The positive and negative effects that sport has on our youth seem to be a catch-22. It offers discipline, work ethic, team playing, but also in some sports it teaches to do as your told with no questioning, lack of individuality and as Prof. White said, even to cheat. For many children they find a harmonic balance between the positive and negative effects of sport, and that helps well round youth, and makes them better people for it, but some are not as lucky.
One childhood experience come to thought on this subject. Growing up on Long Island New York , I was exposed to many different ethnicities, class levels, and in general a kaleidoscope of different thought processes. During high school I remember one close friend of mine was a star athlete. I wouldn t say his off court morals weren t anything to brag about, but on the field he was a true prodigy. Our coach would always let him slide on any type of infraction, and as the season went on, he pushed it to the limits. On one particular occasion we were out at night doing the normal things that high school kids do, hanging out in parking lots trying to get older kids to buy us alcohol. My friend, who was tired of waiting around for someone else to help us out, decided to make a grab and go� stop at the local gas station. I tried telling him that it was an awful idea, and that it wasn t worth it, playoffs were coming up and we could ill afford any factors that would impinge or chances of winning. My friend had an arrogant way about him, which I believed stemmed from our coach constantly pardoning him from every infraction he ever got in. He thought he was untouchable, so he ran in the gas station and stole a 12 case of beer. Surely enough, within five minutes, he was in the back of a cop car. There was no saving him now; he had to learn the hard way. We wound up loosing in the playoffs and, my friend lost potential scholarship opportunities because of his actions. Still to this day he talks about how he was the man� back in high school athletics and seems to be trapped in the past. For individuals like this sport can be seen as a detrimental factor in his life. It wasn t even so much that the sport brought him down, the way he approached sport, and how the coaches and other students treated him, I believe was the true slope of his downfall.

Interestingly enough I had a similar experience as Marc. I think through several sports, without knowing it, we are taught to "cheat" in some way. Even in lacrosse to this day I still say to my teammates, "Pull your strings after you score" meaning that in case a referee checks her stick, her pocket will be legal and the goal will still count. This was just the way that I was taught, despite the idea that her stick may have been illegal before; this is just something that nearly every girl is taught when growing up and playing more competitive lacrosse.

When I was young, the main value that I remember being taught through sport was to never give up, no matter how rough the circumstance. This I still consider this to be one of my greatest teaching since it can apply to almost any part of life. Even when my week is going is terrible and everything seems to be going wrong, I still get those instincts to push on. I would certainly attribute this to a combination of how my parents raised me and what I have learned from sports. However, sports have also brought out the worst in me from time to time. Starting with my experiences in sports all the way up to how I still view sporting events, I have developed a very strong sense of having to be the best at whatever I do. I feel that this value is one that is very much over emphasized in our culture and closely resembles our society's capitalist mentalities, as discussed in class.

i think retz23 made a good point that sometimes our youth can be pushed to be way too competitive at a very young age.

I agree with jenna0414 in that there is too much politics in youth sport especialy when the coach is someone on the teams father. The number one reason for playing youth sports is fun. I think youth sport coaches should only be worried about the participants having fun and not so much winning. If coaches cared more about youth sport being fun, then there would be less kids who stop playing sports because it stopped being fun (which is the number one reason why kids stop playing).

I agree with what T. Kuhl had to say about cheating. I have had several instances where coaches told me to do something, but "don't get caught."

retz23 I had similar experiences since I threw my shoulder out did not have the experience the other guys did since they played baseball year round while i did a different sport every season. and didn't go to the team until sophomore year. So i have had my troubles too. It sometimes seemed he had his favorites and played them and it was tough coming off the bench. On top of that I was dealing with a bad vision(great coming from an outfielder) I was pretty solid defensively but could not throw as far and still cant because of the injury. Doing something like that to players ssuch as my brother makes it not fun and people turn away from the sport sometimes. It isn't fair to have that happen to people. He would pay the starters when the score was an extreme on either direction sos its jusst not fair. Florida and late innings sometimes i had time to play but most ppl didnt get to play. You felt a bit worse for something like that when you kind of were an after thought. At least it worked out for them.

I agree with Francesca Terrano when she disagreed with the quote teens just process information differently than adults.� I feel that a teen, child, and adult would respond the same way to what was said to her teammate.

Mongo1524 had a great story. In a situation like that that shows a lot of guts and I think that many people would not be able to stand up to something like that. I think that I would do that if it was one of my good friends becasue it defenitly would be brought up and made into a big idea because it is a big idea. And it shows that players sometimes see some things coaches miss. I didn't deal with anything as strong but i did bring up some issues with the staff and the team backed each other with those kind of issues.

Jhyson has a bunch of good points regarding sport politics. there are them everywhere its just a matter of fact of how much and what way. I had a different league but i see where he comes from if the league is like that.

In one of the stories above I read about a team whose coach was very biased towards his starters. The starters practiced, watched film, played, etc. While the bench players got the "shaft", sort of say. I feel that as a coach there is a very fine line when handling your "starters" and your "bench" players. I do feel that the starters should get the most practice time, because they are the ones performing in the game, but as a coach, one still cannot alienate the bench players. When doing things such as film, team meals, etc, all players should be included and noone good or bad should be singled out.

We didn't have many fans going crazy and pressure wasn't bad from them. But the politics of playing baseball under the leadership of tough coaches just shaped not just part of my life lessons, but the whole team. We made it as fun as possible even though we had a job to do. Cheating was never realy involved in the league. I mean it did exist but slightly because people were caught and punished if it was serious. There were many no calls. But using illegal bats or doing something stupid came back to bite people.

one specific time where you learned something that was negative.
Starting from an early age I was lucky enough to play baseball starting from the first grade. Back then the teams were co-ed and had a number of teams in the league. Right off the bat you learned the rules about safety such as when someone is swinging the bat stay away from them, or if you are swinging the bat look around you. You were slightly diciplined as they know that since everyone is so young that they will not be able to take serious discipinary actions at such a young age. They tried making it fun, despite teaching you don't talk when a coach does , or where to play or how to catch the ball, but you knew no matter what was said the kids would do whatever they wanted anyway. A funny example is a team gets a base hit the other team had most of their fielders all running after the ball. Some players didnt know what to do or where to go. But as you got older the coaches knew you could understand more and that you should have more rules to follow. You learned of how to become more respectful, a better person, a better ball player from listening to the coaches and picked up on things they didnt recognize. I loved sports and still do becuase not too much pressure was put on me or other players. I learned good things and over my career i have seen crazy things.such as even an umpire get thrown out of a game for throwing players out for no reason. It just shows that no one is immune to the laws. Even as you get older the better athletes were treated the same with the rules. High school baseball my coach had us following rules on what to wear in school on certain days or where to go or what not, and if you werent there was punishment. Even though all the rules sometimes it wasn't worth it to fight it and made things easy. Even when i wasn't able to get playing time i was able to see things similar to a coach, and sometimes help the coach with tips since i was around. I didnt have the best arm from throwing my arm out in tenth grade and it hurt my playing time. But i earned the respect of the coaching staff by helping out by doing the book, rooting on the team, and giving tips if we saw something. I got playing time usually in the later innings and had fun playing even til this day. Its not everyday that a team from New york went to play against teams all around the world in a round robin tournament in Orlando, Florida which not only did we play baseball, but we bonded as a team in another place. Went out to restaraunts and the clicks dissapeared as we got closer. I have been on many of teams but thats one experience i'll never forget. I witnessed star players trying to show up the coaching staff and it came back to hurt them. So it just shows that you got to be respectful and to get it back, but make your voice is heard so you arent just a face. It was a great life despite tough times.

