Kid's Just 'Wanna Have Fun: A Look into the Impact of Children's Sports

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   Elena Delle Donne now plays basketball at the

     Universiy of Delaware, near her hometown.

            She was interviewed by ESPN at age fifteen, the top basketball recruit in the country by the end of high school, and followed her lifetime dream of playing basketball at the University of Connecticut.  Then, she threw it all away—everything she had worked for since she was young.  Or, is that what really happened?  At the age of eighteen, Elena Delle Donne was the country’s most prized recruit when she arrived at the University of Connecticut for summer school and summer basketball.  She lasted all of forty-eight hours at the university before returning to her parent’s doorstep back in Delaware with quite a story, a story that would cause controversy for many months.  But, according to Delle Donne, nobody could understand her reasons.  Stories similar to Elena’s are emerging more frequently than ever as young athletes are pressured to succeed at a younger age.  Athletes who may even be prodigies in their particular sports are quitting before even reaching the highest level due to how hard they are pushed as children.  As a society that largely revolves around athletics, we need to focus on allowing young athletes to continue playing at their own pace.  With the unreasonable demands on adolescents in athletics, injury, hatred of sports, and resentment towards parents and coaches becomes common among athletes.

            Physicians are noticing that athletes are victims to more severe injuries at a younger age than ever before.  According to WebMD, forty-four percent of serious injuries incurred as a result of sports in 2006 occurred in players younger than fifteen.  The severity of injuries for some athletes is putting a premature end to a career in sports that may have otherwise had potential.  Athletes are sometimes forced to give up their individual sports as a result of residual effects from a past injury.  According to MSNBC, recent evidence has shown that the push for adolescents to be more active in sports at a young age for a better future in athletics actually has the reverse effect.  Starting at a younger age only means there is more time to be plagued by injury, and depending on the severity of the injury, it is possible that the injury can affect the athlete for the rest of their life.  Young athletes have yet to fully develop the ligaments, tendons, and bones making up their fragile bodies.  Tommy John ligament surgery, an elbow procedure named after the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who was the first to undergo it, used to be limited to players in their 20s and older, but it is now performed on kids as young as 12--not surprising if they started pitching excessively at age 8 or 9. Similarly, stress fractures in the backs of middle-school football and soccer players have nearly doubled over the past decade as a result of overtraining (Time Magazine).  Reasonable expectations need to be placed on youth in athletics to keep the athletes injury-free and continuing sports.  The constant nagging of a past injury can forever ruin any passion, intensity, and dedication to a sport.

            Demanding too much from young athletes does often result in the adolescents developing hatred towards sports and in extreme cases—a hatred toward exercise.  Being forced to practice constantly and play on high-level teams at a young age doesn’t allow kids to, well, be kids.  The younger years are extremely important for the development of a child.  Entering children into sports too young, when they really aren’t even interested, will only make them less interested.  The most important rule to remember is that “the best age for kids to start playing sports is when they really want to play” (MSNBC).  One of the reasons that many youth in America begin sports in the first place is because they find them fun or their friends are participating.  When the fun factor is taken away, youth are naturally going to develop a hatred towards sports.  As a third grader, I was pushed into basketball and began playing AAU basketball in fifth grade.  I played year around for seven years until I decided to quit the sport my senior year because I was just not enjoying the game, and I had even led my high school team to the State Final Four in my freshman year.  The fun factor plays a large role in keeping youth in sports, and sports are proven to improve “physical health and emotional well-being” (MSNBC).  Often, athletes also learn life lessons in “teamwork, discipline, leadership and time management” (MSNBC).  But, kids can’t profit from these benefits if they are quitting or on the verge of quitting sports.  At this point, it is obvious to wonder why a child would even continue in to play sports if they didn’t feel they were receiving a direct benefit.  This is where parents and coaches come into play.

            Parents often want to develop the next LeBron James or Mia Hamm and coaches want to be known as the role model and teacher of a superstar.  Dr Barry Goldberg, Director of Sports Medicine at Yale University Health Services and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Sports Medicine and Fitness Committee, said, “One of the problems we have is that coaches get the children before they’re ready for a sport and then label them as not capable.  We see that across the board, in every sports—kids trying before they are ready” (New York Times Magazine).  The blame for this can be equally placed on the parents—who demand too much of their young children, and coaches—who demand too much of their athletes.  In today’s society, too many children are being treated like puppets; adults are making decisions for them.  According to parenthood.com, “the goals of sports for young kids can differ dramatically from those of their parents and coaches,” which is why adolescents should be able to progress at their own pace—an opportunity Elena Delle Donne was not given.

