Competitive Sports

Its crazy. When my son was little he played little league and the parents were awful. Every week fights would break out between parents, coaches, parents and coaches and one time there was practically a riot when the moms went at it. Needless to say that was more than enough to convince me to change his sport. By then my daughter was old enough to participate so they chose Martial Arts, specifically Taekwondo. Although the "Arts" are a more respectful sport, the parents are pretty much the same. They become upset if they feel their kids aren't getting points from the judges and complain to no end. They also play basketball and again, there are altercations with referees. It's sad to think that many parents are "living" through their kids and many of these kids despise the sport and are being forced to do them. Once it stops being a game and training or practice is involved, then it's really up to the child to see if he still wants to do it. With me, sometimes I did have to push them to go to their TKD classes, like with all kids sometimes they got lazy, but now that they have become black belts, they enjoy going again. They still like to play basketball so in the summer I put them in a league. Although there will always be problematic parents, I tell them that to truly savor victory, they must experience losing. It's a lesson they all need to learn.

Yes, children should be involved in sports if THEY want to be. The majority of parental conflicts are due to the idiocy of our nation's adults, and their lack of an understanding of what their child/children wish to do. To tell people you shouldn't think of winning is like saying you shouldn't ever strive to better yourself from the rest of the competition, just hold hands and be a tie. This is a woe of our society and species. We all lack to see we are in a futile struggle to outdo the competition(and I understand they are just kids). I am not a parent, but have been involved with sports since the age of 5 (wrestling, soccer, baseball).And remember, if you aren't first, YOU'RE LAST.

When I was a child sport did nothing for my confidence. You see, I am not the sportiest person, so at school I was constantly yelled at for making mistakes which sometimes would cause my team to lose. It was an awful experience and it put me off sports for life. In my opinion sport is not for everyone and kids should not be forced to do it. There is nothing wrong with kids doing physical education and exercising but competitive sport, I don't know, it made my life hell. I enjoyed dancing and skating as a kid. Perhaps giving the children the option of competitive games or other activities such as dancing etc... I know parents who push and over commit their kids because they must be "the best". It is a form of abuse I think. If a child WANTS to be involved in competitive sports that is fine and I don't think it's that hard to tell if a child is keen or not, otherwise give them some other healthy option and don't force them.

Kids need to get up and away from their laptops! When I was a kid we were always outside on our bikes, skating, whatever. We had to be in when the streetlights came on. Now it is different, we are scared of our kids being outside unsupervised. Team sports is the only way they get exercise. I feel it should not be pushed and they should want to do it.

E-sports is a whole different story.

Football has grown ALOT! So has basketball.