Sports And Culture Do Sports Help Kids

Become Better People Essay, Research Paper

Sports and Culture: Do Sports Help Kids Become Better People.

Many parents’ major concern today is that their children “stay ahead of the pack”, and keep “an edge” over the competition. For this reason, schools are filled with children in enriched and accelerated programs. Children are being started in competitive sports like swimming, basketball, golf and tennis at a very early age. Being exposed to such competitiveness and pressure, how does this effect a child socially. Does it build character. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting children to live up to their potential. However, it is the child’s ability to find and utilize that potential and sports can play a large role in this part. This paper will explore the sociology of sports and whether or not they effect the way children communicate, socialize, learn, and in all become better adults.

First off, what is a sport. Though the answer to this question seems obvious, sociologists study sports in a more systematic way and they need a more scientific definition (Coakley 78). It is hard to come up with a concrete and precise definition of sports without making the word confusing to the non-sociologist. There are many kinds of activities that can be considered sports and at the same time not. For example would you include skiing, or biking as sports regardless of the conditions which people engage in them. What is the difference between play and sports. When a person’s only goal is for personal satisfactions are they participating in a sport or playing. To better understand what participating in “sport” means sociologists consider three major issues:

1. Do we want our definition of sports to refer to specific types of activities.

2. Do we want our definition of sports to depend on the conditions under which the activities take place.

3. Do we want our definition of sports to depend on the subjective orientations of the participants involved in the activities (Loy, and Sage 315-316).

These three issues are greatly involved when sociologists are studying the social influences of sports on children.

Only since 1970 have physical educators and sociologists given serious attention to sports as a social phenomena. This is primarily due to the recent increase in the social significance of sports (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis 108). Since the invention of television organized sports have become an extremely popular part of contemporary life. This has caused physical educators and sociologists to become more interested and pay more attention to them. The sociology of sports deserves this attention because sports affect many people’s lives. “Sports are connected with major social institutions, cultural ideology, and social relations” (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis 108). Therefore, many sociologists are studying sports and looking to determine whether human behavior, social relations, culture, and ideology influence or are being influenced by sports (Coakley 15-16). “Sociologists are concerned with how behavior, relationships, and group dynamics are related to the social meanings associated with age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and social class and with the power relations that occur in connection with these and other characteristics that people may define as socially relevant” (Coakley 20). We will focus on the aspect of high school sports influencing a teenager whether male or female, and influencing social elements such as character, education, politics and the community.

Some people you talk to will say that sport competition destroys a child’s confidence and leads to a more violent attitude. Others will say it builds character and prepares participants for life in today’s society. We hear the positive side so much it has become clich . In fact “it is so widely accepted that it has been used as a basis for encouraging children to play sports” (Armour, Jones, & Kerry 11). According to Lyle J. Micheli, M.D., author of Sportswise: An Essential Guide for Young Athletes, Parents and Coaches, one of the most important things sports can do is build self esteem. “Children have to grow physically as well as emotionally and sports can help them develop a positive self-image and become much more confident” (26), says Micheli. “Any child who feels as if she is contributing to the team effort will learn self-esteem” (28).

Within the sports arena, research has shown that the role of the coach is a critical source of information that influences a child’s self-esteem (”Athletes in America”). “High school baseball players whose coaches had been trained to use a “positive approach” to coaching (more frequent encouragement, positive reinforcement for effort and corrective, instructional feedback) had significantly higher self-esteem rating over the course of a season than children whose coaches used these techniques less frequently” (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis 36-37). In fact, Micheli believes that participation in sports stimulates a child’s desire to succeed in other areas. Micheli argues that a positive sports experience provides children with an achievement- oriented attitude that extends to academics and social situations. According to Micheli’s book, in a comparison of child athletes with non- athletes the athletes scored higher in positive personality traits and social acceptance than their non-athletic c