Argumentative Essay. Should Teens Play Competitive Sports?

Dedication, effort, determination. All of these are critically necessary mental skills to have that prepare you for the essentials of life. Another similarity held by these traits and others is that each and every one of them can be taught and learned through practicing and playing competitive sports. It has been a long and controversial issue over whether or not it’s a good idea for teens to play competitive sports, and with all the statistics it has become a hard debate to conclude. Studies have revealed not only are sports good for fitness, but the playing of sports improve mental health as well and even make teens more satisfied with their lives. If you look closely at both sides of this argument you can see how correct of a statement it is: Teens should play competitive sports. They are excellent option to improve teens’ health and fitness and additionally prepares teens for their lives ahead of them by teaching life lessons in a way few other things can.

            One major reason demonstrating why teens should play competitive sports is because it helps kids’ health and fitness. America has a large percentage of obesity in teens and younger kids. People belonging to these age groups have the option to change their health for the better through sports, as shown in the article entitled Kobe Bryant Says Competition Key in Youth Sports, in which a panel discussion on an ESPN radio show was quoted. The article highlighted the minute as former NFL star and Olympian Herschel Walker explained how playing sports benefitted his life. He said “What changed my life is, at the end of eighth grade I ended up getting beat up real bad. I went home crying. But I got home and decided enough is enough. That summer every day I started working out. Pushups, sit-ups, I climbed trees and did chin-ups on the tree limbs I started developing and losing weight” This quote shows us that sports are an essential way to lose weight and therefore become healthier. Walker’s life was completely turned around. He became fit and healthy, the result of these exercises was fame and money and overall a good life. And while the article does say exercise and not sports themselves gave him this motivation and fitness, a main requirement and necessity in sports is exercise, and to maintain fitness in whatever sport(s) you play, good athletes  should be doing the same pushups, sit-ups, pull-ups and exercises as mentioned in the quote. Additionally sports offer you an incentive to exercise, knowing that if you continue to stay fit you can maintain and improve your skill in the sport. Without his exercising none of this would have happened. And “none of this” doesn’t just mean Walker becoming famous, but other kids could be inspired to follow in his footsteps, or adults inspired to create and run organizations or spread awareness about the major health issues kids and teens have. One person trying hard and doing well in sports could create an unimaginably large amount of opportunity-so much in fact; that it’s hard to imagine if this did happen, if more teens acted like Walker, improving their lives and inspiring others.  So to conclude on this story-as the article put it- “Walker told of how sports helped to transform him from an overweight kid with a speech impediment to one of the greatest athletes of his time.” But that’s not all. Teens playing competitive sports can benefit their health in multitudes of other way as well, such as their mental health. This article, Young teens who play competitive sports feel healthier and happier about life is self-explanatory. It states (speaking of the benefits to be obtained in sports aside from physical health) “Playing on a sports team was linked to higher life satisfaction in both boys and girls. In addition, boys were five times more likely, girls 30 times more likely to describe their life as fair/poor when not playing on a sports team.” This was referring to a study described earlier in the article in which the purpose was to see how sports affected teen’s opinions of their lives. Ultimately, to produce this statement people looked for 1. If the teens played on a competitive sports team, and 2. How they rated their life. Conclusively, this data retrieved from this study shows us that playing competitive sports is directly linked to higher life satisfaction amongst these teens. There isn’t any way to refute this evidence. Kids who played on sports teams rated their life better. Mental health is just as important as physical health and sports can improve both. In fact some might say mental health could be more important in some aspects than physical health. Feeling good about your life lets you focus more in school and in your personal life overall leading to better choices which ultimately leads to a successful career and life. So even if you don’t plan on or even want to be a professional athlete, playing competitive sports can still help you with your mental health, be an important factor in you getting a fine-if not above average- career and stay healthy and fit throughout your life.

