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Submitted By mlyanez9901
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Maria Barraza
Until It Hurts America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids. By Mark Hyman. Beacon Press Boston, Massachusetts, 2009. ISBN-13:978-0-8070-2119-4 $15 paper.
Youth sports today have made the sport less fun for the kids and more about the parent’s dreams and aspirations for their kids. This book is a perfect example of how youth sports have become an obsession for parents more than the players themselves. In Until It Hurts Mark Hyman gives the history of several youth sports and also talks about the relationships between parents and athletes. Mark Hyman wrote this book to help parents realize the mistakes they make when pushing kids too far and to the point of injury.
The author uses explanation and analysis to present a subject or to clarify his idea. Hyman interviewed several parents, coaches, athletes, doctors, psychologists, tutors, college recruiters, and former professional athletes in his book telling stories about athletes who are pushed too hard and what sacrifices were made. As a parent it is hard to understand how parents go to these extremes for their children but Hyman does not criticize these parents he is only giving their side of the story. He understands this all too well because he was one of those parents with his own son Ben.
Hyman’s son Ben was a baseball player who had played since he was little. In the introduction Hyman talks about finding a picture of his son out in the snow which he describes as being a perfect greeting card except his eighteen month son is outside with a batting tee but he does not remember what he was thinking having his little boy out in the snow practicing. He tells this story in his introduction to explain his involvement in youth sports and the pain he feels he put on his son because all he wanted was for him to play even when he got hurt.
Chapter three titled Parental Payoff has many accounts of parents who give up all their time and money to give their kids every advantage when it comes to sports. The belief is that they are investing all this money so their kids can have a chance at a college scholarship and possibly professional career which would repay the parents for all the sacrifices they have made. I agree with the book on the actions that parents make but I believe that reading this book would help some of these parents before it is too late. Hyman does a very good job of putting the information together and not judging the parents it seems he has a lot of guilt about things he did to his children.
In the fourth chapter Equal Time Hyman talks about equality for girl’s participation after Title IX and how he believes women have made significant headway in sports. Even though he feels this is a good thing he states that he fears for these girls as much as boys because they are starting to play even earlier and could end up with the same fate as boys with psychological issues and injuries. I felt this was an important chapter being a female and having read about Title IX in our book. The interviews in this chapter are shocking; first who know Michael Phelps had a sister who was also a swimmer. It is sad to know that she had such talent and drive but had to stop swimming because of serious injuries at such a young age. I think Hyman is correct to be scared for young girls who may develop injuries but not tell anyone because they feel it is a part of the sport.
Hyman gave plenty of information on the surgery his son Ben had which is named Tommy John surgery in Chapter six. This surgery was designed to help Major League pitchers who were struggling after years of overuse in their arms; this surgery was not meant for teenagers. This chapter is important in my eyes because it shows how jaded these parents are because they do not fear an injury knowing there is a surgery that can fix it. In fact the chapter states that parents almost brag about their kid needing this surgery.
The final chapter comes is Hyman’s thoughts on how youth sports should go back to the fun it was supposed to be. It is titled A Return to Fundamentals and he talks about teams that truly educate players and give them appropriate rest after the season ends and other sports camps that encourage them to read about sports as much as practice. This is a good book that I think all parents with kids who play sports should read. I don’t think that all parents will change their mind about the things they do for their kids but maybe it will help them see that sports should be about kids having fun not pushing them to their breaking point.

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