Pressure On Youth Sports Essay

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
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