Michael Jordan is one of the greatest and most recognized athletes of all-time. Among numerous unparalleled accomplishments, he has won six NBA titles, two Olympic gold medals, and been named the NBA's Most Valuable Player five times. As a man who holds the record for the highest single-season salary in the NBA at $33.1 million (Chase), Jordan is a perfect example of someone who made it to the top (NBA). Throughout his career, he often imparted wisdom to the press about the link between hard work and success. But one must remember, Michael Jordan also said, "Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game" (Scheidies). As time goes on, however, it seems as though sports are losing the aspect of fun. Specialization and elite sports are being promoted at younger ages, leading to an increase in pressured relationships between both parents and peers. Consequently, these factors result in negative effects in youth sports; increased health risks and a decrease in participation are two of them. In order to provide a healthier environment for young athletes, and to cease the decline in their participation, youth sports programs and governing bodies must find a suitable age for youth to begin specializing in their sport. 

In general, athletes are more prone to injury than non-athletes. Regular wear and tear seems practically unavoidable, and it is often assumed that athletic involvement means you have had an injury at some point in time. Every now and then there are bizarre cases, such as the Bertuzzi-Moore incident, in which the decommissioning of a player's career is the result of an irregular encounter between opponents. However, players often retire due to injuries occurring from regular encounters, as well as for the concern of their health. In an article published last year, Bobby Orr and Isiah Thomas are mentioned as two of the most recognizable athletes who retired from their respective sports (Orr  --  hockey, Thomas  --  basketball) at the early ages of 30 and 32; Orr due to the struggle through numerous injuries, and Thomas due to a traumatic Achilles injury (Murray). As one can imagine, professional athletes spend countless hours participating in their sports, and start doing so at a very young age.

In sport, there is a common idea that "more is better." Although this statement holds some truth, it is a fallacy. This idea promotes the phrase "practice makes perfect", which has been exhausted by many who believe that endless practice will bring them success. However, its implementation has shown negative effects on athletes. While it is very important to get a lot of practice, one must find a balance between working and resting. The American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness has recommended limiting a single sporting activity to a maximum of five days per week, with at least one day off from any organized physical activity. In addition, they suggest that athletes should have two to three months off per year to allow injuries to heal and to refresh the athletes' minds (Reed). In addition to injuries associated with fatigue and overuse, concussions have become a widespread concern. 

In 2002, Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered a degenerative disease, called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), that could be caused by repeated concussions or other brain trauma. In an effort to bring CTE to light, the National Football League (NFL) tried to cover it up after it had been found in one of their former players, after his death. Concussions have become a widespread issue, and in 2010, "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [reported] a sports-and-recreation-related concussion rate of approximately 3.8 million per year" (Conquering Concussions). Concussions are a serious brain injury that result in nerve cell damage, causing the brain to have a lapse in its regular process of information. It has become a public health issue, but is very prominent in sport; so prominent, in fact, that more than 100 former National Hockey League (NHL) players are suing the NHL for their lack of protection. The lawsuit claims that the NHL must have known of a connection between concussions and brain damage, but failed in both protecting and educating their players (Perez). Now many of these players must live with the symptoms CTE, post-concussive syndrome (PCS), and other times of brain damage. These include but are not limited to "headaches, mood swings, sensitivity to light, loss of temper without reason, and depression" (Drapack). From the lowest level of youth sport to the highest level of professional sport, concussions are a serious health-risk that need to be addressed by the sports' governing bodies. Harsher and stricter consequences for players who intentionally inflict harm on their opponents, especially involving the head, could possibly prevent some concussions by requiring players to be more cautious when making contact. Recent revisions to the rules of USA Hockey, the governing body of amateur ice hockey in the United States, address this issue. Aside from the general rules, the following three circumstances would result in a player's suspension: a) contacting an opponent in the head, face or neck, with any part of the player's body or stick, b) injuring a player as a result of head contact, or intentionally/recklessly contacting an opponent in the head, face or neck, c) attempting to injure or deliberately injuring an opponent (USA Hockey). The effectiveness of these rules may not necessarily be measured scientifically, but through my own personal experience of playing over 100 hockey games since these rules have been cracked down on, I can say that players have become more cautious compared to when the rules were not as strict. Continuing on, there is yet another component to the risk factors of athletes  --  early specialization. 

