Safeguards needed in youth sports

Last week we offered our unsolicited word of caution regarding organized and competitive children and youth sports as exemplified by the government’s “Batang Pinoy” which is supposed to help unearth talents for elite sports (Southeast Asian Games or SEA Games, Asian Games, the Olympics and other international level competitions).

Our main message is that children have different needs. Therefore, to have them go through a training regimen fit for adults, participate in tournaments run by adults with the “win at all cost” attitude and to dangle extrinsic rewards (for beating the other fellow) other than the intrinsic reward of playing for fun, to have them supervised and coached by adults who have no medical and performance background at the youth level, could have disastrous long-term effects. The idea is not to stop such competitions of youth 13 years and above but to ensure that we, as a country, will impose the necessary safeguards and develop the competence to protect the welfare of the youth. There are after all, psychological and physical implications associated with children’s sports.

Studies have been conducted in America by sports medicine, sports sociology and sports psychology experts on sports and socialization and organized sports and youth. Several of these appear in the book “Sport in Contemporary Society”, an anthology edited by D. Stanley Eitzen.

The introduction to Part Two of the book says “the involvement of young people in adult-supervised sport is characteristic of contemporary American society. Today, millions of boys and girls are involved in organized baseball, football, hockey, basketball and soccer leagues. Others are involved in swimming, golf, tennis…. at a highly competitive level. School-sponsored sports begin about the seventh grade and are highly organized, win-oriented activities. “

To the question why do so many parents in so many communities strongly support organized sports programs for youth? The reason for this is primarily because most people believe that sports participation has positive benefits for those involved. The following quotation from Time summarizes this assumption.

“Sport has always been one of the primary means of civilizing the human animal, of inculcating the character traits a society desires. Wellington in his famous aphorism insisted that the Battle of Waterloo had been won on the playing fields of Eton. The lessons learned on the playing field are among the most basic: the setting of goals and joining with others to achieve them; an understanding of and respect for rules; the persistence to hone ability into skill, prowess into perfection. In games, children learn that success is possible and that failure can be overcome. Championships may be won; when lost, wait until next year. In practicing such skills as … hitting a tennis ball, young athletes develop work patterns and attitudes that carry over into college, the marketplace and all of life.”

Eitzen says that parents however often ignore the negative side of sports participation, a position that is summarized by Charles Banham: “…the conventional argument that sports builds character is not sound because it assumes everyone will benefit from sports in the complacently prescribed manner. A minority do so benefit. A few have the temperament that responds healthily to all the demands. These are the only ones able to develop an attractively active character. Sport can put fresh air in the mind, if it’s the right mind; it can give muscle to the personality, if it’s the right personality. But for the rest, it encourages selfishness, envy, conceit, hostility, and bad temper (Reminds us of the convicted Floyd Mayweather Jr, but he is for next week’s column). Far from ventilating the mind, it stifles it. Good sportsmanship may be a product of sport, but so is bad sportsmanship.”

Terry Orlick says that sports produce positive and negative outcomes. This duality of sport is summarized as follows: “……sports can offer a child group membership or group exclusion, acceptance or rejection, positive feedback or negative feedback, a sense of accomplishment or a sense of failure, evidence of self-worth or a lack of evidence of self-worth. Likewise, sports can develop cooperation and concern for others but they can also develop intense rivalry and a complete lack of concern for others.”

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I had a brief Christmas Day chat with US-based sports columnist and former boxing manager Hermie Rivera who’s in Manila for a brief visit to pursue a number of initiatives including, among others, helping out on proposed legislation on the use of performance enhancing drugs or PED’s and the continuation of his book on boxing icon Manny Pacquiao. Rivera says the book is “60 percent done and will be different from other books on Pacquiao because it’s being written by someone who has seen Pacquiao fight”. Rivera adds that these other books were “not marketed properly”. A number of typically astounding Rivera revelations should be found in the still-untitled book.