Everyday Blog

Playing little league baseball or joining your first soccer team when you were 9 years old used to be fun, beginner level experiences for children to experience the fun of learning how to play a particular sport. You used to try a recreational league for a season and then if you wanted to, could try a different sport the following season. Youth sports have changed dramatically over the past 20-30 years and now kids are starting to play organized team sports as young as 3 or 4 years old and picking a sport to specialize in and play year round by the end of elementary school with special private coaching and using the best pitching machines and batting cages during the winter, for example. The level of intensity for youth sports is the same as it was for high school and even some college athletes 25 years ago and this is causing several new problems.

One of the biggest changes is the age at which kids are encouraged to play sports. Not long ago, the youngest age typically, was about seven or eight years old to try soccer and ten or eleven years old to start basketball. Now it is 3 years old for soccer and kindergarten for basketball. Most of the kids at these young ages do not have neither the physical coordination nor the attention span to be able to get through an hour long sports event. Due to this, children quit a sport very young because it was too dificult for them.

Children are also being told that they should specialize and focus on one sport by the time they are 10 years old in order to get a sports scholarship for college. This has increased stress related injuries in a lot younger ages as a result of overuse on their growing bodies. The overuse on the kids physically and mentally has caused a whole generation of kids that totally burn out by the time they are teenagers which is so sad.

This more intense level of athletics at a younger age is also seen by the coaches and the parents too. There have been several incidents when parents become unruly at their children’s games or competitions that they cause problems with their inappropriate behaviors and have to be kicked out. Because of this, the majority of schools and youth leagues now require parents to sign a contract for acting in a well mannered way. Coaching has also become more demanding for children. In the past a parent would volunteer to coach and that was much appreciated. Today parents are hiring private coaches and personal trainers to get their child to to be the best athlete ever. The amount of money parents now spend on their children’s athletic pursuits is sky high.

Perhaps, people will realize that children need to be children and do not need the physical or mental stress that is being put on them athletically by their coaches and parents.