Nissi Lauren

Professor Carr

English 110

April 16, 2019

The Impact of Sports on Children

Is playing sports at a young age good for children? People who have played sports at a young age develops a healthy and social lifestyle. Some may say that children will be injured, will be bullied for lacking abilities, won’t be able to participate much if they aren’t great at it and would be struggling to fit in if that’s the case. However, children who play sports at a young age will have a more active, healthy lifestyle, make friends and develop skills for example teamwork, leadership and confidence.

Sports are played and practiced through children and adults daily. It causes children to develop a healthy lifestyle from weight to the decrease in diseases. In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control reported a positive correlation between students who participated in high levels of physical activity and improved academic achievement, decreased risk of heart disease and diabetes, improved weight control, and less psychologic dysfunction (Merkel). The high competition in sports have benefited children in the decreases of illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Kids will get to maintain their weight, build muscle, build stamina and will have less psychological abnormalities. This is why sports injuries are the second leading cause of emergency room visits for children and adolescents, and the second leading cause of injuries in school. Approximately three million youth are seen in hospital emergency rooms for sports-related injuries and another five million youth are seen by their primary care physician or a sports medicine clinic for injuries (Nationwide Children’s Hospital). Some would say that exercise is not essential for children because injuries would occur. Yes, injuries may occur, but it’s not guaranteed. Athletes must be careful and make sure they play safely because an injury is the last thing that anyone wants. Overall, exercise reduces the levels of stress hormones in your body. At the same time, it stimulates production of endorphins. These are natural mood lifters that can keep stress and depression at bay (Watson). It’s clear that exercise and in this case the competition of sports helps people feel content. It releases stress, depression and even makes the person feel relaxed after exercise. Sleep is essential for people to reenergize after a long day of active exercise (Watson). Sports and other forms of physical activity improve the quality of sleep. Even though one may constantly be exhausted from practices or games, the exhaustion can help someone fall asleep faster leading to a good night’s sleep. It can help improve your mental view for the next day and puts people in a good mood. A lack of sleep and low levels of iron also can lead to fatigue. In addition, emotional issues, such as depression and stress, can cause you to become physically fatigued more quickly (Nunley). Therefore, student athletes must make sure they prioritize their sleep including homework and practice. Participating in a sport is a huge dedication that requires efforts and sacrifices. Furthermore, rates of teenage pregnancy, unprotected sexual intercourse, smoking, drug use, and suicide decrease with increasing physical activity and participation in sports (Merkel). Lastly, the participation in sports benefits students to part take less in drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc. Sports and exercise consume most of one’s time so they will have less time to be influenced in wrong and unhealthy matters.

The activity of sports also produces a connection between extracurricular activities and education. Although these students often feel substantial pressure to perform both on the field and in the classroom.” One problem with this pressure is that if a student favors sports over academics then they may not care if they start to fall behind (Bishop). Numerous people believe that the increase in physical activity has a negative effect in education. If a student favors a sport, their main focus would be on that sport instead of their education. However, in this case, if the student is eager to play a sport, eventually they will be determined to do well in school. Tom Welter, executive director of the Oregon School Activities Association, concedes that not all athletes are natural students; however, the grade requirements to stay eligible and play the sport they love drives them to overcome obstacles in the classroom and improve performance(Bliss). Even if they aren’t intelligent academically, it will make them eager to do well so they would be eligible to participate. Therefore, those who say participating in a sport ruins an individual’s education is false since the individual will do whatever it takes to maintain good grades. The fact that our results reveal that participation in formal sporting activities is associated with higher grades among students renders it essential to provide universities with more opportunities to further invest in extracurricular sporting programmes based on their positive association with the improvement of students’ academic performance (Munoz and Sanchez). This shows how students who participate in sports make great effect of their grades, making universities want to invest more in sport teams and activities due to improvement in education.

