builds their character, provides them with a constructive use of time, promotes good health, and boosts their self-confidence. Some people think contact sports are dangerous, but children cannot be protected from everything that presents a possible risk. Some children do get hurt in sports, but the vast majority of children who play sports will not have any long-lasting injury. Many other things are dangerous as well, such as riding in a car, risks present themselves every day, but not everything that is dangerous can be banned. The concept of children in organized collision based sport is to learn how to appropriately use their body in a safe and effective way. If you teach a young child to tackle they're far less likely to be injured than if you attempt to teach an eighteen year old to hit for the first time. As children play contact sports they are learning and growing in their skills that will benefit them later in life. Although there are risks to playing contact sports such as; fighting, concussion, possible long-term damage, and other serious injuries, the chance of most children suffering from these risks are low. Some...
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...Playing youth sports and physical activities is beneficial for children because it helps them develop better coordination, better cooperation skills, better life choices and overall better health. Participating in sport and physical activities plays a significant role in promoting health and wellness among children and adolescents. Not only does such activity help improve the physical fitness and health of children, but also it is a major key in fighting childhood obesity—a critical health priority for our nation. The health benefits of playing sports and physical activity are well documented. The health benefits that can result from regular participation in sports and physical activity include reducing the risk of developing heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, osteoporosis, and improving metabolic health in youth. Obesity in children and youth has doubled over the past 25 years and will affect 1/3 of all third graders. Compared to those who are inactive, physically active youth have higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness and stronger muscles. Active children also typically have lower body fat levels and have stronger bones. Youth who are regularly active also have a better chance of having a healthy adulthood. Girls who play sports and are physically active will help improve their health and well-being in both short term and the long term of their life. Some of the benefits they will see immediately are a better fitness level , a...
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...Children should experience the values of playing in a competitive sport. Playing a competitive sport at a younger age will benefit the child in the future with either the mental learning of confidence or physical advantage that can give them many opportunities to becoming successful. Children learn discipline, striving for challenges, working with others and it build s confidence. Sports give the child an activity to do and not being influenced by troubling distractions that come as they get older. Children learn more at a younger age and can give them a better advantage when competing in sports. Parents encouraging their children to get involved in competitive sports are giving them an early learning path of life skills. Discipline is an important factor when playing a sport and teaching a child this at a younger age gives them the advantage of learning responsibility. Kathiann Kowalski writes, “To do well, they must work hard and follow instructions. ‘The coach can see who's been trying their hardest’ said Mark of Bay Village, Ohio ” (17). Children can learn that rules and instructions that are followed can bring a better understanding of the game and teach them that other set rules they are given should be followed as they would if playing a sport. Competitive sports give children a way to challenge themselves in wanting to do their best. I grew up playing several sports and striving to be the best. My parents encouraged me to think of each time I played that it was my last...
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...When most Americans think of football, they think of crisp fall days and green playing fields. Maybe they think of their favorite NFL team and player, or maybe thoughts of their very own son come to mind. Do they think of their child seriously hurt or suffering from a head injury? More often than not, the positive aspects of playing football on a team outweigh the chances of negative outcomes. Although evidence clearly shows playing football during childhood increases the chance of physical injury, participating in team sports builds character, strengthens players mentally and physically, and has lifelong effects on player’s attitudes toward health and fitness. Team sports like football teach various life skills. These skills include compromising...
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...Should Kids Play Competitive Sports? Do you play competitive sports? Do you believe all kids should play competitive sports? If so, why do you believe that? According to dictionary.com, competitive sports is a contest held to determine the best athletes and teams and greatest achievements in sports.Kids should play competitive sports to stay in shape, but millions of kids get hurt every year playing competitive sports. Kids need sports to maintain their weight, but people can get injured and never recover from it. Kids should play competitive sports because there are many health benefits. Some health benefits are keeping a healthy heart, maintaining weight and building strong and healthy muscles. (Sport and children - Better Health Channel.com)...
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...The Effects of Children and Sports My research paper explains whether or not playing sports affects young children in their everyday life. The reason I chose this topic is because I am interested in finding out if sports helps children’s social development. The relevance of this topic is to see if there is an improvement in the overall development with children who participate in sports compared to children who do not and if there is a difference, than hopefully sports can be one solution to children who have low self-esteem and do not have many friends and may also help motivate kids to do better in school as well. Based on my research findings, I have found that there are many benefits of sports participation in children. Ultimately, the best reason for children to play sports is to have fun. One major problem our country faces today is childhood obesity. According to Becerra (2009), twenty percent of children in the U.S. are obese, which will increase their risk of many health problems when they reach adulthood. One way children can benefit from playing sports is that it is a fun way to exercise and stay healthy. Not only can sports help children to stay healthy and fit, but it also helps build their self-esteem by giving and receiving encouragement from their coaches and gaining respect from fellow teammates or peers. According to Metzl and Shookhoff (2002), when asked why they play sports, kids say it is to have fun, to improve their skills, to learn new skills, to be...
