Fun Should be the Focus of Youth Sports :: Argumentative Persuasive Essay Examples

  Ã‚   Over the last two decades the growth of youth sports has reflected the popularity of professional sports in our society. To a foreign observer of the American culture we appear to be a sport's obsessed society. Sporting events and news are available to us twenty-four hours a day on television and radio; sports are an enormous industry. In 1995 it was determined that the sporting industry generated 85 billion dollars worth of business. It is now estimated that by the year 2005 the sporting industry will be worth more than 150 billion dollars, making one of the top ten industries in the U.S. (Murphy 32). The outstanding popularity of the sports industry has had a profound affect on youth sport's organizations. Recent surveys place the number of children participating in various team sports at around 20 million. However, critics estimate that as many as 73 percent quit sports by age thirteen. The majority of children drop out by middle school age because sports are no longer fun for them. There are several contributing factors to this phenomenon, parents and coaches putting excessive pressure on children, over competitiveness, anxiety, and simple loss of interest.    Children join sports at a young age, and it is usually the parent who decides what sport the child will play. Parents are often very involved in their child's sport. The parents buy the team trophies, uniforms, and equipment and shuttle their child to and from games and practices. Most children enjoy this time they spend with their family and friends. There is little emphasis placed on competition and children all have an equal chance to participate. They are able to "play" with their friends outside the school environment and simply have fun, which in turn keeps children interested and involved in their sport.    As children get older they ascend to a higher level in their sport, for instance, from T- ball, to little league. During this time pressure to succeed starts to rise. Parents and coaches often become more involved with the game than with their children, attention starts to focus to the more "talented" players on the team, and competition and "who wins" takes precedence over having fun. In his book The Cheers and the Tears, sport's psychologist Shane Murphy Ph.D., claims that "One way in which many traditional youth sport programs fail to meet the needs of children is by introducing too much competition too early.