To go along with the ideas that "more is better" and "practice makes perfect", early specialization is becoming more prominent. Many believe that specializing in a sport earlier in an athlete's life will lead to their success; here is another fallacy. Just because an athlete starts focusing solely on one sport when they are young, does not mean they will be of the elite. Rather, it could be detrimental to their success because specialization can have negative impacts on the performance of athletes. In an article published by the Changing the Game Project, half of overuse injuries in young athletes are children who specialize in one sport, according to pediatric orthopedic specialists. Additionally, the article supports the study of Dr. Neeru Jayanthi of Loyola University, who referenced early specialization in a single sport as one of the strongest predictors of injury. In the study, he found that athletes "who specialized were 70% to 93% more likely to be injured than children who played multiple sports" (Changing the Game Project). Although most sports involve similar movements, they also have many movements that are specific to their respective sport. By participating in various sports, an athlete is able to exercise different muscles and joints, contributing to their agility. If a player is exposed to a movement that they are not used to, it could cause an injury; single-sport athletes are more prone to injury. But instead of dwelling on the negative impacts of being a single-sport athlete, it is important to look at some of the positive impacts of being a multi-sport athlete as referenced by the Changing the Game Project: multi-sport athletes develop better overall skills and ability, and become smarter, more creative players. Exposing athletes to different sports, and even different positions in the same sport, allows them to have an enhanced vision of the game and therefore the chance to be more creative. Another thing to consider is that the American Society for Sports Medicine found that 88% of college athletes played more than one sport as a child. But even though specialization is increasing, general physical activity is decreasing. 

Decreases in physical activity in the United States are primarily the result of decreases in pickup games. Participation in youth-organized sport has significantly declined over the past 20 years, while adult-organized sport has seen an increase (Kenyon). With parents in the stands and on the sidelines of all of their children's games, parental involvement in sport is prevalent. But with a changing motivation for parents to have their children in sports, parental pressure is now a major factor. Parents make almost every decision for their children, and although children may have dreams of playing professional sports, many parents have ambitious endeavors of their own. Becoming a college athlete is a common goal amongst young players; one that requires much attention in an athlete's high school years. It leads to scholarships, popularity, and if you're lucky it might even lead to a future occupation. Although having athletic dreams can be a good thing, it becomes a problem when "We lose sight of sports as a vehicle for learning and, instead, convert it into a means for parents to live out their own athletic dreams or take a gamble on the unlikely event that sports will pave a road into college" (Heffernan). According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, 53% of Division I student-athletes receive some level of athletics aid, and as the division of play lowers, the percentage of student-athletes receiving athletics aid increases (NCAA). This seems like a great opportunity  --  parents will not have to pay full tuition for college if their child gets a scholarship, so it would be a good idea to focus more on athletics. Wrong. Although the NCAA reports that more than half of their athletes are on scholarships, they also estimate that only about 6% of high school athletes go on to compete at the collegiate level (NCAA). And for those with even bigger dreams, here is a reality check: only 0.2% of high school athletes move on to play professionally including the lowest professional level and minor leagues (Kenyon). At a young age, children do not know how difficult it is to play at a high level, but their parents often do. Understanding that these statistics is important for parents who begin to influence their children in athletics. They need to understand that the likelihood of their self-proclaimed child prodigy "making it big time" is unsatisfyingly low. This is especially a problem for black families, because they are eight times more likely than white families to pressure their children into sports. Dr. Harry Edwards, a prominent African-American sociologist, stated that if these families were to push their children in academics as hard as they push them in sport, they would be just as likely to become doctors, lawyers, and other successful occupations (Kenyon). 

