Specialization And Soccer

In his new book Until it Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How it Harms Our Kids, author Mark Hyman shows how parents have turned youth sports into a high stakes game of poker at the expense of their children. Hyman’s explores the history of youth sports in our country and how it has evolved from a fun past time to much more intense sport with heavy participation of parents. This book not only takes a look into youth sports today it will expose a lot of the negativity surrounding it. Hyman does not just point the finger at other parents but offers his own account of

Eight-year-old Myzel Miller looks like a football phenom as he runs down the field displaying speed and elusiveness that is far superior to his teammates. Unlike the hive mind of most of his peers, Myzel seems to have a greater understanding of the nuances of the sport as he makes cuts and finds holes instead of only running mindlessly with the football down the field. Myzel deftly receives a handoff to the inside from the quarterback, makes one tackler miss, stiff arms the next, and carries the ball 75 yards to the end zone.

Freezing in the morning, the grassy fields at the Uihlein soccer complex were let off a cracking every step. The excitement of playing in my first ever varsity lacrosse game kept me hyped up on the day of its arrival. Grinning widely, wearing sapphire blue, I strutted to the bench for our team, Brookfield Lacrosse. As the tournament was preparing to start, the sound of Eminem’s music played through the speakers and parents chattered in the stands before the first game between Arrowhead and my team. All that was running through my mind at the time was, “Don’t underperform. Make a statement to the coaches.”

Statsky also uses the all too common phenomenon of the overzealous parent or coach to support her thesis. She cites examples of parental brawls and coaches who rely on intimidation rather than good coaching to push their teams to victory (Statsky 629-30). Statsky seems to be saying that parents and coaches can behave in an obnoxious and even violent manner when they are part of organized sports for children, and that this behavior is yet another indication that organized sports are not suitable for children (629-30). This is a post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy. Though undoubtedly distressing for the children involved in these games, adult misbehavior is not an indication

In his autobiography Life Lessons from Little League, Vincent Fortanasce says “Winning is never final, and losing is never fatal.” At the end of a game, one team will win and the other will lose. Failure to accept this concept has become detrimental to American youth sports organizations. Our society has become infatuated with winning, and all of the additional perks associated with it. What is considered the “best” for children as young as five years old has grown to an unrealistic extent. Parents want their children to be in a reputable organization, young athletes want to play with highly skilled teammates, and coaches want to recruit talented players all in hopes of being the absolute “best”. The amount of young athletes, ranging from five to fourteen years old, participating in local sports organizations has declined within the last two decades due to the highly competitive and unhealthy environments they are being exposed to.Taking pride in your local community has decreased form an athletic point of view. Representing the place I grew up in was a motivating factor when I put my uniform on for every single softball game I played in high school. I had the privilege to play on the field next to girls I had grown to love the sport with ever since our tee ball days. Today, young athletes are branching out from their homegrown roots to play for club teams who recruit players from a larger region. The popularity of traveling teams has substantially diluted the

Being a professional athlete is one of the most commonly heard dreams of a young boy or girl who currently elementary school. Whether it is realistic or not, these kids will be participating in the sport that they wish to thrive in. But, time after time we hear adults complain about their child’s insane soccer schedule, or how they have to spend their whole weekend traveling for games. The parents complaints shouldn’t be the topic of discussion, in fact the only opinions that matter are the children. The question shouldn’t be asking whether or not youth sports are too intense, it should be asking if it is worth it. If a child loves what they’re doing then they have every reason to continue playing their sport, but if they are not all in, he or she has to question whether or not all the craziness is worth it.