I think that Jhyson has a good point, and most people dont look at how political sports are at a young level. Im guessing not many people see it as a young age, but normally the parents dont always see the political side. Teams usually stay the same every year and this is just like the pros, maybe a change here and there.

T.Kuhl's point about learning to cheat it very accurate. my freshman year of soccer, my coach was telling us about things he used to do like grabbing jerseys, stepping on peoples heels and some other things that were a little surprising. It is amazing the things people would do just to win.

Negative experiences can happen at any age. For me, the first one happened when I was eight years old. I started playing soccer for a club team that was based out of my home town because I really liked playing and it was something new for me to do. Now, out of thirteen kids on the roster, he played the starters for a sound majority of the game and I was not one of them. I happened to be the backup left forward and I have had some thoughts that this is why I am so defensive minded when playing sports. This actually gave me one fear and one lesson. Now, I have trouble dealing with competition over a position in the fear of not getting playing time. The real lesson that came from this is that people will play to win. After a certain age, I can agree with that philosophy when it comes to competitive play at the club level, but at the age of eight, it seems like a bit much. I ended up playing soccer for ten years afterwards, but I avoided playing seriously until high school because I wanted to play for myself, not for a win.
One of the things sports have cultivated in me was dedication. My junior year in high school, we lost the goalie for out lacrosse team to a car accident and I ended up taking his spot despite only having played two games in goal before this. Having to transition from playing defensive midfield to goalie in the span of three months was not easy and I had the bruises to prove it. But I dedicated myself to doing that in memory of my friend and to help the team out. Things started out rocky at first and I had many doubts as time progressed, but once the season started and things started to go along, I started to get more confidence and to become a better player. The team ended up making the playoffs, winning our conference and I got a nomination for the all-conference team because of dedicating myself to doing the job. In the big scheme of things, high school lacrosse does not mean a lot in the long run and I don t even play goalie anymore, but learning how to work and dedicate myself to something has made me into a better person and helped me accomplish much in my other facets of life.

I think Mongos story is a great example of good friendship and definately a positive lesson learned from sport. It takes a lot of courage to risk your own spot on the team for someone else.

I agree with Frank Bowen on the fact that through hard work and determination one can be achieve anything that they want to. Even though i had payed baseball all through my childhood i never ended up trying out for the school team until 9th grade due to the fact my family always went on vacation during tryouts. So in 9th grade i started working on my hitting 3-4 days a week and practicing with my buddies who had been on the team in Jr. High School. I also decided to not go on the family vacation that year, and instead tryout. My hardwork payed off and i ended up making the team that year.

I agree with Mongo1524. I was in the same situation as his friend was. I wish there was someone who did that for me. Thats true sportsmanship and it takes alot to do that for a friend. To give up your spot on Varsity because you believe in someone that much, takes alot of guts.

I agree with julie andrako when she said sport taught her to be a leader. Having a leader or someone to encourage while playing sports is so important and can leave a lasting impression.

During youth sports I learned many values but one in particular would have to be the fact that I learned to be independent. Growing up with four older sisters I was always dependent on them for everything whether I wanted to be or not. Even though some of them played sports at the same time I did it I still was not in their shadow because I was always on a different team. Every time I went to practice I knew it was something I was doing on my own without the help of my sisters or anyone else for that matter. I knew once I got there it would be just the team and me playing whatever sport it was that we were playing at the time. Playing sports was something that made me feel independent and though I was part of a time I still feel like I found my individuality.

A negative experience I had was one that involved a coach to whom I was not suppose to talk back to. This coach in particular had a daughter on the team who he favored and definitely chose his other favorites as well. While on his team I was shown no respect and there for had no desire to show any back. Though I didn t want to show respect my mother of course made me. This coach ruined my season and made me miserable the whole time. This was by far one of the most negative experiences I have ever had playing sports growing up.

I agree with francesca when she said her story about basketall. Sports does teach you teamwork and it might not be all on the court. It was a good story becasue I think most atheletes have had someone on there team who is not the best in class. I think we all help that person so sport does represent family.

i agree with francesca that in the end sports are just games in our youth and shouldn't be taken as seriously as they are. People need to appreciate what they can get from sports and not bring in the negatives, the politics of it all.

Speaking also to dyee223, I know from personal experiance, that you cant get anywhere with out hardwork and determination, as well as a very strong commitment to your sport. I mean me personally went from being one of the worst kids on my JV wrestling team freshman year of high school, to starting varsity and being named senior captian, and going to states my senior year. But to get there I needed the positive motivation my coaches gave. And now as a JV coach, at a private high school I hope I can instill that same motivation in some of my kids.

I agree with dyee223. It's quite rare for someone to get whatever they want without working for it. Commiting and dedicating yourself is the only way your going to get better and improve. Like my coach says, "Nothing in life is ever free."

I agree with jenna0414 about how politics can play a major role in sports. Politics should play no role in youth sports, because everyone deserves a fair chance to play. Yes, everyone wants to win, but the ultimate goal is to have fun and to learn the game.

I agree with C Brown as they state that there are some instances that have not been positive throughout the years. There is no way that after playing sports for over 15 years that every expereince can be positive. I'm glad that people can take the best experiences and have them help the way they look at sports rather than quit because of a few negative examples.

One time when I was in elementary school we had a run in P.E class called the Monster Run. It was a little over a mile and when all around the school grounds. In the rear of the school there was a large concrete drain, which one could run across, however it was off limits for the students to run across. The teacher vehemently said not to run across the drain because they can get hurt. With that advice the class of 25 was off on the Monster Run. With a bunch of my friends we were running and came up on a drain. All of the friends in my group jumped right over the drainage ditch no problem, but when I came up to it, I stopped; my whole body wanted to jump but I knew it was wrong, whether the teacher could see us or not. I ran around it and fell back behind my friends by about 30 feet. I looked toward the back of the school and sure enough Mrs. McCoy was there, and had seen the entire event unfold. We all get back in the gym and she goes into making the right or wrong decision in life, even though she was talking to a room full of 5th graders. She said that she saw me not jump and the choice I was the right one and congratulated me in front of the whole class, not because I did the right thing, but because I didn t follow the crowd. This was a positive experience for me because I learned to not follow the crowd, and do what everyone else does. This was a valuable lesson because a lot of people just follow the crowd and don t think about the choice before them. I learned early not to do what everyone else does and to think before acting.

I agree with Jenna0414 parents who coach with there child on the team can have a negative effect. Unfortunately you are learning at an early stage. Sometimes in life "It is not what you know, but who you know". People are given certain benefits that you are not just by who they know. Children start to learn that at an early age subconsciously. If you play a sport and are not that good, you maybe treated differently than the star of the team. Parent coaches can neglect other players playing time, to have there own kids play in the game. It is unfortunate to learn that life is cruel. Even in sports when you just want to have fun and play. .

