Kids are not Pros Essays - Youth Athletics, Sport, Fun, Play, Kids

Kids Are Not Pros An important issue is the difference between youth and professional participants of sport. The major goals of professional sports are directly linked to their status in the entertainment industry. The goals of professional sports, simply stated, are to entertain and ultimately to make money. Financial success is of primary importance and depends heavily on a product orientation, namely winning. In the professional sport world, players are commodities to be bought, sold and traded. Their value is based on how much they contribute to winning and profit making. Professional athletes are often glorified by the media to create an image intended to generate interest in the team and to draw paying customers. The professional coach?s job is to win. A win at all costs philosophy is required for advancement. Youth sports are played to develop a child and not to exploit the child for the sake of money. The most important product is not how many wins or dollars, but rather, the quality of the experience for the child. In this sense, sport participation is an educational process whereby children can learn to cope with realities they will face later in life. Although winning is sought after, it is by no means the primary goal. The profit is measured not in the terms of dollars and cents, but in terms of the skills and personal characteristics that are acquired. Fun, a term we use quite often. Certainly it?s easy to tell when people are having fun. They show it in their expression of happiness, satisfaction, and enthusiasm. Being with others, meeting challenges, feeling the drama of uncertain outcomes, becomes more skilled-all of these add to the fun of sports. ?The importance of having fun is also shown in other scientific studies. A sport psychologist, Dr. Daniel Gould, summarized the results of two surveys conducted in the United States and Canada. The studies indicated that young athletes most often say they participate in organized sports for the following reasons: 1.To have fun. 2. To improve their skills and learn new skills. 3. To be with their friends or make new friends. 4. For thrills and excitement. 5. To succeed or win 6. To become physically fit.? (Smith, 2002) A career in professional sports or even participation at the college level is an unrealistic goal for the majority of young athletes. It is therefore important to impress on youngsters that sport is but one part of life for a well-rounded person. It is all too easy for young athletes to harbor fantasies of turning pro and to sacrifice other areas of their development in pursuit of that fabled status and its rewards of fame, money and glory. As valuable as athletics can be for development children, social and academic development, spiritual enrichment, and quality of family life should not suffer. Sport can offer both fun and fulfillment, but there is more to life than sports. Perhaps the best advice we can give is to encourage children to participate in sports if they wish. But at the same time coaches should help athletes to understand that sport participation is not an end in itself, but a means of achieving various goals. You can teach them to enjoy the process of competition for itself, rather than to focus on such end products as victories and trophies. Neither victory nor defeat should be blown out of proportion, and no coach should permit a child to define his or her self-worth purely on the basis of sport performance. By keeping sports in perspective, you can make them a source of personal growth and enrichment. Youth sports are also an important social activity in which children can make new friends and acquaintances and become part of an ever-expanding social network. Furthermore, sports an serve to bring families closer together. Finally of course, youth sports are or should be just plain fun.