Little League Training, Major League Problems

AUTHOR: ChiChi Madu

PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today

DATE OF PUBLICATION: October 22, 2009

SUMMARY: Kids are getting recruited to sports at an earlier age. As sports get more and more competitive, the kids train at a younger age to try to get recruited more successfully. The kids do not play for the fun of the sport anymore but rather be trained harder, and harder. When accepted at an early age, the kids miss out on important events that would fortify them and know how to reaction in a certain situation. Since they miss these events, they do not know how to deal with them and many get mental illnesses. The pressure of being on the team and expected to do well is also very mentally straining. Even pro teams have the same issues with their players. At first, many coaches ignored their players mental health and only cared about their physical health, but then their players started becoming very depressed and had anxiety problems. They noticed they needed professional help for their professional players to succeed not only on the field, but also off. If professional players need psychologists to help them, then children also should have them, to avoid any future mental illnesses from occurring in their lives. This affects Psychology by providing new information regarding psychological behaviors for athletes and children to be athletes. This research does not counter any existing researches but supports them. When I was a kid I was also pressured to become a soccer player, I was not a good one but my mom made me play to be more healthy and for exercise.

LINKS TO STUDY: N/A

ARTICLE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/little-league-training-major-league-problems

SUBMITTED BY: Ryan Liu