I agree with L. Palmer when she said that a neagtive aspect of sports is when a coach seperates his starters from his non-starters. This makes the ones not playing feel useless and can discourage them to continue playing. From everyones responses, it seems like coaches will always have their favorites and treat players differently. Seperating starters and non-starters can be good to gain team chemistry for the starters but to completely not care of non-starters are even coming to film is crazy. Not only does that put players down but it puts a damper on players wanting to improve to compete for that starting spot.

I agree with Julie O in the fact that I have never looked at sports as promoting conformity and obedience. Sports have always been a way for me to let loose and have fun, so to learn that this does happen is sports was a shock to me. But looking back now I can definitely see how those two aspects come into play in sports.

I can really relate to what J Foley said. This type of descrite bullying still occurs even today with many of the teams I play on. Some players will still go out of their way to make a lesser opponent look awful, even in a simple intramural game which is just for fun. I can really tell that this takes the fun out of the game not only for the player involved, but also for the people watching the game.

I understand where Drew Singer is coming from when talking the coaches saying take your anger out on the field. I was taught that as well especially in goal because like I said many of the things I did were overlooked by the referees.

Its funny the things that you were taught in youth sport that you just did and now you look back and see how truly wrong some of those things were.

For most of my young life I played youth sports and it taught me many of the values that I still possess today. They are definitely more positive than negative but unfortunately there are some instances where the values aren t ones people shouldn t be proud of.

When looking back on my childhood, an experience where I have learned a positive life value would have to be when I was playing recreational soccer in middle school. Our team was an all girls team and our coach was probably the best coach I ve had in my soccer career. He sat us down the first day of practice and gave us the whole there is no I in team� speech, which is quite normal for a coach. But instead of moving on from that he focused on that and began to explain the importance of each position on the field and each player on the team. He had developed different plans where people would play different positions but everybody would play eventually in the game. Not only that he decided to have three co-captains (me being one of them), not just one captain. That season we went undefeated and won were number one in our league. That coach truly taught me what teamwork was and how to successfully work in different kinds of groups. Teamwork is still something that is important in my everyday life.

A time when I learned something negative while being involved in youth sport was definitely when definitely during my high school years in soccer. Our high school soccer coach was a horrible coach and didn t know what he was doing; most of the time the senior captains would run practice but sometimes he decided to coach. One day he pulled me aside and tried to teach me more tactics� for being a goalie. He told me that I could do whatever I wanted in goal to get the ball or even to make it look like I was getting the ball, even if that meant intentionally hurting the opposing player because referees rarely called anything against the goalie. Many things were just overlooked and seen as an accident.� I was absolutely appalled that my coach was even suggesting that I intentionally unintentionally� hurt another player to get the ball. It was obviously illegal but a way to get around the system. Now I will admit that I did trip a girl intentionally one time and wasn t necessarily going for the ball, but nothing was called on me (actually they called a foul on her). I had always been taught that it wasn t the right thing to do to intentionally hurt other people to be successful, but here my coach was saying cheating and hurting someone was okay. That is still something that bugs me to this day because I know it s wrong because of what my mother taught me, obviously not what my coach taught me.

As a child growing up one specific sporting experience that I learned a positive life value was playing youth little league baseball. The sport of baseball has taught me many important positive values. Most importantly it has taught me about the concept of teamwork and how there was no I� in team. Without teamwork we learned it was impossible for one person to win the whole game. This value has been carried out through my life from my work experiences to high school and college.
On the other hand one specific sporting activity from my youth that has taught me some negative values was is the sport of BMX bicycle racing. When I was younger my brother, and I along with many of our friends raced BMX bicycles. We also played traditional sports such as baseball and basketball, but we had an extreme liking for bicycles. My Grandparents have owned their own family run bicycle store on Long Island for over 40 years now, so naturally we have always been into riding bicycles growing up as well as racing them. The sport of bicycle racing has taught me many positive values about hard work and striving for excellence, but it has also taught me some negative values such as cheating. The sport has taught me, as with many other children how to cheat by making it acceptable to do anything in order to come out in first place at the end of the race. An example of this would be cutting off the faster racer or pushing them to the outside of the track so that they would have to cover more ground in the race.
The sporting events that I have participated in my youth have shaped my life in both positive and negative ways. Even though I took part in both team and individual sports I feel they have both contributed equally in my values now as an adult.

In my youth years in sports I have had many positive values learned while at the same time I also learned some negative values in the sport world and in life in general. Since the age of 6 I have been a competitive swimmer. Swimming on the local teams, club teams, and state ranked teams. Swimming taught me many positive values over the years such as how to have good sportsmanship, teamwork, and putting the good of the team in front of my own personal needs. My parents were very involved in my life and in sports. My mom was one of my swim team coaches growing up. Not to sound selfish but I was one of the best swimmers on the team growing up. I was always ranked first and was always placed in the top relay race teams. When I was about thirteen, however, I learned that this Championship meet I would be swimming with the B team. This made me very upset and I immediately went to my mom and complained and said I am the best and a line I did not use a lot, I am the coach s daughter!� My mom then brought me to the side and explained to me that by me swimming on the other team relay I would be giving three other girls the opportunity of winning a medal. At first I was still upset but I soon realized that my mom was right. This is when I learned the true meaning of teamwork.

Youth are effected by sports in so many aspects both positive and negative. In high school the stereo type is that the athletes are popular and those who aren't athletes are not held in the same esteem as those that are.
In high school I was one of those stereotypes as a soccer player. I experienced the respected looks on game days when we wore our jerseys during classes from both peers and teachers and the well wishes on our matches. The greatest positive I was taught from sports at this time was stepping up and taking responsibility and teamwork. In high school our goalie on the team, who was an all-county athlete, wasn t allowed to start the first halves of our games because of poor grades. Thus with no replacement someone had to step up and fill the position. I offered because I had some goalie experience when I was younger but I had not practiced in years. I did an alright job considering but let s just say I didn t improve our record. Luckily however, with team support our goalie improved her grades and was finally to play whole games. These however are the positives from sports of my youth.
In a more negative light of youth sport, I was moved up to Varsity my sophomore year of high school but was benched most of the season. When I asked my coach if I could moved down to JV just to get more playing time, she told me, You re too good for that and we need you as a substitute for when our veteran players get tired or hurt.� They say teens just process information differently than adults� (Kids, the Enemy Within). I understood then as I do now the politics of sport. The veterans and coach s favorites have priority over those who are just as good if not better players. You have to do a little brownnosing to get ahead which is a sad truth in both sports and life. All I wanted to do was play and I was being held back because I was too good a player but not enough of a suck up. It just goes to show in life that talent isn t enough to get ahead, you have know the right people and get them to like you too.

