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Yeah!

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Sports play a large role in nearly all societies across the globe and can be found throughout all forms of media. They are a way of life in America especially. There are so many different sports played across the world and they all hold a special place with the people who play them and even watch them. Every sport is just as unique as the last and are all just as important.

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Although sports are often just seen as entertainment, youth sports play a vital role in the lives of kids who play them. Youth sports are where kids have a chance to participate in all different types of sports and learn which they enjoy the most or the ones they will stay away from.

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Youth sports are a great environment for children to improve their physical health while learning about social dynamics that will be incredibly important in their future lives. For this to occur, strong coaching needs to be a priority as they can establish strong learning of these important skills that can be learned through sport.

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First and foremost, youth sports are incredibly important for kids to learn about good health.

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First and foremost, youth sports are incredibly important for kids to learn about good health.

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Kids are able to learn about physical health and the importance of it in daily life. Vern Seefeldt and Martha Ewing illustrate this point in their article with the President’s Council of Physical Fitness and Sports Research, “Because sports is a major type of activity in which youth are involved, it can be considered a viable method of promoting good health and are especially important in meeting national health objectives” (Seefeldt).

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How to find sports equipment on a budget

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Sports are able to help kids meet national health goals as said by a department in the US government. Sports provide an outlet for kids to stay active. They will have to practice and do physical activity to play the sport and that will keep the children healthy. They can learn to hone and release their energy towards the sport they are playing.

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While being healthy and active by playing sports, kids will also learn about how to take care of their bodies. Physical health is so important for kids to learn about while also gaining experience on how to take care of their body down the road.

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Working with Queen’s University Kingston, Jessica Fraser-Thomas and Jean Cote agree with this point: “given that physical activity habits developed during childhood and adolescence are associated with physical activity habits in adulthood”(Fraser-Thomas).

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Physical fitness is very important and building habits to maintain activity is a great skill to have. Learning healthy and active habits at a young age will push kids to maintain these habits as they get older. Healthy habits are always good to learn and sports provide a way to learn by doing. Sports develop and instill these habits and goals in kids' minds and as they get older they will want to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

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I’ve played sports for my entire life leading up to now and can say that they kept me healthy throughout my childhood. I learned how to workout and push myself to be healthy through my time in sports. And I did learn good habits to maintain in my life now that I do not play youth sports anymore.

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It is extremely important to learn these skills through youth sports all while keeping kids active throughout their childhood.

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It is extremely important to learn these skills through youth sports all while keeping kids active throughout their childhood.

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Three Ways to Objectively Assess Talent and Player Performance in Canadian Youth Soccer

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Youth sports also can help the social development of the kids who participate in them.

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Youth sports also can help the social development of the kids who participate in them.

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Kids are able to learn all sorts of social skills that will be beneficial for them in the future. They learn teamwork, responsibility, leadership and many more skills that will be needed in their future jobs and work.

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Jay Coakley from the Journal of Sport and Social Issues had this to say about social development stemming from sports: “the socializing experiences that come with sport participation will produce the attributes needed to increase life chances for program participants”(Coakley).

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The life chances he is referencing are about their future endeavors. Kids will be able to learn about how to work in a team which is vital for developing into adulthood. Learning some if not all of these skills are extremely important for the rest of their lives as they can be applied anywhere.

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They also help teach kids how to interact with other people and learn how to work towards the same goal. Teamwork is a great skill to learn and is needed for the rest of their lives.

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Ryan Hedstrom and Daniel Gould, who do research on youth sports through Michigan State, found that “these young people viewed extracurricular activities as an important growth experience in which psychological skills such as goal setting, time management, and emotional control were learned”(Hedstrom).

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Their research found that kids learned psychological skills through playing sports. Goal setting and emotional control being the big ones. Kids are able to learn emotional control through play and learning how to control their emotions and not letting anger get to them. It is important to not let emotions get the best of you and sports are a great place to learn that skill at a young age.

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I learned many of these skills as well through sports. I learned how to work in a team better than in any group project throughout school. I learned how to control myself when a call did not go my way and that has persisted in my life as I am able to control my emotions pretty well. Of course youth sports do not teach these skills to everybody but from my experience I was able to learn important lessons from them.

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Social development and lessons are learned through sports at a young age.

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Social development and lessons are learned through sports at a young age.

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For all of these benefits to occur, it is necessary to have strong coaches and adults who push the kids participating in the right direction.

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For all of these benefits to occur, it is necessary to have strong coaches and adults who push the kids participating in the right direction.

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Without strong coaching players will not be able to learn the skills acquired from sports. Peggy McCann and Martha Ewing from the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, Michigan State University illustrate this point. Bad coaching causes a lack in development for the kids playing. The need for strong coaches is necessary to develop positive outcomes from sports(McCann).

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Coaches are able to create an environment that is suitable for learning life skills. They can teach responsibility and accountability for these young kids who are playing sports if they know how to.

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When Should Kids Start Playing Competitive Sports?

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Hedstrom and Gould emphasize this point: “finding that quality coaching is critical for ensuring the beneficial effects of youth sports participation there is a great need for better understanding youth coaches”(Hedstrom).

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It is essential to have strong coaches at a young age because they can help establish a love for the game as well as teach lessons to the kids. Bad coaching can lead to teaching kids poor skills.

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A lot of coaches teach winning at all costs and certain ideas that are: one, not good for the sport and two, bad for the kids who are getting bad ideas from the adults around them. Bad coaches will cause kids to develop bad habits and will kill the love for the sport.

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I was lucky to benefit from strong coaches early in my life. They taught me a lot of great skills and ideas that I use in my life today. But I did have a few bad coaches and it made me hate the game and it pushed me away from my favorite sports. I was older when I had these bad experiences and did not learn much from that experience.

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The most important part of youth sports is the coaching. They can establish good habits and teach strong lessons for the kids who play.

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The most important part of youth sports is the coaching. They can establish good habits and teach strong lessons for the kids who play.

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There have been a few who disagree that youth sports have such a positive impact on the players.

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There have been a few who disagree that youth sports have such a positive impact on the players.

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A main argument is that there is a lack of research around the topic due to review boards being skeptical of doing research on children. Jay Coakley is one of those people as he states “ the claims of sport evangelists have informed and justified sport-related program and funding decisions at local and national levels, despite a general lack of research support”(Coakley).

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The idea that he supports is that the claims of sports being positive for the youth is not backed by any research. Although it is true there is little research on the subject, the few research articles show a strong relationship with youth sports and positive development. The sources cited in this essay have shown strong evidence that youth sports are able to instill positive development in kids who participate.

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He then goes on to say that: “nearly all the research on sport participation and educational achievement has been done in the United States where sport participation is institutionally linked with schools”(Coakley).The argument being made is that the sample size is small and the U.S. is biased because sports are such a large part of our society.

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Sports are loved all over the world and are played everywhere. Sport is tied directly to culture throughout Europe and South America and although there has not been much research done in these parts of the world, they love sports  just as intensely as the United States.

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He tries to make the point that there is no correlation between sport and positive development and the development is achieved throughout other forms of education. This is an invalid argument because the development is happening while the kids are playing sports. It does not make sense to say that the sports are not contributing to positive outcomes.

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Sports have been at the epicenter of youth development.

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Sports have been at the epicenter of youth development.

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Youth sports have a large impact on the youth who play them. It can be seen throughout the world and on all continents. They provide a great environment for building character and learning. They help keep children and teens active throughout their childhood.

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They are super important for social development and learning how to work with all different types of people as well as learning how to work with an authority figure. Youth sports are a great way to learn about the world and learn skills for their emerging adulthood.