Atkinson, J. (2014, May 4). How parents are ruining youth sports - The Boston Globe. Retrieved November 26, 2014, from http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/05/03/how-parents-are-ruining-youth-sports/vbRln8qYXkrrNFJcsuvNyM/story.html

However, the values of the sports in college that athletes dream is to go to college which is very well known and get the highest level and receive an education, however the college degree views an open door to America, but getting to play sports in college makes it hard to play professionally because it prevents from developing talent. Also that high school coaches expects athletes to leave education behind. The article Academies have changed the landscape of youth soccer explains that since the academy program changed to an 10 month schedule and forbidden players from high school competition causes prevention of youth to develop well in soccer. It seemed to done this because it was looking for 25 best players in the country and trying to make the sport only focus on the best and is taking away high school experiences. However, school and colleges had adopted soccer due to its popularity and credibility, so why forbidden soccer in high school if it is so popular? Most academies have established soccer programs for children and teenagers to increase its popularity and when it increases the more influence it will get on American society. In the U.S. Soccer Foundation which is safe, much affordable and very successful that these programs, mostly for kids, will help expand the community because it focuses on using soccer “as a vehicle for social change through support for sports-based youth development programs” (Krieger pg.

America’s baseball diamonds, soccer fields, hockey rinks, and basketball courts have never been so busy with children. The number of kids involved in an organized sport is not what is so groundbreaking. It’s the way in which children are playing or how their parents are arranging for them to play that may be cause for concern (Ferguson). Much controversy surrounds youth sports with the biggest disagreements coming over parental involvement and the intensity of play. Although there are many benefits for team participation, there is a growing fear that the negatives are starting to outweigh the positives.

For the first time in a long time apart is growing before our eyes. Lacrosse is thriving but it’s a niche sport. American Soccer’s growth is starting to resemble the popularity Baseball achieved. This popularity could be stabilized and even boosted by Collegiate Soccer.

The fact that young people now have the opportunity to get into professional sports at a younger age now encourages this trend. If a young person is very successful at a sport, the media will rave on about them and the publicity will only force them to work harder. Freddy Adu, a thirteen-year-old soccer sensation, is getting large amounts of publicity for his remarkable skills (Goodall, 2003). He has been featured in Sports Illustrated where he was referred to as “the prodigy of American soccer” (Wahl, 2003). Newsweek has also included articles about this remarkable soccer player, calling him “a preteen phenom” (Starr, 2004). ESPN Soccernet also reported information about his amazing skills (Goodall, 2003). The publicity of Adu is making this young athlete a star and keeping other young athletes focused on similar opportunities for themselves.

Dating back to 1892, a new threshold in American sports history was achieved. The Allegheny Athletic Association had defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. More importantly, William Heffelfinger was paid $500 to participate on the AAA team, thus birthing Professional Football. As the years passed, American Football has seen an exponential progression, including the introduction of children’s football associations. While there is a numerous group of parents who have no problem with their child being involved in football, recent revelations would begin to grow concern in some. It is because of this we must ask, should parents disallow their children from participating in football, or should they focus on the more positive benefits that the organized sport could have?

With more and more children participating in some sort of organized sport than ever before, there is a constant concern regarding the pressures kids are brought into to excel. Emotionally over-involved parents often think that it is their

Unfortunately, involvement in youth sports has not had the effect most parents are expecting. Instead author Carey informs the reader with disturbing statistics. He asserts 84% of parents surveyed in an issue of SportingKid magazine have witnessed ‘violent parental behavior’ toward children, coaches or official at kids’ sporting events, 80% said they had been victims of such behavior. Violence makes headlines too, as Docheff and Conn speak about a father of a 10 year old ice hockey player ‘confronts’ a coach, engages in ‘some verbal sparring’ until asked to leave. Then ‘the stressed father returns to the rink, challenges the coach again, and begins beating him while young athletes yell helplessly for the crazed parent to stop. It's too late. Two days later, a spokesperson for the hospital announces that the coach has died (par 1).’

Raising children in today’s society is not for the faint of heart. Raising children has never been easy, but it is especially difficult in youth sports today. Coaches and parents are putting a lot of pressure on our young sons and daughters. The pressure to succeed in sports at