3 Advantages Why Playing Youth Sports Overpowers Its Obvious Dangers
Head Injuries and Long Term Brain Injuries Don’t Mean Youth Sports Doesn’t Build Better Young People
Playing sport at a young age is dangerous simply because sport will change a young person.
I should know, as I have broken almost every bone in the human body, or at least injured that part of my anatomy, because of playing youth sports.
But it was all worth it because it developed me into becoming the person I am right now.
Sure, there are real and present threats from playing a couple of contact sports like American football, soccer, and rugby especially because of their threat to the developing human brain.
The threats to young people’s brains:
With American football, there is a threat to players in having regular physical collisions. This, together with human beings becoming bigger, stronger, and faster all results in there being more head injuries, Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), and concussions.
There is no doubt that this may have to be revised in the future by the NFL and other leading organizations but I do not doubt that this will happen as they have already changed rules to limit certain physical contact in the past few years. Presently, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is causing a 30% greater possibility of death and disability. With diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) all resulting from regular head injuries the evidence is clear that some things need to change.
Similarly, in soccer, the persistent ‘heading’ of the football seems to be leading to greater increases in head injuries and as a result, the possibility of getting long term neurological disorders.
My healthy brain’s memory of my youth:
When I was growing up I watched how the Republic of Ireland soccer team reached their first European Championship in 1988 and then two years later, their first World Cup in Italy.
Although the team was talented with many top-flight players plying their trade in the old English first division (now the FA Premier League) they tended to play very direct football which included a lot of ‘headers’ of the ball by the team’s players.
Tony Cascarino was a striker on that team and although he doesn’t regret playing at the highest level, he now admits that he’ll probably end up having a neurodegenerative disease as a result of heading the ball so much. He told The Times that:
“It is highly likely that I will suffer some form of dementia. I tick every box. My father
has dementia. There is dementia on my mother’s side of the family, and two
years ago I had an operation to remove a brain tumor. I also headed the ball a great deal throughout my career as a professional footballer.”
- (The Times, 2020)
Why professional sporting organizations will improve their health and safety for young people:
Organizing bodies must address this issue soon and I do not doubt that they will.
But in the meantime, it’s important to know that young people that play American football do so with protective headgear, and with protective padding on their bodies.
Youth team players in soccer who are heading the ball are doing so when the ball moves up to 40 miles per hour whereas adult players have to head a ball of up to 70 miles per hour and so youth are not as at risk of injury as older players.
Although rugby has similar physicality to the players in the NFL, its growing popularity worldwide is also raising the concerns that many ex-professionals have raised their fears for the safety of present-day players. Once again, moves are afoot for change.
At present, there are great studies ongoing where Colm Fuller is doing a Ph.D. thesis on concussions and there’s another official study on training loads that schools have that is being supported by World Rugby.
Once one professional sport begins to address these problems then others will follow suit.
As all sports are competing for air time, live feed, and popularity they are aware that they need to be proactive and safe for their players. If they are not, they will be opening themselves up to several unwanted lawsuits in the future.
The positives developments of playing youth sports:
By playing youth sports, a young person learns a lot.
With the skills that they learn and through the maturing of their character, they become better human beings for modern society.
Confidence:
By being involved in youth sports a child is immediately thrust into a bigger environment. There are many different children there and for the sake of the game, you need to get to know everyone`s name fast. That is a good pressure to put on children. If they are interested in playing a specific sport they will respond to it before long and in so doing, increase their social confidence as a result.
When I began playing youth sports I was a shy young child entering into my team’s locker-room. As I never attended school with the team I played with on weekends, I was forced to get to know all of the players on that team quickly. They had been going to school together for years at this stage so getting into their social circle was a challenge for a young child like me. But, one I reveled in.
Working with others:
A team sport is all about working together to succeed. Learning cooperative skills enable a child to develop their personality, their empathy, and their communication skills.
When I was young there were no mobile phones so children were forced to have eye contact and speak to one another. In the present day, in ways, mobile technology lessens the drive for children to sit face to face with another child and simply get to know them.
However, this is a vital skill not just for youth, but for life as well.
Getting to know other trusting adults more informally:
The primary educator of the young person is their parents and their family. Outside of this school teachers lend a leading hand. However, these are people in their lives that many children feel they have no choice in becoming acquainted with. If children are interested in playing a certain sport they will have to be guided by another adult. Usually, that adult will be referred to as their coach.
Although I can recall the good and some very bad adults in my time playing youth sports, you simply won’t learn what good or bad people are unless you’re exposed to their guidance.
Overall, playing youth sports builds character in a young person, and although there are dangers in playing a sport, as young people are growing and developing all the time, their ability to learn about their chosen sport’s pitfalls is ever increasing too.
Through socialization with other young athletes, they converse and learn how to solve the problems of their sports.
Sport gives the stage to develop great leaders and leaders understand the difference between right and wrong, health and hurt, and above all, that their choices are their own and they can always change their mind.
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