What are we doing wrong? Shoving them into sports.

Damn. SO true. I genuinely dont understand why high school (non varsity) coaches bench and go out of their way to make players feel like they're awful. My coach would bench me all of my sophomore year on JV and I used to be captain of the freshmen team. Its like, I know Im not terrible and I know Im not drop dead talented. I'm just trying to have fun and yet i end up crying every-time I get home. Like damn. ITS A JV HIGH SCHOOL TEAM we're not trying to go to college for it, its just for fun.

The problem with youth sports today is that it is the adults playing the game through the kids. It is supposed to be for fun, but the adults take the fun away. The adults have made youth sports like the pros.

I’m a freshman and I am really good at basketball and due to covid I quit my travel team. I’m thinking about playing High school basketball next year but I only am interested in playing because I’m scared I will regret not playing. I don’t have nearly as much interest in the sport than other people but I feel obligated to play because I might look at my reasons for not playing in the future and be mad at myself.

I was high school I did like one sport which is swimming I don’t get to excited or anything like that I just like it. I was still struggling to get a sport in my high year and when I did sign up it was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I’m fresh men I was made fun of and had to lay low and I told my coach and parents about this it did help but as so I a did tell everyone else ignored me and some pretended to be interested in me but don’t actually like me. I only made like 2 true friends from the swim team and that’s it. The rest of my years of high school just got miserable I just had everything done right straight A’s and what not. When summer was around for swim season I loss my interest in swimming as whole I used to enjoy. I felt chronic stress, anxiety, misery, loneliness, fatigue, low self esteem and losing a bit of my sanity. What made it even worse my parents told me it was for the experience I told them so many times that my mom got angry at me for trying to leave the swim team. At this point I was having some serious issues mental and physical. The pressure got so bad that I started having suicidal thoughts and many ways I would die in different scenarios. During my last year I had a friend going through a lot of bullying, relationship problems and mental health problems at the time I was senior, every time we talk and I looked into hes eyes I knew something was wrong I gave him some advice and letting him have some space. One day how ever he Couldn’t take it anymore then he stabbed someone and was arrested then it happened so suddenly I felt like could have done something to help him more and none of this would have happened if I didn’t have been so stupid. Guilt started to crawl all over my mind. Back to the present day I am out of high school and going to college still though I just hope he is doing alright.😔

I love sports. As kids, we are introduced to fun, pick-up games with others. No strenuous schedules, no negative feedback, etc. You could just play and quit whenever you wanted to. However, predominantly in an individual’s high school years of sports, they experience the following: Strenuous schedules, distress, etc. Thus, giving an individual a lack of motivation, oftentimes resulting in them quitting the sport(s) they once loved.

This is the issue. In sports lots of kids are force-fed competitions at a young age when in fact, they should be spending that time having fun and playing around in practice to develop their technical skills instead. Why is Ronaldo so skilled in football, for example? When he was young he no doubt spent lots of time kicking a ball around in the streets with his friends and having fun whilst developing his rock solid technique at a young age. Children should not go into competitions until they are at an age where they are physically and mentally developed enough to to use competitions as progress charts and learning tools. Imagine this. A kid does a sport, and is put into competitions early on, being told they are something special when in truth, they are a just novice. Because they aren't skilled or experienced, they will lose, and due to their mentality at that age, they will develop a fear of losing mindset. Hence their performance will go even further down the tubes, and this will demotivate them from working harder and a downward spiral occurs. In effect, the kid will give up because they are always panicking under pressure and not improving at all and thus not having any fun. I am a fencer who has only received proper training for a year but I am in the top half of the British senior rankings. A few years prior to that I first picked a weapon in secondary school, but I never received any training. I was mainly encouraged by the school coach to do competitions, and in 2019 I was so close to giving up because I stopped enjoying it, as I was not getting any better and was always cracking under pressure. But then my parents found a good club and I have been going there since then. I received good training and with guidance and help from the coaches there over time I improved a lot and I started to relax much more in competitions and deal with the pressure a lot better and this is why I have pulled off that miracle in the last year and I continue to improve all the time, with high aspirations in mind. But imagine if I had given up those three years ago. I nearly did due to the way that things were done.

I quit football because of the big hits I took and this was me literally in my brain

Lots of parents want their kids to play sports, because they were never good enough themselves. Too fat or too short too slow etc. They live their sport dreams through their kids.

Worst of all, children can't study and playing sport at the same time. Sport is a great way to ensure your students struggle or fail academically.

I remember when I signed up for cross country. I hated it. I also discovered that I had asthma. One day after a long run, I had a terrible attack and I was hyperventilating. The coach and everyone just pretended like nothing happened. I was so scared. Another coach told me to run faster. I asked to go to the bathroom and never came back. I went home and cried my eyes out to my father. Luckily, I had understanding parents. They weren't bothered by all of that "commitment" bs rhetoric and didn't believe in forcing their kids to stay with something if they were miserable. We all turned out fine & have wonderful careers/lives. I remember getting a lot of crap from my track mates about quitting. What was I supposed to do...keep going and drop dead because I can't breathe?

I quit soccer for not having enough time and not having motivation

My mom forced me to do softball for a really long time and then she signs me up for hockey then volleyball and track and I am now working myself past my limits because she won’t let me quit any of those sports. My advice if your kid wants to quit a sport it doesn’t matter how far in the season their in let them quit

My parents sign me for sports all the time, I’m active so I don’t need them they just want me to be like my brother. My brother loves sports, and my parents live sports to. Even my sister, but I hate them. They do t get that, they never understand. They don’t understand that some people done like sports. Every time they say they are going to sign me up to a sport again, I cry myself to sleep.