Playing sports throughout my youth has taught me many lessons. Some of these lessons being positive and some negative. For me Junior High Basketball was a sport that taught me both of these aspects of youth sports. It was my seventh grade year and there were eight of us girls who joined the basketball team. With only eight girls on the team we all assumed we would get plenty of playing time. Well we thought wrong. The five starters were like basketball goddesses in our coaches eyes. We knew he loved to win, and needless to say, he would do anything to do so. The three of us would sit on the bench until we were up by at least twenty points, or until the last two to three minutes of the game, then we would get to play. After the first few games our confidence levels started to drop. We knew we only got to play for a few minutes, so if we got in early we played reserved and took fewer risks, in fear that we would mess up once and be taken out immediately. After the season was over we were the first seventh grade team at our school to go undefeated. Sure I was proud that we went undefeated, but I felt like I had no part in it except that I wore the same jersey as the starting five. From then on, I knew that you played to win, and that was it. Next season rolled around and it was the same eight girls who played. It just so happened that our coach decided to move up to eighth grade coach just to stay with us. This year I decided that no matter how little I played I would play my heart out. It turned out to be the same situation, only playing for a few minutes per game. My parents had always said to me, you ll get your time and when you do show them what you have got.� When it was my time to go in I was the most aggressive girl on the court. Knowing that I could do nothing to change it, it still taught me to play my hardest and leaving the court at the end of the game with no regrets. Never the less, the season ended and we were undefeated for the second year in a row. I feel that only playing the starting five in junior high basketball was a very risky and non successful move for the future of the team. It came to be freshmen year and one of the starters decided not play, which left a spot open for one of us. Three games into the season another starter tore her ACL and was out for the rest of the season. Although we all still played our hardest, we did not have the experience as a team anymore.
Taken as a whole, junior high basketball was a success in the books. Except the lessons that we had learned from playing, or not playing, affected us greatly. For me it taught me to overcome the hardships and do your best no matter what situation you are given. But for some of the other girls it taught them to be less confident in themselves and to be afraid to step up to a challenge. Like the article stated, sports were used by physical education and recreational professionals to build character, create model citizens, and deter people from using their free time to engage in destructive pursuits� (Serving America s Underserved Youth). I feel that our junior high basketball team did not serve any of these purposes, but that we were only there to win.

Jenna,

I agree that politics are a big part of sport. I am glad that you don't really relize it as a kid, who's just out there playing the game. I wish it was like that for everyone's entire career.

Verina

Playing youths sports as a kid had many positive experiences as well as a few negatives. Through three years of varsity football and two years of lacrosse, I learned that hard work is the only thing that will get you far in life. If you don't work for something, you'll never get it, and the only person that can get you where you want to be is yourself. In all honesty, I started off not knowing anything at all about football my first year playing. I was the kid that would make the team run for screwing up in practice. But after the first week of two-a-days, I got serious and began studying plays and hand signals. I did extra workouts on my own time and ended up making varsity my sophmore year and started defense in every game on JV.
The most negative was my freshman year of highschool trying out for JV football. I did not play that year. Horrible coaching drove me away from enjoying the sport. We would be forced to be at practice by 5:30 am and drilled as if we were Navy seals. What I learned that was negative about all of this was that there are better ways to approach people other than yelling and screaming. Yes, we all want to win and athletes are supposed to be mentally tough, but getting in their faces, telling them they are worthless, and punishments through exercise is something children should have to face, especially if we are trying to get kids to find a physical activity that they can enjoy.
Overall, I believe that youth sports are made to positively encourage children to be active, there are just a few coaches that are just too selfish to let the kids learn how to love a sport.

My overall experience in youth sports has been a phenomenal one. I look back and can say that I have had many more positive experiences than bad ones. I think a positive and maybe negative experience for me was being the only black cheerleader on my jr high school cheerleading team. When I look back on the experience now, I see a lot different picture than I did while I was a 14 year old jr high kid. It was inspiring for me to try out for the team and make it. However, I was the only black person that year to try out. I sometimes wonder if I was selected for that reason. Even though the student body had a vote in selecting the team, I know that the cheerleading coach wouldn't allow just anyone on the team, no matter how many votes they received. Looking at the situation now, it was probable one of my most courageous endeavors. Throughout the season and competitions, I was always the only black face. At the time, it meant nothing to me. I was just doing something I was interested in. It didn't occur to me, at that age, the social implications that were going on. I was literally making strides in our social environment of Gunn Junior High. Pitter and Andrews state, "...in both suburban and innercity context, the construction of racical and class identitiy intersect with sporting practice and spatial location.

With there being so many positive youth sporting experiences, it is hard to narrow it down. I think the the most positive experience I had would be participating on the junior olympics in elementary school. This was alway a positive event and my coach always made the best experience possible for all of the individual involved. I don't think she ever turned anyone down who wanted to participate. I even remember her allowing my cousin, who was athletically challenged, to say the least, participate. All she requiered was hard work and a good attitude. It was an honor to participate in the junior olympics. We learned a lot about teamwork, hard work, healthy competition, sportmanship and positive attitude. These are the lessons I carried throught the rest of my youth sporting career.

There are many encounters in life that leave lasting impressions whether they are negative or positive. Since I have been involved in sports my whole life, I'd say most of mine came through sports. Politics is definately an issue in sports; and is very unfair to some athletes. I remember playing college soccer two years ago, and just because someone knew the coach better, or their relative was a captain five years ago gave them a great advantage to simply getting more playing time on the field. The athletes who actually gave their heart at practices, and the small amount of minutes on the field never got the chance to excel. Also, I remember senior year of high school there were three captains me and two other girls. However, the two other ones only showed their faces at game day, and a few light practices. Well, they started each game no matter what, while the underclassmen were at every practice. That to me isn't fair at all, and that just goes to show how much politics are involved in sports these days. It truly doesn't matter how much you love a sport because somehow winning and loosing overrides that dramatically.
Trying to think back to a negative effect sports had on me was my freshman year of high school I made varsity soccer along with another girl that was on my club team as well. There was also another girl that played club with us, but she only made JV as a freshman. This was a huge dispute among her parents, and the coach. Coincidentally, the girl who didn't make it, her dad was the coach of our club team, so in those games he played his daughter much more than he played us. It was frustrating, and dissapointing at the same time. We were young though, fifteen, so we really didn't take it that serious. But, looking back now I realized more of why he did that. It also hindered our friendship for awhile, and just made things awkward in conversing about soccer.
A positive effect sports has had on me is the ability to work with other people, and incorporate teamwork as well. It really helped me learn from others, and communicate to reach a specific goal. It taught me that you couldn't be the whole team, you relied on other people to help you.

