Julie Deardoff, health and fitness reporter for the Chicago Tribune, writes an article in the Q Section of this Sunday's paper about the increasing occurrences of adult-type sports injuries in young children.
According the article, children are having more serious sports related injuries, the majority of which are due to 'overuse.' We seem eager to push our kids harder to excel in sports--which is really a euphemism for winning--while ever more comfortable breaking their little bodies to do so.
As a father of three children, two of which play sports, I was appalled by what I read. I've heard of the some of these injuries from other parents but not to the extent the article identifies.
It seems that in our culture's increasing emphasis on competition and winning, many parents are placing ever greater pressure on our children to excel in sports in the hope that it will earn them scholarships to college. Parents are enrolling their children in sports camps, hiring personal trainers and year-round travel teams in effort to make our four to fourteen-year-olds into athletes.
Doesn’t the word athlete denote a professional and ought not apply to a child under fourteen. Isn't it sad? We are so eager to press our children into the stress and strain of competition at ever younger ages. High school was once the place where a child could begin developing his or her God-given talents in a professional context. Why are we in such a hurry to make little superstars of our kids?
Of course there will be children who naturally excel in sports. These children should be encouraged and supported. However, the vast majority of suburban kids are not going to make a fortune in the MLB, MLS or NFL. Moreover, colleges do look at sports in an application and certainly not before high school. Your son is not going to get into Harvard because he had a fantastic ERA while pitching in Little League. If there is a college that reviews these records, do you really want to send your kid to school there anyway?
I suspect, that more often than not, it's the parents who force this zeal for sports performance on our children. We ought to examine our motives for this.
We parents need to remind ourselves of what the original intentions of community sports. The list would include: health, fitness, sportsmanship, teamwork and simply having fun. Why is it that so many parents now consider their kid's little league team a farm league for the Major Leagues? It's clear, we've diverged quite a ways from these points.
Not every parent pressures hires a personal trainer for their ten-year-old. There are still a few of us content to watch our children simply have fun.
For those of you determined to turn your kids into young athletes, Deardoff identifies tips from a book, "No More Broken Eggs," written by sports psychologist Tom Morin, on ways to avoid injuries.
- Make sure they get solid instruction that emphasizes proper mechanics.
- Focus on preventing overuse injuries.
- Take the pressure off. (My bold.)
- If your child is injured, try switching to a different sport.
- Ten-year-olds don't need personal fitness trainers or conditioning coaches.
- Let the child lead, within reason.
One of the great benefits of being a parent is being around to watch you kids do some pretty amazing things. 