Broken bones, stress fractures, and long lasting negative psychological effects are some of the negative side effects of parents becoming too involved with youth sports. Parents should always involve themselves in youth sports, encourage their children, and remain supportive, however in some extreme cases this can have a negative impact on the child. Increased parental pressure on young athletes has detrimental effects such as increased injuries, emotional distress, and more youth quitting sports. In recent years the way parents intervene in youth sports has become a rising issue.
When parents put too much pressure on their child to play a certain sport the child often carries a much higher risk of injury. Children who focus on one sport repeat the same motion continuously while playing and practicing. For example, surgeon Marc Philippon once saw a case where a 25 year old man had been playing a goaltender in hockey competitively from a young age and needed a hip replacement. This occurred because the repetitive butterfly style motion used to stop pucks from coming into the goal, pulled on the still developing hip joint (Helliker D. 1).
Doctors claim that they are seeing young athletes receiving surgeries that used to only benefit their grandparents (Epstein A. 23). These cases appear when young athletes get pushed too hard. Many parents neglect to think about the consequences that may occur when they push their children too hard to play one sport. Dr. Jayanthi performed a three year study where he found that two thirds of the athletes were highly specialized in one sport. The study showed that the children who specialize in one sport resulted in a thirty six percent increased risk of injuries. Injuries that can happen from over specialization at a oung age are stress fractures in the back, arms or legs, damage to elbow ligament, and cracks in the cartilage in joints.
Doctors started suggesting that young athletes should avoid “hyperspecialization” and play a variety of sports until at least age twelve (Epstein A. 23). In 2013 a study of 1,200 young athletes showed that one who concentrated on one sport verses those who participate in a variety of sports were seventy to ninety-three percent more likely to acquire an injury (Atkinson R. 6). Numerous children are forced to quit a sport because the pain from the injuries becomes too much to handle.
When parents become more involved and hover over their child in sports, it results in a much higher stress level than those who do not. One boy felt so distraught about letting his parents down after blowing out his knee and losing a Division | scholarship and tried to commit suicide. All of this was the result of his parents putting too much pressure on him. Some children take losing hard not because it matters to them, but because their parents make a big deal about it. Some studies show that the more pressure and stress their parents put on the children, the more poor sportsmanship qualities they show (Williams 1).
Many children overreact to losing because of the pressure their parents put on them to succeed. Parents think that if they make their child practice every day they are helping them, however this results in the exact opposite. Parents who pressure their children to do extra practices or who criticize them have an increased risk of psychological problems and a decrease in athletic performance (Braff 2). A child was brought to Burnett, a psychologist, because the child had no motivation to participate in any type of activity.
This child, a nine year old boy who was on two travel teams, practiced with his team three times a week, and in addition to that, the dad wanted him to hit a ball off of a batting tee 200 times a night to improve his swing. Another way negative psychological effects occur in young athletes is when their parents try to live their dreams or accomplishments though the child. One psychologist said, “Parents who live through their child’s accomplishments can fall into that dark pit and put excessive stress on the child to continue to perform without allowing any room for second place” (Stricker 1).
Many young athletes have an underdeveloped psychological makeup which means treating them like adult athletes does not produce appropriate results. This means young athletes should not play in a highly competitive field, at least until they realize that their own worth is more important than if they win or lose. Parents believe that if they sign their children up for elite clubs at a young age then they will become collegiate athletes or even make it to the pros. This dream is not that unusual among parents.
Recent polls show that twenty-six percent of U. S. arents who have children playing high school sports hope that their children will become professional athletes and the number goes up to thirty-nine percent when the families’ income in less than 50,000 dollars a year (Kelto 4). Many parents think that their children can become professional athletes if they sign them up for a club at a young age because they think this is what the now-professional athletes did. In most cases this does not reflect the truth. The exceptions are Tiger Woods and Serena Williams, but these are two out of millions of athletes.
This results in negative psychological effects because the children prefer to play for their love of the game and not to become professionals. When parents invest their time and money they sometimes feel the need to become over-involved. They see it as a financial investment which means they expect something out of it. The parents think that their advice helps the child, but in reality it causes the child to stress even more. A recent study showed that parents should “temper their investments in youth athletics. ” It stated that the big “expenditures” increase parent expectations.
It essentially means that the more money parents put in, the more they expect in return (Helliker D. 1). Sports psychologists are now telling parents to not push their children with extra training and telling them what they did wrong (Braff 2). They also say that the parents should be involved as much or as little as their child is. Children are dropping out of sports more now than ever before. When a child is forced to play for an elite club at a young age they can easily burn out. When a child burns out it means they tried to do too much too fast which leads to increased stress rates and eventually wanting to quit.
Three out of four American families with school aged children contain at least at least one child playing an organized sport, however by age fifteen as many as eighty percent of these children have quit (Atkinson R. 6). Another study shows that around seventy percent of children quit sports by the age of thirteen (Atkinson R. 6). Some say that children quit sports because they find other interests or just do not enjoy the sport like they used to. In many cases this may be true, but usually parents are a contributing factor in deciding whether or not the child continues with sports.
If a child younger than middle school age is spending his or her summers at sports camps, this is an indicator that the parents might be putting too much pressure on the child too soon. Psychologists encourage parents to encourage their children to participate in different things during the summer such as fishing, hiking, or riding bicycles with friends (Armour A. 1). He also says to keep in mind that “the interior experience of playing a sport, the beauty and joy of it, is sovereign territory and belongs to the kids themselves” (Atkinson R. 6). This means that parents should let their kids be kids and play the sports they want.
Many families are putting pressure on children in sports which causes injury, psychological problems, and a desire to quit sports altogether. When children are put on club teams at a younger age, they tend to get hurt because of the highly competitive level and overuse of some parts of the body. Children whose parents put pressure on them to do well raises the likelihood of becoming stressed out and quitting the sport. The best way for parents to be involved is to let their children explore their own interests while they demonstrating the same amount of enthusiasm as the child.