Having played in youth sports from the age of four to thirteen, I learned many life values, but more positive than negative. The most positive lesson I learned from sports was discipline, and how through hard work and determination you can achieve whatever you wish to. In eighth grade I was past of baseball team that had been together for a couple of years, but we had never had a real winning season. As we entered the fall season and began practice, our coach, who had been with our team the entire time, decided to start running practices differently. He made a routine schedule for every practice, and started to incorporate more cardiovascular exercises in practice. We would run a mile at the beginning of practice, do base running in the middle, and then finish of practice with wind sprints. And if you were out of line in practice, you ran laps, no questions asked. After running a few laps from time to time, everyone got the picture that our coach was serious, and we all began to give him 100% during practice. This of course showed during our games, becuause we ended up only losing four out of fifteen games during the season, and went to the finals of the playoffs.
One negative experience from sports was when I wrestled in high school. During my sophmore year, I was asked to move down a weight class for a match in mid-season. I was told on short notice, and had to lose the weight in a short amount of time. I didn t eat at all for about a week and exercised until I was told to stop by my coaches. After the weigh in, I indulged myself with whatever food I could get a hold of right before the watch. Still letharged from over-exercising and not eating, I ended up losing the match and throwing up everything I had eaten before five minutes later. After that I promised myself I would never do it again. But I was never asked again to do so, probably because I lost. In any case, causing my body to change its dieting habits in such a short amount of time was not something I was supposed to learn through sports.
In the paper written by Pitter and Andrews, it goes to say that, Although sport may provide a means of motivating youth and providing them with a more positive outlook on life, it cannot by itself reverse the chronic unemployment, poverty, violent crime, and housing decay impacting their life chances.� This, while true, does not mean underprivileged youth cannot take what they learn from sports and use it as a driving force to better lives and become successful with what they learned from sports. As I mentioned earlier when talking about what my eighth grade baseball coach taught me, I have still used those lessons throughout my life to make me who I am today.

Since I was young I was always active in sports. There are many life lessons you learn from being on a team, but the one that I ve carried with me throughout the years is promoting a healthy lifestyle. I ll admit I really started understanding the benefits when I was a freshman in college but eating and following the right diet is now part of my daily routine. One of my club coaches would stress how eating the right foods would help your athletic performance but I kind of brushed it off and didn t give it too much thought. He would make us have meetings with him to plan out our food intake for the week, and to make sure we understood the basic concepts of nutrition. I think his approach was for the right reasons but around the age of 15, the last thing you want to do is pick up any kind of fruit or vegetable when you could be at $5 dollar pizza night with your friends. Now that I ve matured I give my club coach credit for helping me lead the healthy lifestyle that I do today. It s benefited me so much soccer wise. I even helped my mom and sisters lose weight and made them basic exercise routines for them to do 3 times a week. I became the boot camp instructor at home because I would monitor everything that they ate. Now carried into college I get made fun of by my teammates for having a protein shake instead of a milkshake but it s something that makes me feel better about myself. My nickname on the team is now Tofu�. However when I m older and stop playing soccer 6 days knowing the basics of eating right is going to be a big payoff.

As many positives I have encountered over the years there is a huge negative that came to my mind immediately. One of my coaches was huge on separating his starters and non-starters. Even in practice he would separate the drills to where it was blatant to see the difference in lineup. If we had a game on Friday he would have the starters come in at some point during the week to watch film and didn t care if the other girls watched it or not. If you didn t play in the game on Friday, instead of a jog stretch practice on Saturday you would find yourself on the end line doing sprints the whole practice while your teammates were jogging around. Not to mention if you didn t play again on Sunday you would be at practice on Monday doing sprints as well. It became so bad that we had girls quit and never wanted to play again. Our team was so separated that it was basically impossible to have good team chemistry. That was a huge instance that was so unfortunate for girls that went through that. Needless to say other assistant coaches were brought in and everything changed but the years that we went through that were dreadful.

Well in sport there are many negative and postive things that you learn while competing. The one negative time came in middle school when I was playing lacrosse. I was new to the sport and could not really catch or throw the ball that well. I was struggling one day and I just could not keep the ball in my stick. It was very frustrating to me being the one kid that had trouble holding onto the ball. After practice that day my coach pulled me aside and said hey can I look at your stick. He explained how I was a talented player and with a good pocket in my stick I could be an even better player. He took the stick and after and couple minutes of pounding and loosening some strings. He said try this out. I tried it for a week and came back to practice and told my coach thanks alot. I proceeded to do better and better each week from then on. I went back to my coach and said so what did you do to my stick. He said in a soft soft voice he son if your not cheating your not trying. I thought nothing of it at the time but now when I think back on it my coach made my stick illegal and was bending the rules for me. The one thing I learned about sports was that cheating is a hige issue and a sad part to sport. I also have learned that in college and the next level the cheating only gets bigger and bigger.
The one postive that sticks out in my mind comes from Freshmen football in high school. We had tough summer lifting and running all summer long. My coach once preached to us that your only as strong as your weakest link. At that very moment I didnt care much and was just like man I want the summer to be over so we can play in games. I since have looked back upon this saying that your only as strong as your weakest link and it makes sense in just about every aspect in life. If you make the weakest guy or girl better at what you do it will benefit you and your team. Whether it is in sport or in a job or a project this statement is prevelant everywhere and at anytime.

In everyday life we are always learning from experiences for the good and for the bad. None more experiences come from within sports. Especially in youth sports is where i have learned the most.
One experience that was in the end extremely positive for my growth, happened when i was in 10th grade. I was cut from the prep school hockey team which is the best team at the school and gets the most recruiting looks. I was extremely disapointed and felt that quitting was the best choice and to concentrate on baseball. After talking with the coaches, parents and friends I eventually decided to play on the Varsity 2 team and got a lot of ice time and experience. Later that year due to injury on the prep team i was called up and played the rest of the season on the better team. This eventually led to me becoming a better hockey player and eventually playing in college. In this lesson I learned to not give up and what hurts the most can sometimes make you stronger.
One lesson that i learned that was a negative experience was when i was about 13. Playing in a spring league against a team that included two of my family friends and their father as a coach. All game one of my freinds was being dirty and cheap and the ref's were not calling any penalties on him. I eventually lost my temper and after the whitsle when play was dead went up behind him and cheap shotted him in the back of the head. He was hurt and it started a huge fight with the players, coaches and even the referees. It didnt stop there though, i was eventually kicked out of the rest of the league and the action put extreme distance and harsh feelings between my family and thiers. Things are gradually better but still not great.This was horrible for me and i did learn a lesson, but it was at the expence of friendship and my reputation.

I ve played sports for a long time and I believe that softball and lacrosse have taught me the most. When I played softball, I was my team s pitcher and short stop. I was playing for a Christian Athletic Association and at the time was a very good pitcher, for my age. Playing softball with this league taught me a lot of wonderful lessons, but the one I remember most and took with me was confidence in my abilities. My league had an all-star series every year. These all-star teams were co-ed for our age group and I was one of four chosen to play with the boys. Now, that added to my confidence but when I was only one of two girls to show up for this tournament and the only pitcher, I knew I had to believe in myself and step up for my team despite my nerves about playing against the boys. I did well and we won and after this experience I was able to look back on it and remember that time to help me get over some nervousness for my other sports. I believe these good lessons and experiences embody what the reading by Pitter and Andrews, mentions when they describe sport as building character, create model citizens and deter people from using their free time to engage in destructive pursuits.� However in lacrosse, I did learn some discouraging lessons. My particular team, showed me that coaches can play favorites and those favorites can do WHATEVER they want and for you to get treated the same way, one should either suck up or get better. My high school league also showed me that, if you were good enough to get away with cheating, it was ok. For example, if you could get away with pushing or tripping, that was fine and unfourtantely I did learn how to get away with it sometimes. The way my coach saw it was that since we weren t very good, it leveled the playing field a little. This is not a good lesson to have learned but in all honesty, in some cases it works.