Participating in sports benefits children in gaining life skills. Life skills include teamwork, leadership, confidence, and making friends. As a member of a team, you are forced to work with the people around you. Playing on a team gives a child the opportunity to become a leader, and good leadership is a very valuable characteristic in life. (Edward). The child can give ideas that would help the team out. Being forced to work with other people will make them go through obstacles that they will have to figure out themselves. In the real world, people cannot dismiss dilemmas they face, they have to face it and go through it so doing this at a young age is good. Look at the reaction of England’s Adam Jameli in the Commonwealth 100 metre sprint the other night. He was bursting with pride, bouncing with confidence – and he ‘only’ won silver. That’s what sport gives you: the feeling you can conquer anything – even if you haven’t! (Keith Kendrick). Playing sports gives children the confidence that they need. After working hard to score their goal or shoot their basket, it boosts their confidence into making more points. Confidence is something we all need to achieve our ambitions. Instead of cultivating healthy self-esteem from sports participation, the repeated embarrassment can cause the child to become stressed, anxious, withdrawn and depressed (Ellis). A child may lack ability to compete causing embarrassment and humility. They can also start to become depressed, stressed or anxious. Participating in a team, there will be teammates who will help improve another peer’s skills and confidence. Athletes are made to give up and sacrifice their time and effort to pursue a sport. It teaches them dedication and determination. They have to be able to perform the tasks whether through endurance, strength, or, most often, a combination of both. That means they have to take care of their bodies to be able to do this (Connor). The will to keep going, to strive and never give up until you’re satisfied with the outcome. Coaches and teammates who are there to support them will make sure they test their limits where the outcome would be worth it.

In conclusion, the participation in sports at a young age benefits the lifestyle of children. The child will advance in social skills of making friends, be forced to work with one another and become healthier. Numerous people have realized that they’ve become active and healthy, more independent, and have a great group of friends who push one another to be the best version of themselves.

Reflection:

The purpose of this paper is to show and explain how participating sports at a young age is overall positive. The author explains this by counter arguing its’ main stance. The media/design used to convey information to the audience is by a power point presentation. The use of a power point presentation helps the audience have a better view for what is being presented. The potential audience for this assignment would be parents who have children who are athletes or parents who do not have their child participate in sports so that they may change their mind. Also, the intended audience can be student athletes that may realize that there are more benefits than negative aspects in sports participation. The genre of this power point is an argumentative presentation. The stance/attitude toward this topic is participating in sports is beneficent towards health and social aspects. There are course learning outcomes used throughout this power point. The power point/paper is used to reach the audience of print and digital. I used research from many websites to show my stance. I chose my side of the argument because coming from a person who also plays sports at a young age, I agree with the stance greatly. I truly believe sports are more than just health benefits. It also creates friendships, memories and life skills.

Works Cited:

Watson, Kathryn. “The Top Mental Benefits of Sports.” Healthline, Healthline Media.

Merkel, D. (2019). Youth sport: positive and negative impact on young athletes.

Bliss, Kevin. “Does Playing Sports Help Improve Grades?” COM, Leaf Group.

Munoz, F., Sanchez, M. and Vos-Saz, A. (2019). The influence of sports participation on academic performance among students in higher education. [online]. eBook.

“Impact Of Sport On Human Society.” Art Site, 16 Oct. 2014. Website. artsite.tv/impact-of-sport-on-human-society/.

“SiOWfa16: Science in Our World: Certainty and Controversy.” SiOWfa15 Science in Our World Certainty and Controversy.

Kendrick, K. (2019). HuffPost is now part of Oath. [online] huffingtonpost.co.uk.

Bishop, Greg. “Do High School Sports Affect Academics Negatively?” Dialogue.

“Kid’s Sports Injuries: The Numbers Are Impressive.” Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Nunley, Kim. “What Are the Causes of Fatigue in Sports?” SportsRec, 10 Jan. 2019

Ellis, Baldwin. “Negative Effects of Parents That Push Their Children Into Playing Sports.

    

The comments state that my essay was shorter and needed more content and needed more examples. I could have narrowed it down to a specific sport so it would be more informative. Also, my reflection paper could have had more development. One paragraph was very long and the professor said it needed to be shorter which confused me because my essay was short. Therefore, I am wondering what I could have done instead for having a lengthy paper. My exigence was missing in the reflection paper and needed to be much longer. I fixed the works cited by taking out the bullet points.