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Thinking back to my high school experience, there are a number of people I knew who spent most of their time playing a sport. Some of them told me that they would make their way to the top professional leagues, and make more money in 2 years than I would make in 10 years, after receiving a bachelor's degree and a law degree. I did not normally think much about it, but after meeting these athletes' parents it became clear to me why the athletes were so confident in the feasibility of their dreams; the parents highly encouraged it. By giving the athlete what they wanted in terms of the sport, and allowing the athlete to take their education into their own hands, the parents lost sight of reality.

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Each of the aforementioned issues are components of athletic burnout. Athletic burnout "occurs when an athlete has worsening performance despite intense training. It is believed to result from a multitude of factors, [including] insufficient recovery time" (Children's Hospital Colorado Sports Medicine Team). With a growing number of young athletes and competitive travel teams, common recommendations for rest are not often met. Especially in states where certain sports are prevalent, such as soccer in California, or hockey in Minnesota, young athletes often have limited rest from their respective sports. As mentioned, injuries have become very common amongst these players. Forcing kids to participate "can cause the child to become stressed, anxious, withdrawn and depressed" (Livestrong). All of these aforementioned side effects are what lead to a lack of enjoyment that many young athletes attribute to their reason for quitting sports. Too much pressure is being put on young athletes to perform and be the best, and they should be able to play their sports for fun without having to worry about their performance. One must keep in mind that while these athletes are participating in sports during much of their time, they are also students; this is why they become stressed very easily. Balancing academics and athletics can be very difficult, and children who specialize early are at a far greater risk for burnout due to stress, decreased motivation and lack of enjoyment (Changing the Game Project).

Aside from all of the problems that are fixable on a lower level, one major problem with the youth athletic system is the relative age effect (RAE). RAE "refers to the selection bias related to players that are more physically mature than their peers due to being born earlier in the year" (USSF, para. 13) and recognizes "the correlation between arbitrary age cutoffs in sports and the statistically high success ratio of kids with birthdates within a few months of those cutoffs" (Changing the Game Project). With the growing competitive nature of youth sports, coaches would prefer the players who are more physically developed. By making a competitive team, the player would receive better coaching and continue to improve as an athlete, but the player who did not make the team would not have the same opportunities. This continues in a cycle  --  each year, the best players are chosen for the competitive teams, who tend to be the players who got in the system and continue to have better opportunities. RAE appears to be most identifiable in hockey, where almost 40% of the players in the league were born in the first third of the selection period (http://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/birth-month-totals/nhl-players-career-stats.html), but lately it has been a hot topic in the world of soccer. The United States Soccer Federation (USSF or U.S. Soccer) recently made two major revisions regarding youth soccer: allowing a different number of players on the field (which changes by age group), and a change in the registration process. The change in the registration process moves the selection period of players from his or her academic year to his or her birth year. The official article that announces these revisions, published by the USSF, claims that they are taking another step toward long-term player development, by focusing on "advancing youth players' individual skill and intelligence, and providing players with the best opportunity to improve" (USSF, para. 3). U.S. Soccer provides a reasonable argument for the small-sided games mandate, but their support for the birth-year registration revision is weak. Tab Ramos, the U.S. Soccer Youth Technical Director, claims that it makes the process easier because " ... parents and players [are often] confused about what age group players belong in" (USSF, para. 12). Additionally, U.S. Soccer believes this will combat RAE. But this does not add up. The current selection period is from August to July, and the revision will change it January to December; U.S. Soccer is merely shifting the period for the selection bias. U.S. Soccer was aware of the problem, but did not create a solution; they simply changed which players will be disadvantaged. Instead of disadvantaging players born in July, the new process will be detrimental to those born in December. However, making this change does not only create a disadvantage for the other players. 