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...other physical activities. Seeing its benefits for the body and its effect on life, the importance of physical education can’t be ignored. Physical education inculcates in children the importance of maintaining a healthy body and teaches then the importance of regular fitness activity in daily routine, which in turn keeps them happy and energized. This helps the children to maintain their fitness, develop their muscular strength and increase their stamina. Research has proved that children who actively participate in sports, be it team sports or dual and individual sports, have high self-confidence, which is very important for the development of a person’s character. Physical education instills the desire to participate, enjoy victory and take defeat positively, developing the overall personality of the character. By making children participate in sports, especially team sports, physical education also imbibes in them a sense of team spirit. Children learn how to work as a team member, organize themselves and function together towards attaining a goal. This in turn improves a child’s overall communications skills and the ability to get along with different kind of people. Physical education helps one gain knowledge about the overall aspects of physical health. In today’s world, several health problems like obesity, anemia, bulimia, and even diabetes, are rampant amongst teenagers. Through physical education, teachers can promote the benefits of healthy and nutritious food and...
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...have found that kids who play football have many benefits. Football provides physical benefits including strength, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility. Football helps them improve their speed, strength, hand-eye coordination and overall cardiovascular endurance. Football provides physical benefits including flexibility, lower the body fat and progressives muscle tones. This sport will also help them with showing them discipline, gives them many opportunities, and helps them with leadership. One reason why I would let my son play football is because football is a great resource that helps players with leadership. “For much of my playing career, most parents with young children who played football were most interested in my workout regimen and what supplements I was taking.” (Fujita) Playing football provides players with opportunities to develop skills in communication. “I found myself receiving e-mail after e-mail from people presumably motivated by keyword searches for “football, concussion, trauma, disease.” (Fujita) These abilities allow people to operate productively as leaders. Playing or coaching sports such as football, soccer and any other types of sport activities...
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...younger children around. These are parents that are displaying unsportsmanlike conduct and sometimes even violent behavior. Over the years there are more and more parents that are becoming over involved in their children’s sporting activities. Parents today are demonstrating over involvement, over spending, and are over booking their children in youth sports and extracurricular activities. Sports are supposed to be fun and competitive but more fun and entertaining than anything. Parental over involvement is becoming a problem because they can take the fun out of sports for the kids. Parent’s voices can go along way. Yelling and cheering on players and teams is a good thing. Parents should be excited and giving the kids good complements. But when parents display bad sportsmanship it is a different story. As parents are yelling mean statements they are not thinking about how that might make that kid feel. The child’s parents are most likely around somewhere and may get upset as well. If kids are hearing insults and inappropriate words yelled at them the game would also become less fun and hard to focus on. Some kid’s use it to their advantage, and play better because they want to prove themselves. But that’s not always the case. College and professional sports are seen everywhere in current society. Sports are on TV, in newspapers, on signs and bulletins, and most big cities have an arena or stadium for teams to play in. The majorities of families have seen or follow sports. With...
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...of women athletes smoke. National Collegiate Athletic Association found that "approximately sixty percent of student-athletes reported that they believe drug testing among student-athletes should continue and that imposing penalties would be fair and appropriate." (NCAA Student-Athlete Substance Use Study: Executive Summary August 2014) Many children believe that sports are harmful and dangerous because of a popular belief. But, many new studies are showing parents the factual side of physical activities and the benefits that come from it. Many children believe that sports are threatening/dangersome because of a popular belief, but many new studies show parents the factual side of physical activities and the benefits that come from it. Studies conducted on sports show that young children who participate in these physical activities are more than likely to have a higher self-esteem. The competitive nature in sports can help the child develop as a person and as an athlete. As well as themselves, children get confidence boosting reinforcement from coaches, parents or other family members, and other athletes. Involvement in team sports has been greatly associated with acceptance by teammates, positive coaching, skill development, and companionship. As stated by prosportpsychsym.wordpress.com,“As long as people feel beneficial to the team, they are developing self-esteem by seeing their personal role in the team as important to the whole cause.” From this quote,...
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...Some think sports are good for children and teens and others think sports are bad for children and teens. Sports are good for children because it helps them learn important things like responsibility. One reason that competitive sports are good for children and teens is that they can learn lessons like responsibility. The article, “Pros and Cons of Sports Completion at the High School Level,” by Grace Chen, who is an education researcher and writer, as well as an educator, states this: "Researchers at the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University report, 'Kids who participate in organized sports do better in school, have better interpersonal skills, are more team oriented, and are generally healthier.'" This shows...
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...About %30 of adolescents are overweight. Are competitive sports bad for kids? Why should kids play competitive sports? All kids should play competitive sports. Competitive sports are a good thing. There is plenty of evidence to show that they are good. As the obesity rate increases sports are better for kids. Kids should play competitive sports because they will be more active, because they will develop good sportsmanship and communication skills and because they will have a better social life One reason kids should play competitive sports is that they will be more active. The article What are the benefits of competitive sports for youth? says “Millions of american children and teenagers are overweight. Participating in competitive youth burns calories and helps prevent obesity.”(Davis 2014) This is important because obesity can lead to disease and death. Knowing that %30 of adolescents are overweight that would have big impact which is why kids should be more active...
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