The Importance of Sports in Child's Development (Essay Sample)

Nearly 72% of kids aged 6-12 played a sport at least once in 2018; 7.9 million high schoolers participated on high school sports teams; and 57% of high school students play a sport. (A True, but Shocking Statement) What would all those kids and teens do if there were to be a ban on sports for kids under the age of 18? How else would they get their exercise? By pondering the questions, it becomes clear how important sports are to the lives of many kids. Sports provide an escape from the stresses of life and give many the valuable exercise needed for a healthy life. Sports provide more benefits than negatives for today’s youth because they improve a kid’s well-being and provide skills such as teamwork, leadership, and decision-making.

Youth sports provide many benefits for kids’ well-being. For example, kids are shown to be less obese when they play sports. Jennifer Lerner and Tom Solomon, co-authors of “Active Kids do Better in Life,” discuss a 2021 Centers Disease Control and Prevention study stating, “22% of children and teens have been classified as obese during the coronavirus pandemic, an ‘alarming’ increase from the 19% before COVID-19.” The loss of sports during the COVID-19 pandemic has--with other contributors--led to a shocking and consequential 3% increase in children and teens classified as obese. Another example is a 2014 study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, which found that after school physical activity programs like sports would reduce obesity the most, 1.8% among children ages 6 to 12 (Lerner and Solomon). If compared to a theoretical ban on fast-food advertising towards children, the percentage for children participating in sports programs doubles the percentage of a ban on fast-food advertising (Lerner and Solomon). This just goes to show how sports can be so impactful and beneficial compared to other methods of decreasing obesity in the US. Beyond decreasing obesity rates, youth sports build up self-confidence and self-esteem, important aspects of anyone’s life. Diana Gerstacker, author of “Confidence, Self-Esteem and 4 Other Reasons Kids Should Play Organized Sports,” restates Danyel Jones who claims, “Again, if you’re a physically active adult, you feel that sense of accomplishment in outdoing your last performance at the gym. Kids feel a similar way learning new skills and succeeding in a game, except more so.” Kids and adults both improve their confidence and self-esteem through sports, such as when completing a practiced skill for the first time. Hillary Cartlip explains in her book Girl Power, which is brought up in Hema Zbogar’s article, “Good Sport/BadSport: How to Foster Positive Participation Among Youth,” that “Sports can also enhance girls’ sense of what they can do with their bodies very positively instead of getting acceptance from boys.” Sports allow not just girls, but guys as well, to use themselves to help win games for their teams, help get in better shape, and in result, feel better about themselves. While the benefits of exercise and competitive team sports may seem important and critical to one’s physical health, some may say that the long-term effects from injuries sustained during a person’s childhood can wreak havoc on adults as they get older. Athletes take the risk every day of injuring themselves while competing in their sport, but that should not be what stops people from playing sports. Not only that, but many youth sports associations and professional athletic associations have been working with doctors to find ways to prevent serious life-altering injuries through both new technology and teaching better ways to compete such as safer techniques and rules to prevent dangerous scenarios. New helmet technology has been created to help prevent concussions and CTE. A new rule was implemented in youth soccer that prevented headers until a certain age. Not to mention that football and other sports represent an extremely tiny fraction of where concussion risks and other injuries actually occur. Focusing on eliminating youth sports detracts from other preventable, and more serious, causes of these injuries such as gun-violence, motor vehicle crashes, and drug or alcohol abuse says Robert Glatter, author of “The Reasons Not To Ban Contact Sports for Children: An Answer to ‘Concussion.’” With increasingly safer technology, new rules, and prevention techniques, sports can be assumed to be a safe way to get exercise. Clearly sports can aid in physical fitness, spread body positivity, and boost self-confidence and self-esteem, which is why sports should be kept for children.

 Youth sports provide many life lessons and skills for kids. For example, sports provide many skills such as decision-making, leadership, and teamwork.“When playing football, children learn to access risk based not only on their own capabilities, but also on the capabilities of their teammates who protect them and work for their mutual interests,” says Glatter. Sports like football, which rely heavily on trusting your teammates, teaches kids decision-making skills because they have to make a decision based on their capabilities and not risk injuring anyone. It teaches them to be smart with their body, while also pushing themselves. They also have to be leaders and work well with their teammates to accomplish the common goal of winning. Not only do sports help build better people, but they tend to keep kids out of trouble and teach responsibility. Zbogar states in her article, “Research with delinquent and violent kids has found that when these kids participate in after-school sports programs, they have a 50-75% decline in re-offenses compared to a 60% increase among those who after first arrest do not engage in such programs.” That is over an 110% difference between re-offenses when a kid participates in sports. Sports can be a positive and beneficial experience that can teach them responsibility and to do the right things. Sports also have been shown to be connected with better academic performance. Zbogar explains, “Involvement in youth sports is a better predictor of academic success than are family income or education. And kids who participate in sports programs, whether they are school-based or not, have better attitudes about school, less absenteeism, and higher GPAs in high school.” Not so much kids, but more student athletes in high school, tend to face more pressure on academics. Coaches often have certain GPA requirements to play on the team and have goals of achieving certain averages at the end of the season. Zbogar further states that the National Federation of High School Associations found that 96% of high school dropouts did not participate in any after-school sports programs. Many student athletes have sports, teams, and friends to keep them in school, which could be a contributing factor to the reason why so many dropouts did not play sports. This, along with increased academic success could be the reason why student athletes have so much success on and off the field, further proving a need to keep sports for our youth. Evidently, it is obvious that sports should be kept because of the many life lessons and skills that are taught through them.

Clearly, sports provide more benefits than negatives ranging from helping the well-being of the athlete to teaching life lessons and social skills needed for adulthood. Not only do sports do all of these things, but they also create positive environments where athletes can be social and master their craft in the sport they play. Many may say that sports are dangerous, but over the years, doctors, coaches, and athletes have worked together and found ways to make sports safer. Should a ban on sports be considered and risk the futures of these individuals? I think not.