Through my participation in sports I have learned both positive and negative life values. Although, I do believe most have the values have been positive, there have been a few negatives. The negative aspects I wasn t aware of until I looked deeper into what I was taught.

Initially, I believed that sports have nothing but a positive influence on my life. For instance, sports were the first place that I learned how to work with other people, my teammates. Without that initial build block, I may not be as successful working in groups, which has been big part of my college experience. I believe another important thing that sports taught me was the idea of loyalty. I remember my hockey coach telling me to never allow anyone to touch my goalie and that it is important to look out for your teammates out on the rink. I think these two principles have been nothing but positive on my life.

When I looked back on the things that my coaches taught me during my sporting career, I realized it wasn t all beneficial. Something that struck me as negative was the idea of taking my anger out on the rink (court, field, etc.). I remember coming back to the bench angry after making a poor play or losing and coaches would tell me to save that anger and use it on the field. Now looking back on that, it probably was not the best advice. Was he telling me to use my anger to go out there and explode against my opponent? To go out there and hurt my opponent? I understand he could have told me that because he wanted me to use the anger to try and push myself harder to make a good play. On the contrary though, people usually do dumb things when they are angry, so why would he want me to use my anger out on the field?

Being involved in a great deal of youth sports in my life, I have had my share of positive and negative life teachings through team sports as a disiplinary institution, both physical and ideological. I will start with the positive. When I played high school baseball we had a medeocer team. We were not the worst team but we certainly wern't the best. I perticularly remember one game that I will most likely remember for the rest of my life. We were playing a team that had a way better record than us and it was easy to see how much better they were than us. Some of the team I think expected to lose. As anticipated, my team got down by alot of runs early. In the third inning it was 8-0. The team was really getting down on themselves and were starting to make comments like "I knew this was going to happen", and "They're way better than us anyway". We were playing as if we did not stand a chance. The coach of the team after the third inning ended gave us an ear full of things that I will never forget. He asked us "why have we let them beat us already" . He said we were playing like like we didn't want to win and if you think they're better than you then you have already lost. From the forth inning on, we played like a totally different team. We were getting each others backs. We were hussling on every play no matter what happened. We won the game 11-9 on a home run in the 8th (only 8 innings). This game tought me to never give up and keep a positive attitude no matter how many adversities. It tought me to alway think that you will succeed or else you have already failed. These are things to live by forever.

I also have experienced a negative memory during my youth sporting career. A couple years earlier to the previous mentioned moment, but the same high school team. After a player was called out on the opposing team was called out on a close play at home, he yelled something in appropriate to my coach(different coach). The coach informed our pitcher to hit the opposing player with the pitch the next time he came up. Since you are tought all through youth sports to never disobay the coach, he did it. It was the second time the same pitcher had hit someone in that game, so the pitcher was thrown out. I, like many others, did not like the coaches decision but would never say anything. I will never forget these two occations because I see instances of these same things happening all the time in professional sports that makes me remember.

Playing sports has been a huge part of my life since I was a little girl. It was evident from the moment I started playing soccer that cheating was a huge part of the game. In fact before I even stepped on the field I was instructed to cheat. When I was young my friends and I were ball girls at my high schools home soccer games. It was made very clear at the start of the season from the head soccer coach that if the home team was winning you would take an extra long time giving the visiting team the ball and if the home team was losing you better be sprinting after that ball to get it back in play as quickly as possible. It starts with this minor example of cheating but later moves into coaches telling you to go for girls that have knee braces on. You are an immediate target when you are wearing a knee brace and as sick as it sounds people will try to re-injure your knee at the expanse of winning a game. However, for the most part I have been provided with great coaches that want the team to win through hard work and sacrifice. The only real negative experience I have had when playing sports is being yelled at and put down by a coach. Being a female athlete and having a male coach is sometimes a difficult thing. Girls respond differently at times than guys do when being screamed at. I am the type of player that just plays worse if I am getting yelled at and my high school soccer coach was a yeller. Some of my teammates and I felt like we were never good enough and that we were being belittled. I think as a coach it is their responsibility to find out how their players respond to being yelled at and adjust their coaching strategies to fit each player.
Playing sports throughout my entire life has given me so many positive experiences and life lessons weather I was winning or losing games. Sports have given me so much character and built me into the person I am today. One positive experience that sticks out in my mine other than things such as discipline and hard work is the social aspect. Every team I have been on, I have been best friends with the same girls I was running up and down the field with. Sports have provided me so many great friendships along with making me realize what it takes to win. My high school lacrosse team was very successful and no one minded putting in the extra effort because of the success we had. I guess I am considered lucky that all the hard work paid off with numerous state championships but I can see how if you were to work so hard and fell short, how this could deter one from sports. This is similar to the idea that if you are winning games, everything is great, which I believe to be true. If you are winning games no one has the finger being pointed at them and everything seems to be great.
When playing sports one will always have both positive and negative experiences. There will always be a winner and their will always be a loser and in most cases if you were the winner, you probably had a positive experience because the feeling of winning overpowers any morally wrong behavior.

The positive life value that I took in from sports happened when I played football. It was my first year playing organized football. I learned a lot about playing football that year. I learned that if I worked hard I can accomplish my goals. At first I didn t start, I didn t even play. The coach knew I was a first year player and had no experience I didn t get a chance to play much. Most of the time during practice I played on the practice squad. I was happy to do that, in the early part of the season. I eventually wanted to play in games and not sit on the bench. I was a little undersized and inexperienced. I worked hard learning plays and the coach eventually gave me a chance. I was able to make some tackles during a scrimmage, that made me standout. I eventually was able to play in the middle of the season, on starting defense. It felt so great from sitting on the pine to now a starting position. I learned right then, if work hard I can do it.

There are also some negative points I have learned from sports. I had to help my boss coach his son s little league football team. The head coach was my boss and his son was the starting quarterback. The coach made his son the starting quarterback and this was his first year playing. The poor kid was terrible. I had to teach him how to take a snap. Playing organized football your first year is difficult. Quarterback is a very hard position to learn. I learned that coaches have their favorites and it is unfair to the other children. The coach would spend extra time on his son and neglect other players. The other kids didn t say anything because they are programmed not to question your coach. I see that coaches treat their favorites a little different. I learned that sports can be political and take the fun out of it.

I agree with Aaron C when he mentions that sports itself does promote a healthier lifestyle, teamwork, and friendship. I really feel it did that for me

I find it very difficult to pick out a specific incident where i learned a positive or negative life value. I've been playin sports for so long its all a blur to me. However I could talk about a specific aspect of the sport i play (soccer) that can be considered both a positive and a negative life value. In practice it very common for the coach to only allow players to use 2 touches on the ball during some sort of possession drill/game.

There are definitely positives to this kind of limitation. One being that having only two touches forces you to share. You and your team will not be successful if you do not share the ball because you cannot try to dribble your way around everyone by yourself. As soon as you take the third touch you must give the ball to the other team. Another positive value is that the touch restriction helps you to think quicker. With only two touches you need to learn to think about what you want to do with the ball even before it comes to you. You do not have the luxury of playing around with the ball so you have to become alert of your options more quickly.

