There are a lot of issues that confront American children in today's day and age, but one of the most serious is competitive sports. While sports are meant to be an enjoyable part of childhood, increasingly kids are being required to do more to play. Children who are pushed to the edge of what they are physically capable of often are at risk of becoming burned out with the sport and quitting early. However, a more dangerous consequence could be actually physical damage. Kids even in high school in most cases are still growing and developing. Sports can cause huge amounts of strain to be put on the body and in some cases it can be too much for kids. It seems that seasons for sports are becoming longer every year, and the kids who are playing seem to be getting younger also. At a young age sports are meant to be played for enjoyment not to be competitive. Kids playing and practicing competitively for sports too early in their lives can cause serious damage in the future.
A new tradition is beginning to emerge in today's society. Rather than being given the opportunity to just enjoy sports, and be able to have fun, kids are being thrown into competitive sports at an earlier age. Generally, the kids are not the ones who are asking to play competitively. Instead, the parents are to blame for signing their child up for competitive sports. It is a fact that kids who are ten years old or younger simply are not ready for the strains that are demanded from today's athletes. Kids need to learn to love the game early on. They need to be able to have fun and not worry about making mistakes. This is best said by John McCarty, who runs Home Run Baseball Camp. "With a 10-year-old, you want him to fall for the sport hard. He can pick up the details later."
When considering competitive sports, it is not just the games that are demanding, but even the practices that are potentially harmful to kids who are still growing and developing. On a survey that was conducted by the Youth Sports Institute on why kids drop out of sports early, one particular answer was often repeated. Kids want practices to be more fun. At a young age, baseball practices should be geared more at developing fundamentals. These could be hitting, throwing, and catching. This is what most recreational leagues focus on. However, competitive baseball teams choose to focus on much more complicated strategies- base running tactics, hitting strategies, and infield plays. This is also where most of the conditioning occurs. Coaches will have kids run at the beginning of practice, during base running drills, for mistakes that are made, and at the end of practice. When you add it all up, there is a lot of running being done. For older more mature youths this is a perfectly acceptable expectation; but for example at ten or eleven, this can be very harmful.
According to Dr. Lyle Micheli who is the director of sports medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, some new evidence suggests that extreme amounts of running can damage growth plates. Micheli says that the exact amount of running that this would take is uncertain, but the recommendation is that children between 10 and 14 should not be running more than 3 miles per day. This may seem like a high number but in reality it is very attainable. High intensity practices could have kids running several miles. This is especially true during weeks of conditioning.
While practices cause problems, games present another series of challenges. This is where the stress and the pressure are really shown. After all, the practices, hard work and time spent all lead up to game days. Competitive teams are there to win, plain and simple. As a result kids are forced to play harder. There is one particular position in baseball that seems to be more demanding than most others and that is pitching. There are several reasons for this but one of the most important is that pitching requires specialization to excel. This specialization is dangerous.
It forces kids to use the same muscles repeatedly which doctors have warned, poses health risks. Aside from overspecialization, it is a common fact that having your best pitcher on the mound gives you a way better chance to win. Unfortunately, this usually leads to overthrowing one or two kids which poses a major threat as well. There is a lot of strain put on the arm from throwing pitches repeatedly. It can lead to damage of every muscle in the arm, especially for young kids who still have developing muscles. Consider this, major league pitchers throw once and then have several days for a break. In this time: they have excellent trainers to help their arm recover, not to mention that their muscles were finished developing a long time ago.
These are perks that no ten year old has and the results show. A certain procedure known as Tommy John ligament surgery was in the past reserved for people in the twenties or in some cases older. This is not the case anymore. Recently there have been kids who are as young as 12 that are undergoing this procedure. Why are kids so young being put subjected to this? The culprit is overthrowing as early at age 8 or 9.
Sports that children play, however, are not just limited to baseball. No matter what sport you pick it is a fact that competitive play is very intense. Coaches have high expectations for players, and if they are not met then they are benched. This attitude of not being benched pushes kids to the limit to stay in the game. Whenever you make kids play at a level that they simply aren't ready for it can lead to injury. The best example for this is football, but really any high intensity sports could be applicable in this instance. Soccer, track, basketball, and others all fit into this category.
According to Dr. Lyle Micheli, the types of injuries that he sees in kids have changed in the past 10-15 years. It has always been common for injuries such as broken bones and sprains to occur, but things have changed. Instead, a new kind of problem has begun to surface. "Now he's treating more and more repetitive stress injuries, particularly a disorder called osteochondritis dissecans (OCD)" This very comparable to a stress fracture. The difference is the joints alone are affected. This means that it is basically targeting the exact location of the growth plates. This is a serious problem. When the growth plate is injured, growth can completely stop.
Aside from damage to growth plates there is another very serious problem facing kids who are playing competitively. Concussions, which are a very serious problem that kids, who bodies are still developing, are facing mainly in soccer and football. In soccer, concussions are a very real threat. This is especially true if a child is learning the more advanced techniques that go along will the game such as heading the ball. Recently, evidence has surfaced linking heading the ball and concussions together. It has also been shown to cause an even more severe effect- brain damage. Physicians have now learned that it doesn't necessarily require a major blow to the head. Even multiple small hits can cause concussions.
Soccer practice heading drills could provide this very situation needed for this damage to occur. Another sport known to be a cause for concussions as well as other injuries is football, mainly at a young age. Again, this is depending upon the level of intensity that the kids are playing at. Competitive leagues are full contact and require extremely hard play while recreational leagues, especially at young ages are flag football. Flag football takes away the contact element thereby removing the main cause of injury in this sport. This game still teaches the fundamentals of the game, and at the same time protects kids from damage that could be permanent.
Youth competitive sports are dangerous and should be monitored closely. According to Safe Kids USA, it is estimated that 3.8 million children who play sports in the United States are treated for sports related injuries. With the numbers being that high, it is clear something must be done. This does not mean that sports should be completely taken away. Sports can be an important part of kid's lives. They have a lot to offer today's when played for fun and in moderation. Children should be given time in order to properly heal rather than being thrown out onto the field. This could prevent permanent damage from being done and could stop a minor injury from becoming something that will affect them the rest of their lives. There is one instance I can think of from my own experience. While playing for a competitive baseball team in eighth grade I slid badly into third base and broke my ankle and torn ligaments as well.
As soon as it happened, the pain was so extreme that I could barely stand up. I told my coach that I needed to go out, I knew that I was done. Instead of taking me out this is what he told me, "you are fine, shake it off and run home on the next play, it is going to be a squeeze play". While I knew that it would be incredibly painful to run, I thought that the humiliation in front of friends and family would be worse. The next play I ran (or should I say limped) to home plate. I have no doubt that the injury from sliding was bad; but I believe that having to run after it happened is where the damage occurred. From this injury I now have chronic pain as well as a lack in range of motion. In a recreational league this obsessive drive to win does not exist and this most likely would have been avoided. This drive to win begs the question: is this really a rational behavior, and more importantly is it worth it? Is a lifetime of physical pain and health problems worth winning a game that no one will remember in twenty years?
You can be the judge.