Essay Example on Should Kids Play Contact Sports? Pros, Cons & Concerns Debated

There have been mixed reactions as to whether kids should participate in the contact sport or not. The concern involves teachers, parents of those children, siblings, and other health professionals like neurologists who happen to be fathering. Kids do not have choices; however, they find these contact games immensely enjoyable, whether risky or safe. A kid will always choose what makes her happy, irrespective of dwelling much on the side effects of the same. Several contact sports that kids are involved in and find interesting are ice hockey, football, and even soccer. These are games some studies revealed that expose the lives of children to danger, but they cannot shun away from it, and they are the same individuals that propose such sports. Some parents delegate the responsibility to teachers to avoid such games from children. However, others do advise teachers to guide their kids in football games and be active in the sport. The same happens since these parents will reason based on the medical perspective that either supports the contact sport or is against such games. What matters in this sector is the life concern of such a kid. The worry still looms at the conditions set aside during playing such contact games since kids are never keen while in those sports but to do what makes them happy. In this study, the purpose rests upon robust argumentative discussions supporting contact sports for kids as well as counteracting ideas on the same.

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When kids participate in contact sports, they become active and contribute a lot to their lifestyle development. These sports have both mental and social benefits for kids and make them grow alert as their life progresses. These contact sports will enable kids to be responsible and even know how to treat their colleagues. Remember, contact games like hockey are types of sports that involve using sticks you only have to value the lives of other players to maintain the guidelines. If kids can play such games successfully, we are raising caring children who will never take their colleagues' lives for granted. Scientifically, contact sports enhance the released hormones that make children ever happy and relaxed (Harlow et al., 2018). These are factors that ensure a healthy life and make some biological processes that involve hormones complete. These contact sports are also crucial to the lives of kids in terms of dealing with stress. When children play these games and engage in competition, they find themselves with stressful feelings. However, much pressure should not be associated with kids, but it also has some advantages, like preparing the body to tackle any other challenge with strength and focus. The feeling of alertness will harden the upcoming citizens and enable them to survive in different circumstances. Moreover, kids' participation in contact sports enables them to be risk-takers. Assessment and management of risks is one fundamental nature of our societies today that kids should get exposed to as early as possible. When kids play football, they learn how to assess risk based on their capabilities and even their teammates. The ultimate result is the development of teamwork, which is an essential tool that will positively impact their professional lives. When these kids fail to be involved in childhood risk, they might not be adult risk-takers like business-oriented entrepreneurs, explorers, surgical doctors, and fire rescue teams. The mentioned specialities are important in today's societies.

Nevertheless, kids should actively participate in contact sports. Every person is born with talent, and most people realize their talents in childhood. When teachers hold hands together with parents to support contact sports for children, they shall nurture their talent and become great footballers, soccer, or significant in other contact games. The same can be a source of their income when they grow up to be responsible youths who make use of their talent well. Sport is one of the sectors in the nation that holds economic stability, and several citizens are in touch with the same. When kids are side-lined from these activities, they will never have an interest in sports at heart; hence, some promising talents will go unnoticed. In conjunction with that, participation in sports is one of the factors that scientists have revealed to facilitate the learning process and make kids excel in classwork. A significant number of students who perform well in academic work are also active in contact sports, which makes them alert and active. Therefore, when kids are denied the opportunity to contact sports, academic performance will get tampered with; hence, some cannot achieve their dreams. Additionally, doctors report that participating in active sports, especially by kids, has more health benefits since they will be free from developing some diseases that emerge due to lack of exercise (Vella et al., 2016). When games are limited, a sedentary lifestyle results in diabetes, high blood pressure, and a high-fat diet, and children can also become obese. Similarly, participation in contact sports helps kids choose the type of food they might consume, which helps them nutrition-wise. According to Elbe et al. (2017), as kids participate in these sports, they will learn with time that some food provides more energy, which is a requirement in balancing the diet. The wise decisions made in choosing food can lengthen the lifetime of these kids. Additionally, there is no individual responsibility in sports; however, it is always teamwork these kids embrace in the field. Contact sports will teach kids the importance of building trust in friends and even learning to cooperate to achieve the desired goal; the same can positively impact these kids' lives when they grow older. Similarly, contact sports will help kids acquire social skills like non-verbal communication, which they will learn when communicating with their coaches or even teammates.

