Youth sports have changed a lot over the past 20 years. New technology, the ability to get professional equipment, new ways to train, and more. Young Athletes are getting better every year and it is amazing to see the next youth generation revolutionize sports. Youth sports have taken the world by storm after the release of The Esquire Network  show ‘Friday Night Tykes.’ It is a show starring TYFA (Texas Youth Football Association), the league is arguably the best youth football league in the country, running from ages 5-12. It shows the good and the ugly. From kids getting hit extremely hard to coaches cursing and screaming at their players. It teaches the player and audience the value of hard work and teamwork. The show showcases future D1 and professional athletes, such as Myzel Miller who is currently a freshman in high school with 20 plus scholarship offers.

There are many advantages to youth sports. It is the first time young kids and athletes are in a real team setting. You are taught many life lessons through sports. It doesn’t matter if it is football, baseball, curling, or water polo you make relationships that will last forever during athletic programs. You really learn about yourself and figure out who you are as a person through youth sports and find that breaking point of how far you can push yourself. It is also just to way to express yourself and take out all the stresses of school or your home life. The one major thing you should take from youth sports is making connections that last forever. The people who play with you in the sport have seen your highs and lows, and those friendships are just about the best you could ask for.

There are also many disadvantages to youth sports. Sports are starting younger and younger and getting more competitive every year. 

Early College Recruiting

The recruitment process to play a sport in college is long and stressful. The NCAA rules state that a college head coach can not start taking to a student athlete until their junior year of high school. But with ways around it, recruiting officials get away with recruiting early. Imagine being 10 or 11 years old and being recruited by a college to play a sport. Maxwell Young, Thurman Williams, and many other athletes around the country are starting to get scholarship offers extremely young. Maxwell Young is a 10 year old from California and has received offers from the University of Indiana and Florida Atlantic University. Yes, a 10 year old has full scholarships to play football in college. But it sometimes gets too intense and ruins a kids ability to play their position. David Sills received an offer from University of Southern California (USC) at age 13 to play quarterback, he committed, and when a new coach came in they took away his scholarship. He ended up at West Virginia University where he is a senior today. He lost the starting quarterback job and is now a receiver. Nothing is guaranteed, especially scholarship offers.

Coaches

We all have that one coach who you really do not like, but it is getting worse and worse. The Esquire Network show ‘Friday Night Tykes’ shows how ruthless coaches can be. Telling their players to do stuff like hitting players so hard they can never get up. Coaches are supposed to teach you, help you fix what you are doing wrong, and be another parent to their athletes. There are a million coach fights and brawls, and it is becoming a real problem. Athletes look up to their coach and if they see a coach fighting they will want to do the same. If you’re a coach, be very mindful of your actions.

Intense Training

The technology we have today is amazing. Sports training is at the best it has ever been. There are so many new drills and exercises that make you stronger and faster. However, as a result, kids now are lifting weights younger than they ever have before. Four hours of training a day is too much for an 11-12 year old, yet this is what it takes for many to excel in youth sports. Laced Facts a training Facility ran by Mike Evans, a former college football player for the University of Nevada and University of Louisville, specializes in youth training. The training Evans puts his kids through is crazy. “ Sometimes they cry but they have to get through it if they want to be they greatest,” Evans said in an article with Overtime ( a social media page that focuses on basketball and football through all ages). Some training Evans does is the reason why kids later quit the sport.

Being a 12 year old and thinking of college is not a bad thing. But being so young you still have a couple of years to worry about college sports. Some coaches and trainers are ruining sports and that is detrimental for the next generation. More and more talent is emerging and it’s making it tougher to play a sport in college, nevertheless professionally. This problem could also be a positive because it shows kids how to compete and the feeling of competition. Learning how to work for something and fighting for a goal is a huge lesson in youth sports, but sometimes the intensity can overshadow that lesson. Overall, youth sports are getting too intense, but it’s how kids learn and get better at the end of the day.