Beginners Golf Lessons

Playing little league baseball or joining your first soccer team when you were 9 years old used to be fun, beginner level experiences for children to experience the fun of learning how to play a particular sport. You used to join a rec league for a season and then if you wanted to, could try a different sport the next season. Youth sports have changed dramatically over the past 20-30 years and now kids are starting to play organized team sports at the ages of 3 or 4 years old and choosing a sport to specialize in and play year round by the ages of only 10 with special private coaching and using the best pitching machines and batting cages during the off season, for example. The level of intensity for youth sports is the same as it was for teen atheltes and even some college athletes 25 years ago and this is leading to a host of new issues.

One of the greatest differences is the age at which kids are encouraged to play sports. Not long ago, the youngest age usually, was around seven or eight years old to play soccer and ten or eleven years old to start basketball. Now it is sometimes still in diapers for soccer and five years old for basketball. Most of the kids at these little ages don’t have neither the physical coordination nor the attention span to be able to get through an hour long sports practice. Because of this, children quit a sport earlier because it was too dificult for them.

Children are also being told that they have to specialize and focus on one sport around the age of 10 years old to be able to get an athletic scholarship for college. This has increased stress related injuries in a lot younger kids as a result of overdoing it on their still developing bodies. The overuse on the kids physically and mentally has caused a whole generation of kids that totally burn out by the time they are teenagers which is a real shame.

This more intense level of athletics at a younger age is also experienced by their coaches and the parents as well. There have been so many parents that got caught up in their children’s games or competitions that they cause issues with their inappropriate behaviors and must be told to leave. Because of this, the majority of schools and youth leagues now require parents to sign a contract for acting in a well mannered way. Coaching has also become more demanding for children. In the past a parent would volunteer to help coach a team and that would be it. Now parents are hiring private coaches and personal trainers to get their child to to be the best athlete ever. The amount of money parents now spend on their children’s athletic endeavors is huge.

Perhaps, people will realize that kids need to be kids and don’t need the physical or mental stress that is being placed upon them athletically by their coaches and parents.