As with anything in life too much can be detrimental. The negative side to this sort of restriction is that it can heavily stifle creativity. This is one of the main problems with soccer players in the U.S. Our creativity is not fostered because many coaches here do too many 2 touch drills. With only 2 touches your options are very limited; control and pass, or control and shoot. There is little opportunity for individuals with exceptional skill to show what they are capable of under such rules. Too much 2 touch can create robotic players.

Having had first hand experience with youth sports growing up, I realized that youth sports have both positive and negative life values to it. As with most experiences, throughout my time playing these youth sports I have learned some positive and negative life values. Growing up I played all team youth sports. Over the years this has helped me develop a positive life value which is to be able to work as a team and communicate with others. Communication is an important part of playing sports silent signals can count as much as verbal communication. This can be translated to other areas as well. I feel this is a critical value to have because it extends past sports itself. It helps with school when I have to work with people in a group, and even when I pursue a job after school it will be a big help to me. While one s physical prowess is more apparent on the sports field, using one s mind is a key factor in applying the right strategy for each play. Thinking fast is the key. Willingness to listen to opposing opinions or alternative suggestions is also a fundamental factor in succeeding as a team. On the other hand, I have also learned some negative values from youth sports. While playing youth sports, one of the negative life values I learned was aggression was good. For example, in baseball where I was a pitcher, I would sometimes intentionally throw at someone just to retaliate at something that occurred earlier in the game. The consequences could get me thrown out of the game after likely hurting the player. Looking back, I am glad now I am able to suppress my aggression and not over-react at someone for a petty reason. Surprisingly, after reading the article Kids, the Enemy Within, I learned that kids are becoming readily worse with their behavior. As the article says, the belief that kids today are a problem because they are badly behaved, even to the point of violence� (15). I agree with this statement. It seems very apparent to me because of all the stories I hear on the news of juveniles getting into trouble. The crimes they are starting to commit are getting progressively worse and the age of the kids is getting younger. Fifteen-to-seventeen-year-olds are three times more likely to be arrested today than the population at large� (30). Even with the law becoming stricter with the younger kids it still seems nothing is helping. Is this simple ego gratification? On a team, accountability underlies teamwork. It seems accountability is lacking. Something really has to be done to help stop younger kids from committing such egregious acts. Truancy has been on the rise in school, yet the local school budgets are constrained from hiring truant officers. There is no reinforcement for this lack of accountability. Aggressiveness has free rein over positive assertiveness. One deleterious incident seems to feed off another. Maybe things will be different in the future when kids just learn to say NO�.

Thinking back to my youth sporting experiences, its hard to pick out just one positive experience, but as for the negative I can clearly remember one instance where I had almost wanted to quit because of what I heard. When i was playing football for the Severn Athletic Club, we had made it to the county championship game that was played at Anne Arundel Community College. My head coach who I'll leave nameless, told us we were to take a few key players out of the game at any cost, whether it would draw a penalty or not. Being in the 7th grade at the time I knew the difference between right and wrong, good sportsmanship vs. bad. So I knew not to follow this "Order." However, there was a player on my team who acted on this, and put a kid from the opposing team on a strecher, it was a blatent late hit after the whistle. Youth athletics are important to our society but coaching kids to cheat or to injur other players is compleltly uncalled for and an extreamly negative approach.

To hit more of the positive note, advancing a few years into high school, and the wrestling program at Old Mill High. The coaching staff, was all about sportsmanship, heart, and pure determination. Get the kids motivated, get results, that was the goal. One thing that truly was a positive expericence for me, was my 10th grade year, the varsity head coaches brought the top 3 JV wrestlers to the varsity state tournament, not ensuring they would be on varsity the next year but to show us the level of competition that we would face if we made varsity. Being one of the select 3 this experiance gave me the utmost motivation, to do my best to get a varsity spot and to make myself the best I could be for the following season.

Show kids, what to aspire to and they'll work for it. Teach them to do wrong they will. Youth sport is a great tool in building youths into good adults as long as the coaching techniques are directed to good sportsmanship and are designed to motivate.

I liked what TKuhl had to say. It really is so important to have faith and trust your other teammates. Without having confidence in the other guys on your team, it sure would be hard to want to put the ball in their hands. The types of guys who dont trust others, do everything themselves and that is the guy on the team you would call a "ball hog". Those guys do not usually get far and instead get criticized for trying to do everything themselves.

One specific positive experience of mine during youth sports had to be during summer camp. I was around the age of 12 years old and our camp had competitive sport teams that played other camps in the area. We had a great team and we played really well during the season. Our last game though was against our biggest rival. We were determined to win and we drew a big crowd because of how meaningful this game was to us. I wasn't a very outspoken person but rather on the shyer side. On this particular day though something came over me. During halftime, we were losing by 20 points and our team was more frustrated than ever before. Nobody had anything to say, not even the coach. I stepped forward and without thinking just started to speak my mind in front of everybody. I told everyone to pick their heads up and not to give up. I said that we have worked so hard to get to where we are, why would we give up now. I wanted to win that game so badly. My team listened to me, and realize that I was right. We got pumped and we came back and won the game. I never felt so good. I will never forget that day. On the other side of the spectrum, a negative experience I could think of occurred during little league baseball. My coach completely favored his son on the team more than the rest of the players. His son played every game as well as the entire game. We were in a playoff game and the coach s son moved from outfield to pitcher halfway through the game. The other team began hitting the ball left and right, and soon the other team was winning by a lot. We had another great pitcher on the team, but instead of taking out his son, he kept him in. The other team didn't stop hitting and before we knew it the game was over and we got destroyed. It was really frustrating for me and the other teammates because we worked so hard to get into the playoffs and we had a great run. It was hard to think we lost this game because our coach was selfish and only wanted to play his son. It was a rough loss and one that for some reason stayed with me.

I also agree with j. hyson that sporst are very political. A lot of sports teams are picked out before they even have tryouts, and i dont think that is right it doesn't give everyone the same chance to make the team.

In response to Kids, Then Enemy Within� about the discipline and punish in school. I think that this is a very touchy subject because the wrong punishment for the wrong child could end up terrible, but on the other hand if some of these children were not punished at all then it could also end up terrible. It all has to do with the Continuum Concept�, and how things are brought into context. For example the two second graders that were arrested and charged with making terrorist threats for playing cops and robbers. It seems like a harsh punishment for a little game that I believe I played when I was younger as well. But if this is so, then should all war movies be taken off of regular television so that the youth will not be exposed to it?
My positive experiences in youth sport are very broad. I remember going from rec. league football to highschool was a big jump and it took a lot more of my time and effort. Starting with a summer camp which in rec football was unheard of unless you were participating under your own action. What I mean is camp for highschool football was a team experience, as it should be, but in rec. football there was no team camp set up. Throughout this transition I learned that the hard work I thought I had put into rec football was nothing compared to highschool football. Moving from a team with a record of maybe 3-7 to an undefeated junior varsity squad was a serious jump. My freshman year I worked very hard and was a part of a once again undefeated junior varsity team.
Negative aspects of youth sport in my experience are going to be a little hard to dig up. One negative attribute of youth sport that I experienced was that kids on specific sports teams think they don t have to abide by the same rules in school as the rest of the student mass. Every school has a sports team that is known or prevalent in that particular school (ex. Johns Hopkins-Lacrosse, Ohio State-Football.) At my highschool it was football and I remember how some students on the team thought that they could get away with skipping class because they were big stars on the team. In turn they were suspended from school and a game. You can see this through all levels of sport, with athletes driving drunk and breaking laws thinking that just because they play on TV they are above the law.