          Once Delle Donne finally arrived on the doorstep of her parent’s Delaware home, she finally broke down and admitted to her parents she had been living a lie since the age of thirteen.  Provided with a personal trainer at age seven—no misprint—she was sick of basketball by thirteen, but she feared that if she told her parents and coaches, they would never understand.  "I kinda was driving myself to be happy, and I was like, 'Well, you better like this!'" Delle Donne says. "'Because this is what it's gonna be.' And I was trying to force happiness upon myself, which I couldn't find in the sport” (ESPN). Delle Donne’s parents were both college athletes, and she admitted that her parents played a large role in pushing her to continue playing basketball.  Her fear of the reaction of her coaches and parents kept her in the game, but she finally broke down and admitted everything to her parents and coaches after leaving UConn in the middle of the night.  Elena’s parents still pushed her to give the university another chance.  Her college coach didn’t understand—and still doesn’t.  "You can't understand it unless you're in my shoes," Delle Donne says. "And that's the thing: You don't understand burnout unless you've been burned out. And it's something you can't even explain. It's just doing something you have absolutely no passion for” (ESPN).  Today, Delle Donne plays volleyball at the University of Delaware.  While she has a close relationship with her parents now, they played an active role in changing the way Elena felt about basketball.  They revolved her entire life around basketball.  Elena had no time to become a child, and this loss caused resentment to brew towards her parents, her personal trainer, and her basketball coaches.  Forcing kids into activities they do not choose to do willingly causes turmoil to form among two groups, typically parents and coaches versus the athlete.

            Many parents argue that they are simply trying to find activities that their kids enjoy, but it makes more sense to let children find out on their own what activities are best.  Parents should not have the ability to force their children into sports even when the children despise sports.  As a way of rebelling, children may abandon exercise altogether, and this is extremely harmful for mental and physical health.  It is true that some high caliber athletes today did begin at an extremely young age.  Olympic skier Yina Moe-Lange began skiing at age three and recently competed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and says about competing in the Olympics, “[H]opefully there's more of those to come, too” (Seattle Pi).  Moe-Lange admits to having a burning passion for skiing, though, and had the self-determination to improve.  Without self-determination and passion, the top level in athletics cannot be reached.  Other athletes, such as LeBron James, didn’t begin careers in their respective sports until later.  James didn’t play competitive basketball until sixth grade and today, he is one of the best basketball players to ever play the game.  No one is saying that kids shouldn't play sports or even that they shouldn't train. But "you shouldn't be training a 9-to-12-year-old to be a superstar," says Dr. Michael Bergeron of the Medical College of Georgia. "You should be thinking down the road so they can be that superstar at 18” (Time Magazine).  The key to success for any athlete is to allow them to choose what sports to play and when to begin, if at all.  Parents and coaches need to realize that it is not their duty to force anything upon adolescents because force results in backlash by the child.  A child needs to have the opportunity to determine their own rate of progression in athletics.

            Not all athletes today are victims of the growing phenomenon to push children in athletics at a young age, but the number of occurrences is growing.  Some athletes strive off of pressure, while others are weak under pressure.  Some athletes fall in love with a sport at a young age, while others develop a hatred for sports and exercise altogether.  But either way, pushing kids in sports too young can make a child miss out on childhood. A study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research found that from 1981 through 1997, children's time spent playing structured sports increased by 25 percent, and time spent in unstructured play fell by about the same amount. The study also found that kids have 12 fewer hours of free time a week, eat fewer family dinners, have fewer family conversations per week and take fewer family vacations (San Francisco Chronicle).  Kids typically play sports at a young age for enjoyment but losing free time and family time is detrimental for a child’s development.  According to Steve Marshall, a professor of orthopedics at the University of North Carolina, “Youth sports have become about more than kids having fun.  Frankly it’s beginning to get out of control. It’s almost a national obsession.”  This is a sad fact for youth sports today because sports are meant as a way for the child to have fun and learn important life skills.  It didn’t begin as a way to develop the next superstar.  Delle Donne, out of fear, waited five years to admit to the world that she hadn’t enjoyed basketball since thirteen.  Finally, she realizes the feeling of truly loving a sport.  "Now that I play volleyball, I know how it feels to have a passion for your sport," Elena admits.  I challenge parents and coaches alike to allow kids to be kids.  It is unfair to place such high standards on a child.  After all, kids enjoy having fun and when they are forced to participate in a sport unwillingly, the fun factor no longer exists.  Youth need to have the ability to be gauge their interests, and a child needs to enjoy childhood because after all, it doesn’t last forever.

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