Jackson Hill – 711
In
the past year, more and more kids have been getting injured or even dying from playing
contact sports. “More then 3.5 million children under 15 require medical
treatment for sports and injuries, and nearly half of which are the result of
simple overuse.” I think that children should be able to play contact sports
only if there are greater checks and balances for their health. Parents and
coaches pushing their kids or team too hard is many times the case with kids playing
too hard in contact sports. Kids often think that winning is the only option to
gain the approval of their parent or coach. When this happens, it results in
kids taking unnecessary risks and end up pushing them selves to the breaking
point or the emergency room.
Doctors
know best. Kids should be able to play contact sports only if they capable of
doing so. Forcing an injured child to play will only make the injury worse. In
New York Times, “For Children in Sports, a Braking Point” by Jane E. Brody,
Mark Hyman says, “With each passing season youth sports seem to stray further
and further from its core mission of providing healthy, safe and
character-building recreation for children.”
This shows that people think that sports are more about winning and competition,
and less about exercise and fun. In the same article, Brody wrote, “Mr. Hyman
realized his foolish shortsightedness in putting winning ahead of his son’s
well-being.” If a doctor says that a child needs rest instead of playing
sports, than parent should listen instead of putting their child into the
championships.
Diversity
is key. In the hope of becoming professional one day, kids are playing one
sport all year long and they are putting extreme stress on their body by doing
so. “A major factor in the rising injury rate is the current emphasis in
playing one sport all year long which leaves no time for muscles and joints to
recover from the inevitable micro trauma that occurs during practice and play,”
says Brody in the New York Times article. If kids play one sport all year long,
they will have less chance of becoming professional when they grow up. For
example, if a child wants to be a pitcher when he grows up and he keeps putting
stress on his arm, his chances of injury are high and chances of
professionalism are low. There are many ways of preventing this stress too,
like playing a variety of sports, or training correctly. The Archives of
Disease in Childhood says, “At least 60% of all injuries sustained were in
direct relation to training and could have been avoided by appropriate changes
in training programs.” It is not only the parents who are putting stress on the
kids but also sports programs in general.
Some
people think that kids should never play contact sports because they think it
is too dangerous for kids. In the article, Brain Expert: Kids Shouldn’t Play Contact
Sports,” Dr. Robert Cantu, chairman of the Department of Surgery at Emerson
Hospital says, ”We are going to be recommending that nobody under the age of 14
be involved in collision sports.” People think that the statistics of children
getting hurt in contact sports are too high for them to be playing. I disagree
because it is not their fault that they are getting hurt. If we change the way
we train the kids, then it will be much safer for kids to play, and have fun. Brody
writes, “The goal of youth participation in sports, the [American Academy of
Pediatrics] council said, ‘should be to promote physical activity, recreation
skills of healthy competition’.” If parents, coaches and kids will change to be
healthier and more responsible, than youth sports will meet it’s goal of giving
a healthy competition to young kids.
Kids
should only be able to play contact sports if they are healthy and responsible
for doing so. If parents and coaches listen to doctors more often, then there
will be less of a chance of a child getting hurt. Though we can’t stop all
injuries from happening, we can prevent most of them. Putting less stress on
kids will help them follow their dreams. Some training programs are trying to
prevent injuries by developing kids skills for a year before putting them on
the field. This is a good example of how people are trying to improve youth
sports. Kids should be playing it safe,
not sorry.