This situation causes two major problems, claims Bryan Drotar, a man with 19 years of soccer experience, including 11 years of collegiate coaching and scouting. For a team with January-August 9th graders and September-December 8th graders, the 9th graders will play high school while the 8th graders will not have a team for a whole season. Contrarily, when the older players reach their senior year, they will "age out" and will not have a club team to play for (Drotar para. 28-29). This creates a serious problem for college recruitment, because much of the scouting is finalized during the high school senior's club team season. This means that the recruitment process will have to be revised. Although the competitive league selection period in U.S. Youth Soccer has been parallel to a player's academic year, the Olympic Development Program's selection period has been relative to the player's birth year. As an athlete who played both hockey and soccer throughout my life, I very well understand how this works. I was born on December 27, therefore being almost as unfortunate as one can be when it comes to the selection period. While I was fortunate enough to make every cut for the teams I tried out for, I was still affected by the aging out factor. When I was a freshman in high school, I aged out of the Olympic Development Program for soccer. Despite this being a program most prominently for exposure to NCAA schools, I could no longer participate at the age of 15. I was the youngest player on the team, and most of my teammates were old sophomores preparing for college recruitment in their junior year. In hockey, I experienced the aging out factor when I was a senior in high school. Because I was an old senior, I could not play another year of hockey at that level, even though most of the players I grew up with could.

Many people believe that RAE is not a real issue, but instead just a sensible idea that people grasp onto. Some go so far to conduct their own research and, pertaining to hockey, conclude that "Among the most elite hockey players, the effect completely reverses - it's better to be born later in the year if you want to become one of the great hockey players" (Gibbs). But by continuing to examine the statistics from various studies, the evidence is supportive of the idea that RAE exists. "For example, in the English Premier League Youth Academies, a whopping 57% of kids are born in the first third of the soccer year" (Changing the Game Project). Several solutions have been proposed for RAE, including delayed specialization, smaller age groupings, quotas and size-differentiated teams. Though these may seem like good ideas, none compare to a proposal called the Relative Age Fair (RAF) Cycle System (Wattie). This system would be a rotating calendar year cut-off, split by the four quarters of the year. Although it seems very complicated, it has a number of components that can be used to create a similar system, not requiring the final plan to be identical to the proposal; think of it as a compilation of flexible ideas. Some of these properties include its simple implementation, only requiring athletes and/or their parents to know what quarter of the year they were born in. This system would also allow for its participants to have different coaches and play alongside more diverse players, and its quarters and cycles can simply be changed to better accommodate the final system; a system that should aim to favor all athletes.

Young athletes should be able to play their sports for fun without having to worry about any outside factors. Sports are a place for people to learn important character traits, as there are many parallel learning opportunities. In 2008, a man named Randy Pausch gave a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. It was titled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, and he called it his "Last Lecture", because he would later pass away from cancer, but wanted to pass on valuable lessons he learned during his life. He explains the concept of a "head fake" as occurring "...when someone is taught a deeper lesson under the pretense of learning something simple..." He uses sports as an example, being that sport is a builder of character and morals. This is one component of preventing athletic burnout - recognizing "head fakes" as important in the development of young athletes as people. Another major component is allowing the athlete to choose what they want to do, what sport they want to play, and what they enjoy, rather than what the parent wants their child to play. After reading over some emails that I exchanged with John O'Sullivan (Founder of the Changing the Game Project) and watching his TED Talk, Changing the game in youth sports, I was reminded of some important things to consider. He said that parents should only become active in their child's athletics by supporting their goals, and spending time to find a coach who treats their kids like they are a person and not just a pair of hands and feet (O'Sullivan). Parents should not pressure their kids; they should support them. Although it is hard to simply re-evaluate the motives that parents have in signing their children up for sports, it is a stepping stone toward a healthier and more enjoyable environment for young athletes. These are the types of situations that allow young athletes to strive and to develop important life values along the way. 

When parental involvement in youth sport is balanced and positive, the athletes can gain more from the sport. When governing bodies' influence of policies in sport are positive-minded and look to offer better opportunities, athletes can have a better experience. Youth sports organizations should recognize the United States Olympic Committee's mission statement as their own: "To assist in finding opportunities for every American to participate in sport, regardless of gender, race, age, geography, or physical ability." Youth sport should not focus on identifying elite athletes based on physical ability. Rather, it should focus on creating opportunities for children to participate and to develop important values and character traits which can be attained through sport. 