I still believe sports; even with the control negative aspects is really good for a persons up bringing. It promotes a healthier lifestyle, teamwork, and friendship. I love the fact I have played sports all my life and was also involved in a lot of different sports, not just the same couple. The biggest positive aspect I have taken from sports is teamwork. Teamwork is very important not just in sports obviously, but in the real world too. You have to as a team and with other people in virtually all careers. If you want to do well in your career you need to be a people person�. Playing sports as kid you learn how to interact with other people and how to work with people that you don t like. It s a given there will be people on your team and in your job field that you are not going to like, but you can t just not talk to them or work there because of them. You have to learn how to deal with them and work with them in a civil manor. It s very difficult to find a negative aspect but the only one I can think of is cheating. A lot of people play to win and do what ever it takes to win, including cheating. Cheating is horrible but it happens and you learn it from sports. No one directly shows you how to cheat, but you learn if from watching others and just from playing a sport long enough. For instance in lacrosse there is a technique called thumbing the ball, and it s when you are holding the stick with one hand and your had is up the head of the stick and you simply hold the ball in with your thumb. There is so much good in sports that I believe it out ways the negative.

I found it interesting what Mongo said about the little league coach and his response about not playing the black kids that were on the team. Yes it happened a long time ago but I'm sure there are coaches who do the same thing or think in the same was today. It just goes to show that even though it has been said that racism and social class prejudices have declined since the 1960's, they are still alive and well. The worst part is that no one is spared not even little kids who just want to play baseball.

The first thing that came to mind when I saw we had to write about a positive life value through sport was what time where I have succeeded. Within a few minutes of ideas to write about, I realized that winning was just simply winning and was a good feeling to have but maybe only taught you how to be a good sport. It dawned on me that the strongest life values come after some sort of defeat. I decided to try out for my high school baseball team in my freshman year knowing if I had any shot at making the team it would have to be through my fielding rather than hitting. There were times during the tryouts where I played well, and even hit well, but other times when I thought I would never make it past the next cuts. Somehow I managed to still be there the day the coaches announced final cuts but after that day it was the end of the baseball season for me. What I was able to gain from being cut, I never knew until the next year when tryouts were starting again. I had talked to the coach after cuts and he told me different techniques to work on and if I put in some extra work on those things there was a good chance of playing next year. It was unfortunate that a new coach was hired for the next year and it was for different reasons that I decided not to finish tryouts and play for him but before this experience, I had never realized how important it is to follow up on advice that others give you and that having a determination to succeed, added with hard work and practice can dramatically improve your confidence in yourself and your abilities. Thinking about a negative sporting experience, mine has to do with the aspect of 'bullying' in our society that nearly everyone has some sort of experience with once in their lives. This is drawn from "Kids, the Enemy Within," when it says "Bullying has become a national obsession as we discover that everyone in high school is either a bully or a victim," and the fact that we have all been through elementary, middle, and high school and I'm sure we have all seen and/or experienced the effects of being "bullied." Myself and a friend from middle school decided that we would tryout for a local travel soccer team together. It wasn't the type of bullying you might think of in a school setting but more of an indirect form I guess you could say that really took the fun out of the game for my friend. He was never looked at by some as someone who could contribute to the team like others could and alot of kids seemed to exacerbate the problem by giving up clear opportunities to make him look better. The situation only got worse because you could tell it wasn't fun to play anymore and I was stuck in the situation of still wanting to play. After a few weeks, we decided to stop going the teams practices and I was lucky enough to find a less competitive league but one where I was still able to go out and enjoy playing the game. My friend on the other hand was so dissapointed with what happened and I think in some ways blamed himself for it that he never had the desire to play again. It was a bad situation for someone who just wanted to have fun while playing a game he enjoyed and I look back and realize that even if one situation is terrible, there are probably many others where you could fit in and enjoy what you are doing, while doing the same exact thing. In this case I just wish my friend would have been able to see that and would not been "bullied" out.

I agree with TKuhl in that coaches are the ones we learn most negative aspects from. They would like to have that win more than the actual players. He makes a really strong point that what we learn in sports is assumed to be okay outside of sports as well. Simply, cheating is alright whether it be in sports or in school, or yourself.

I also remember my coach picking on me more than other players. On one of my teams, the coaches daughter was on the team and she got to play triple the amount anyone else got to play. These coaches don't realize the effect they have on the kids when they play favorites. I was always upset wehn they daughter was playing because i was just as good as her. It can really make a child feel inadequate.

Youth sport in the United States is an opportunity for kids to learn discipline and obedience. As Pitter and Andrews state, "Since the turn of the century, when sports were still considered games and play activities, sports were used by physical education and recreational professionals to build character, create model citizens, and deter people from using their free time to engage in destructive pursuits" (Serving America's Underserved Youth). Sports are used to serve as discipline and building character; however, sports are teaching other things, not all are necessarily good. From the coaches to parents to teammates, sports may be producing adverse intentions.
When analyzing my youth experiences in sport (soccer), the sport as a whole, rather than one specific incident, has taught me a lifelong value. It has taught me the value of responsibility. So many things about the sport involve responsibility. My mom never reminded me or reassured that I had everything I needed for practice or games. It was up to me to be prepared. If I forgot something I had better hope someone else had a spare. This included cleats, shinguards, water, soccerball, soccer socks, and uniform. It was also my responsibility to inform my mom, at what point we would be leaving to arrive at the game an hour before, for warm-ups. Failure at any of these responsible matters would result in laps around the field or the inability to start the game. It was also my responsibility to complete homework and school assignments prior to practice and games. These were responsible matters that took place off the field, but I had responsibility on the field as well. I was captain of my travel team and it was my responsibility to maintain my teammates and keep them under control. I can credit soccer as the reason why I am as responsible as I am.
On the downside, youth sports have and teach negative aspects. One of the major negatives that is taught in sports, but rarely acknowledged, is cheating. This is probably the first place cheating is taught. I can remember the first of many times my soccer coach told me to take dives inside and around the 18 yard box, in order to receive a penalty kick or a free kick close to the goal. I can recall a tournament situation in which we were down a goal and my coach told one of my teammates to take a fall in the box. My teammate received the call and were entitled to a penalty kick. We tied up the game and later won in a shootout. A game in which we would have probably lost was altered because we were enticed to cheat. An elder, teacher, role model; our coach was teaching us and telling us how to cheat the sport. This is only one of the many negative aspects of how youth sports are in the current United States. Other negative aspects include excessive aggression, competitiveness, and trash talking other opponents. It seems that youth sports have dislodged themselves from the reason they were created.