Do sports change kids in a positive manner? Health, Medicine Essay (Essay Sample)

Name
Instructor’s Name
Course Code
Date
Do sports change kids in a positive manner?
Introduction
Over the years there have been continuous heated discussion of the positive and negative impacts sports have on children. Sports helps children to become more active and healthy, but even though there are many countless benefits of sports, many opponents still believe that sports pose several risks to children, which normally happens when sport programs fail to offer a suitable playing environment. Most critics believe sports are bad for children because it lowers self-esteem especially if a child is used to winning and this can be difficult for a child to handle failure. Also, an environment characterized by great competition levels is more likely to negatively influence the psychology of children because it tempers with the growth of a child especially if some children are not in a good position to win. Also, the ‘win at all costs’ mentality coaches and parents put in children can devastate them because it can lead to negative behaviours in the long run. Strained relationships with over-invested parents can also cause unconscious attitudes which will damage young athletes because they will always be scared of being beaten each time they don’t win. Lastly, unhealthy performance pressures children get from their teams, schools, coaches and parents to perform better on the field can also be a negative influence. Children are not professionals and some days they will miss a goal and sometimes look like they were actually destined for greatness. Sport programs need to offer children with broad advice on the ways to treat mistakes, as learning chances, that should result, to additional developments on particular areas (Allender & Gill, 2006).