On the other hand, kids should not participate in contact games, and children should be kept off from such sports. These are still young kids who do not know how to take care of themselves, and being involved in contact games like hockey can result in injury. Many people have developed severe injuries from contact sports, and today, they live with various forms of disabilities and cannot attend to their regular duties. Some can develop serious complications later in life and even succumb to death. Therefore, young individuals should just be exposed to minor physical exercise like jogging or even walking from one place to another to enhance safety. Studies also reveal that several children undergo surgeries due to injuries obtained from contact sports while participating. Moreover, participating in contact sports results in stressful situations that cover teachers, parents, and fellow children but more so kids in the field. It can result in frustrations as well as breakdowns, especially to the losing team. These are instances that have led to kids fighting each other in the field, hence creating enmity among themselves. These scenarios will make kids fail to participate in future games due to disappointment and even look flawless before their parents while playing since they are still young to accommodate such feelings. When the pressure from frustrations builds up, it will surpass their level of tolerance, resulting in depression or even altogether quitting sports for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, in various medical research papers like Hebert et al. (2017), kids that participate in contact sports are fond of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Such pathologic conditions are associated with kids due to repeated head trauma that results in cognitive behaviour as well as emotional changes. These conditions are hazardous to children who still have a long journey like in the academic fields and wish to have a sober mind to succeed in various areas. Therefore contact sports should be preserved for youths and adult-only but not the vulnerable children.

Conclusion

In conclusion, despite some challenges kids experience in a contact sport, it remains healthy and result oriented activity that should be left free for the young kids. The study has revealed several advantages and benefits that originate from kids getting involved in contact sports. The minds of most youths are diverting to various immoral behaviors when they don't participate in sports. It is a scenario that has been spotted in the current generation, and the ultimate solution to such unfortunate characters is to involve children in active sports actively. As evident in the discussion above, significant throwbacks in contact games that affect kids are just injuries; this is a situation that can be solved by ensuring that coaches and adults guide children appropriately to be responsible enough while participating in active sports. As long as injuries can be limited, there is no other risk associated with the contact sports among kids. Therefore this study holds support towards young kids participating in the active sports but with a clue given to teachers or other adults to embrace guidance to these children while participating in sports.

References

Elbe, A. M., Wikman, J. M., Zheng, M., Larsen, M. N., Nielsen, G., & Krustrup, P. (2017). The importance of cohesion and enjoyment for the fitness improvement of 8–10-year-old children participating in a team and individual sport school-based physical activity intervention. European journal of sport science, 17(3), 343-350.ion. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1-25. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17461391.2016.1260641

Harlow, M., Wolman, L., & Fraser-Thomas, J. (2018). Should toddlers and preschoolers participate in organized sport? A scoping review of developmental outcomes associated with young children’s sport participat. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329374296

Hebert, J. J., Klakk, H., Møller, N. C., Grøntved, A., Andersen, L. B., & Wedderkopp, N. (2017, January). The prospective association of organized sports participation with cardiovascular disease risk in children (the CHAMPS Study-DK). In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 92, No. 1, pp. 57-65). Elsevier. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025619616305055

Vella, S. A., Schranz, N. K., Davern, M., Hardy, L. L., Hills, A. P., Morgan, P. J., & Tomkinson, G. (2016). The contribution of organised sports to physical activity in Australia: Results and directions from the Active Healthy Kids Australia 2014 Report Card on physical activity for children and young people. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 19(5), 407-412. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1440244015000936