I started playing sports since I was in 3rd grade prior to that I was playing front yard football with my friends that was fun. The fun for me declined in middle school. I played 3 sports consecutively Football,Basketball then Baseball I dropped 2 sports by 8th grade and Played football freshman year through junior year I knew I was never that good at those sports but I liked playing the game coaches never understood the pain of not playing. Junior year I put so much effort into the offseason after a rough jv year. Coach made it clear before the first game I wouldn’t play at all, I tried to stick with it and knew after the season he wouldn’t play me senior year so I decided not to play senior year and looking back I just wish I was alot better at sports or put more effort,

My mom basically passively forced me to play baseball she signed me up and didn’t tell me until a few days before it started, I am out of shape because I wasn’t even considering playing because I’m not in shape to play a sport right now, but it just happened and yes she said I had the option to not play, but that pressure I was out in for those 3 days was insane

I gave up Gaelic football (Irish sport) because of the toxic teammates. Constant talking about people making mistakes and just outright bullying. I so happened to be picked on and that really got to me. I gave up but my dad really wanted me to play sports again, but I just didn't want to. But I knew he just wanted me to do something while I'm at home doing nothing it's just the way he got me to do it. He would say "play this, play that" but in an aggressive tone. But I still want to thank him because he did boost my confidence a bit and such. Another thing was just school and homework. Sometimes school would just be so annoying and I wouldn't feel like doing any sports because my teacher would explode if I told her that I wasn't able to do my homework because of football :/

This is deep I can relate!

i dreamed about being on the xcel teams in my gymnastics center, ever since i was 5, i've grown up training in gymnastics every week and i get told that i have to quit as soon as i'm about to start xcels

I almost gave up on sports bc my dad was harsh on me!

I have time to play football but my parents don't it's been 2 weeks since I play, I gave up along time ago since I got a dog because I'm the only one caring for it when my parents is gone, well my sister helps but still my parents don't have time and that's the problem, some people are born luckier, time is money, that's why the poor became footballers and the rich don't what I mean by rich is the ones that work 24/7

Lots of bad coaching out there. Again....winning is not everything.

I recently quit gymnastics because a coach made it miserable and specifically made sure I knew that I was wrong. It really hurt me and I love gymnastics but it’s just too much pressure. And every adult in my life has told me that I shouldn’t quit and they make me keep talking about it which just makes me feel guilty. Idk what to do anymore I want to join another sport but my brother told me to that it is going to be the same and that if I can’t handle it, then I will never be able to do sports.

I am quitting basketball ball cus they take the ones who have money

The worst part of it all is you get injured for no reason

I boxed. I thought high school sports was non violent and lame.

This might be long but I just really need to get this off my chest. I’ve been playing soccer for about 9-10 years and over the years soccer was just not it for me anymore, and to be honest it was actually quite miserable for me, for many reasons. In the start of 2020 I decided I was going to quit and be completely done with soccer and I did quit but, the soccer season for high school came around. I didn’t want to play but I felt if I didn’t play I would’ve let my parents down and although they didn’t really force me to play I still felt like I had to play for them, so I came back to play for them and man it feels like all the bad past memories came back and now I’m starting to feel miserable once again, in fact I cried after my soccer game. My dad tries to support me and I’m so thankful for that, I’m really trying but this is just too much and I want to quit it sooo bad but unfortunately it’s already too late to back out. I don’t know what to do, and it’s still the start of the season :/

I asked my dad to sign me up for baseball because I saw the pros playing it and liked it. It was a really hard learning curve because I started at 11 years old, but I got the hang of it (sorta). My dad signed me up for a really good league my first year and it was for beginners, and I realized I didn't like it; I told my parents I didn't like it and they said I should just stick out the rest of the season and I did just that. After that season my parents refused to stop paying for lessons for me even though I told them I didn't like it, but they continued to sign me up for trainings and practices. Now I'm stuck in a situation where I have a game tomorrow and my parents won't let me quit because "we spent so much time and money on it" and "you said you wanted to play it and now you're going to play it". If you read this till the end, then could you give me some advice about how to let them know I DONT LIKE THIS SPORT. My only option is literally refusing to go, which will get me in "serious trouble". (Also I literally begged my dad not to sign me up after my first season but he pushed me against the wall and yelled at me saying "you're playing, got it?")

i had to quit my sport today because of money.

We need more one coach to one athlete like the one teacher to one student schools

holy f**k this hit deep as i just quit my football team…

I can relate.

I dropped hockey and now regret it.

I really enjoyed football

I am a athletic 8th grader and a starter on football which I really enjoy but since that has ended I have started basketball which I really do not like I am at a new school and don’t know/don’t like the basketball player plus we have a really really good 8th grade team like people can dunk and are huge. I’m tall at 6’0 169

i dont have fun anymore that my reason

You wanna know what your doing wrong I’ll tell you sometimes after a bad game we don’t need to here what we did wrong or what we need to do better also sometimes it can be to much I hate my favorite sport now because I tired of it it’s every day takes up my weekends and I can’t hang out with my friends because I’m little miss I can’t I have practice

Good for them

Kids sports is essentially just middle-aged teachers pretending they're Greg Popovich. Yelling at kids for making mistakes in game. They're also trying to develop the tall athletic kids because they have a chance at a higher level. Therefore everyone suffers so those superstars get the ball and every touch. That's Youth Sports.

I remember my cousin wanted me to score 5 points lmao. So he called specific plays to get me the ball and to score. I choked every time... Coach knew my cousin wanted to get me the rock. 🤣🤣😭 My cousin was a superstar. It was like batman and robin except I was crackhead robin lmao.