Kids and Sports: Can We Keep Our Eye on the Ball? – U.S. News & World Report

Organized
sports are big business in America. We
love our teams, wear their apparel and spend millions on tickets, memorabilia and concessions. Professional athletes
make millions of dollars in endorsements. Community-run sports leagues for kids seem to be following suit, with as
much as $5 billion going to these groups annually. Families report that nearly 75 percent of young, school-age kids participate. The family income and time are often devoted to the development
of the young athlete. We believe, as a nation, that sports have great benefits, even for our children. Is our
perspective on target?

It’s widely accepted that kids who participate in team sports reap benefits. They have overall improved self-esteem,
confidence and the ability to work with others. Multiple studies have shown that children who partake in organized
sports tend to have fewer symptoms of depression, social anxiety and distorted body image. Shy youth who play a sport for longer than a year
showed decreased social anxiety over time. These young athletes may also show less risk-taking behavior as they age, due in large part to the social support network they build through organized team
play. And, as caregivers have claimed for eons, a busy kid can’t get into
trouble, with rates of teen pregnancy, smoking and substance abuse going down
as physical activity and sports involvement increases. Kids’ time-management skills may also be honed
out of necessity.

The
physical health benefits are also often touted as justification for playing
sports. Youth who participate in sports grapple less with obesity; have reduced body fat; better bone health; and improved cardiovascular
and metabolic health profiles. They are also likely to continue exercising regularly into adulthood, keeping an overall better level of health.

However,
the arena of kids’ sports is not nirvana. With all the potential positives, there are often many negatives as
well, which is likely at least partly responsible for the great attrition rate in
participation in late middle and older adolescence. By late high school, however, fewer than 20 percent of students are participating in athletics. So why do they walk away from such a
potentially positive experience?

The first
part of the answer is easy. Physical
development plays a big role, some of which is beyond anyone’s control. As
children progress from free play in the very young ages into middle
adolescence, stratification of skills begins to occur. Having some athletic gifts at a young age is
not predictive of future success. During
puberty, teens will experience changes in their bodies. Coordination may decline; flexibility
certainly becomes more limited; and balance, due to a changing center of mass, may result in poor play.

In addition,
the threat of sports injuries, some of which will be “career enders”
for children, is very real. The most
common injuries are due to overuse. Because of the developmental phases children go
through from kindergarten to high school, which are marked by times of rapid growth and
changes to growth plates, they are more vulnerable to injury. In fact, between ages 5 to 24, generally thought to be the upper limit of adolescence and young adulthood,
there are 2.6 million emergency department visits related to sports injuries,
resulting in a health care expenditure of about $2 billion per year. That’s not all. The lack of rest in between injuries, preventing a full recovery; intense and repetitive exposure to the offending
movements; and playing while injured can result in long-term bodily harm. Concussions and heat stress are also becoming all too common in our young athletes. 

The
second reason, although harder for people to discuss, is the influence adults
have on the negative aspects of kids’ sports. There is often a disconnect between the athlete’s reasons for engaging
in sports, such as to have fun and make friends, versus the parent or coach’s
perception that kids play because they want to win. In this instance, we are applying adult
expectations onto the milieu of kids, who are not ready for such
constraints.