Youth Sports

On September 19, 2013 the lecture in class focused on Youth Sports. 

 As an 8 year old boy from Union City, Indianapolis was preparing for an all-star game at practice he was hit in the head by baseball and later he died. This tragedy left a small community in stunned grief says Diana Penner and Jill Disis. In our notes we talked about the Major Problems in Youth Sport. We discussed important points such as

•       Overemphasis on winning
•          Pressure to achieve success by significant other
•          2 of 3 kid die/year from sport
•          3 million kids/year are taking to the emergency
•          Pressure to achieve success by significant other

I was stunned when I read this article. This makes me think of my 8 year old brother; in fact I have three brothers involved in sport. If I ever witnessed this tragedy I don’t know how I would react. Sport can be dangerous for any and every one especially youth. Since youth bones are not developed as much as adults they can get injured easier. Referring back to the notes in class it said about 2 of 3 kids die each year from sport sad to say Dylan Williams had to be one of these kids. Coakley made a great point; he said “It’s never too early for a child to engage in expressive physical activities in safe environments (Coakley pg.144)”. I totally agree with this statement. If you think about putting a young child into sports then make sure the environment is safe. Parents place their kids in sports at young ages in which the environment is not safe and they don’t even realize it. You can’t keep kids from being physically active but, you can keep them safe. Parents don’t even think of the precautions that can happen while playing sports.
 Coakley also states as discussed in class that “Additionally, when children begin playing sports early and specialize in one or two sports year around they’re more likely than other children to suffer overuse injuries and burnout (Coakley pg.144)”. As you can see sport not only injures adult athletes but, children are greatly affected by sport to. Children under 8 years old don’t even fully have the cognitive and social abilities to fully comprehend competitive relationships.  The Chicago Tribune, says “While cautioning that no comprehensive account of injuries exists, cited a limited study commissioned by USA Baseball. That review showed that from 1989 to 2010, 18 children younger than high school age died of baseball injuries”. As time goes on these numbers continue to rise. You should think about what sports you put a young child in, anything can happen during a sport and you don’t want to be a witness of any injury or death due to something a kid loves to do.If you want to learn ways on preventing a youth from injuries then I suggest watching this video by Lucile Packhard.

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