            Another important fact to consider as you look at this debate is that playing sports prepares teens for the life by teaching them life lessons efficiently and effectively. For example in the article entitled Crave Competition, It’s Good For You,   focused on how the competitive aspect of sports made a large difference. It explained how unhealthy and incorrect it is to teach kids and teens that like in uncompetitive sports everyone wins and life is always fair with a referee making sure no one cheats, gets a head start or is disobedient of “life’s rules” in any way. The truth is all of this does happen and dealing with these behaviors is a part of everyone’s lives helping people develop. And by explaining how incorrect the teachings and lessons pulled from non-competitive sports are it simultaneously showed how important the lessons you can learn from competitive sports are. It stated “The self-esteem mantra has built a handholding fantasy culture that is leaving our children woefully unprepared for the ups and downs of life.” This quote stated that the lack of competition in youth sports were leaving these kids unprepared for life expecting someone to hold their hand and be their guide through life. While on the other hand, competitive sports lead to kids understanding failure and how to rebound from it. How to be self-sufficient and work on your own to compete against others just similar to how in life you compete for a number of things such as a job with any number of people- weather its five or five thousand, each of whom may or may not have had more experience than you. These sports give you an advantage as to how life will work seeing as it is a competition just as competitive sports are. Secondly in the same article -while a little repetitive- it states more life lessons to be learned from teens playing sports, such as the fact that life has no regulations and failure is an option. It says “Our fun run approach to life is weaning future generations off of guts fortitude, discipline, risk taking, confidence and other critically important ingredients for achievement. No wonder the United States ranks 25th and 17th...out of 34 countries in math and science.” This quote accurately ties up the article. It descriptively explains how life lessons are not only being taken away but that that is an awful thing to have happen. The part of the quote explaining how the United States is rated among other countries demonstrates how competition affects not only people in their lives, but entire nations. Once you fall behind you stay behind until you work harder and better than everyone else because once again: life is a competition. This also relates well with not just sports but academics showing that competition teaches you to do well in every aspect of your life allowing you to succeed. None of the 24 or 16 countries ahead of us in math and science are just going to let us become what we once were ranked because firstly, you need to work hard in order to earn a spot (another lesson taught by sports) and secondly, those countries worked hard and now don’t want to give up a spot they worked hard for. Just like someone competing against you for a job, a promotion, or an actual sport; they need whatever might come along with winning that competition just as much as you do and will do their best to compete and beat you. There’s no escaping that fact no matter how you look at it. Overall, competition teaches you to do well in life in so many good ways. But learning competition through sports give you an incentive, lets you develop a skill, prepares you for the essentials of life and keeps you healthy and fit for your whole life all in one series of activities.

            Despite all the facts and statistics pointing as to why sports are physically and mentally beneficial, there are those who believe otherwise. That teens should not play competitive sports, they are a dangerous activity leading to both short and long term injuries greatly effecting your life in a very negative way. For example, the article How Children and Teens can Avoid Sports Injuries, it gave multiple statistics showing why teens really shouldn’t be playing competitive sports. This article stated “1.24 million children/teens had to go to the emergency room due to sports injuries in 2013.” and “The greatest number of injuries are for people ages 13, 14, and 15.” These show that not only are teens at risk of getting injured, but a very great amount of teens go to the emergency room every year. That could be anything from someone simply breaking their arm to an injury so serious it could lead to brain damage, figuratively scarring these people affecting virtually every aspect of their life, their academic grades, their lives at home and just simply making friends which is an essential part of life. These injuries could really badly damage a person not only for a short period of time, but greatly for all their lives in very drastic ways. Now, while this is a just argument that isn’t completely crazy, it is quite a distance from being flawless. For instance, 1.24 million people is a lot especially just for sports injuries. And going to the emergency room isn’t exactly a laughing matter, but it doesn’t necessarily mean brain damage. In a few rare cases a very serious injury could lead to brain damage and while it seem like that is more often than just something as simple as breaking an arm it’s not. It’s just that most news articles and/or documentaries won't be featuring a kid who broke his bone because breaking your bone doesn’t affect you for more than the few months more at most that for however long you have a cast on to get used to not having a cast on anymore. But even then the difficulties you face are that it’s hard to write because the cast is in the way or you are used to having a cast there and now it feels weird to hold a pencil correctly. With injuries like brain damage, you are effected your whole life and then they are shown on the new and featured in the news and articles more often because people find those stories more interesting. People can break their arm walking down the street, but the only reason people show more serious injuries more often making it seem more common is because people care more seeing as it’s less likely to happen. People most likely at least break a bone once in their lives, but very few people have brain damage. It’s not that common, it’s just made to seem more common than it is. When it really shouldn’t be, considering the fact that sports are a wonderful opportunity to improve almost every aspect of your life. A few cases like these are almost scaring people out of playing sports because they are more scary than people find the benefits in sports beneficial. Benefits come through sports constantly no matter who plays them, however very serious injuries happen rarely. Additionally, for the serious injuries that do happen, many of those aren’t because of the sports being played, but rather something happening in the sports that doesn’t belong there, whether it’s a foul on the field or actions off the field. For example in the same article entitled How Children and Teens can Avoid Sports Injuries, it stated “Kids are being pressured to play because they need to win the game and coaches are being pressured by parents to play inured players.” This shows us how even though lots of injuries do happen, they reach a level where they can actually affect you because parents are putting their kids in the game injuries. The kids want to play and win and it’s the parent’s responsibility to tell them it’s not the right thing to do as their children are their responsibility. So the solution to this isn’t to not play sports, but for parents and coaches to take a step back and have some self-control and awareness. No matter how important this lap, game or quarter might be is it worth having an injury. So as you can see, the evidence doesn’t really prove that sports cause injuries and to stop these injuries teens need to stop playing competitive sports. It proves that lots of injuries happen, but that’s not the debate. Just because injuries happen, not playing sports doesn’t solve anything.

           

In conclusion, teens should play competitive sports. The benefits greatly outweigh the very few and two dimensional reasons that oppose this. Playing competitive sports allows you to be prepared for life and be ready to rebound yourself from failure to become the best you possibly can, knowing how many people are competing to steal your spot in whatever career you embark on or sports team you play on. Sports teach these lessons very well giving you an idea of what life will be like in a low-stakes situation and improve not only your physical; but your mental health and fitness which is just as important in becoming the best you can be.