It’s a beautiful sunny day at the local baseball fields in the middle of July. There are two baseball teams competing in a tournament. All the boys are playing the same game with the league's standard rules. Yet, they are receiving different instruction. One team has a coach who is very strict and often punishes, yells, and targets the players that fall short of the personal standards held by that team’s coach. This coach plays to win at all cost with little value placed on the teachable moments that are critical to the development of life skills. The other team is being led by a coach that has had specialized training, and knows how to have fun while focusing on skills. This coach builds character, teaches respect, develops leadership skills and gives positive instruction while encouraging and praising his team's accomplishments. Each baseball team is playing the same sport, however, each will have a very different experience. One team will receive the negative outcomes of competitive sports, while the other will receive the positive outcomes of competition. If coaches use a strong constructive approach and take advantage of the teachable moments, youth sports will enhance the competitive athletes’ experience and will only help to improve the physical, social, and mental health of children.

Some critics of competitive sports are concerned that competition in youth sports can have detrimental effects on a child’s self-esteem. Harming factors that affect a youth's self-esteem may include the fear of being unable to reach the personal standards set by the coaches and even parents and teammates. Additionally, the fear of being punished for mistakes and losing may create anxiety and self doubt.  As a result, it is possible for young athletes to experience negative feelings towards the sport which may lead them to quit. If an athlete quits, he or she may never receive the valuable life lessons that are considered valuable by our society. Parents and coaches often set their expectations too high for a child or young adult to reach, without fully assessing the skill and ability levels of the athlete (Harris). To eliminate self doubt and ensure adolescent athletes are developing confidence in themselves, coaches need to set expectations after carefully assessing the athlete’s skills. When children are able to attain goals while being challenged their self-esteem increases. Additionally, coaches need to make losing and failures into teachable moments instead of punishing children for mistakes. Athletes that compete can believe that if they lose, they are failures, even though every successful person will fail. The lessons one learns from losing are often more valuable than the lessons one learns from winning (Barish).  Coaches need to teach the importance of losing, because often losing is what drives success. If children know their coach accepts failure, it teaches the team to rise above it and the players become stronger. As a result, then the player’s self confidence may not be at risk, as they will not feel like they let their coach down. Coaches need to take those teachable moments and motivate the athletes to to make effort to be better than they were yesterday.

Volleyball has been an activity that I take great pride in, and that I am extremely passionate about. Personally, I have been subjected to a negative coach who never seemed to be pleased with my team’s performance or mine. I can vividly remember one of my volleyball coaches that completely ruined a volleyball season for me. Because of her destructive intensity and unrealistic expectations, she brought my self-esteem down to a level I had never felt. I can still hear her yelling insults during timeouts, throwing chairs, hitting her clipboard and glaring at us on the court.  Her negativity didn't just get to me, it got to my whole team. She would tell us things like, “You guys look like you have never touched a volleyball in your lives. You guys are awful and should just go home now!”  By the expressions on her face and eye rolls we all knew she had given up on us. At the point when we heard that clipboard slam, we lost the spirit of our team and gave up on ourselves.  I had almost given up the sport that I live and breathe, all because of a coach that putting winning above all else.  I went home in tears because I couldn’t figure out why she was always looking at the down side and yelling at me. I was doing everything she wanted me to do, yet I was never good enough, because the bar was set too high. My team and I could not attain her expectations, as she did not assess our abilities before the competition or take into consideration the caliber of the teams we were up against.

The very next week when our moral was at an all time low, we arrived at a tournament where she told us that she wasn’t going to yell anymore. She said we had to take charge and coach ourselves. As a team, we assessed skills and abilities, and created goal sheets. We knew the goals we made were challenging but possible, unlike the original expectations. The outcome of that day was amazing and we were all proud of ourselves. We made it all the way to the championship game as a result of the progressive atmosphere among our team. When we were in control, we no longer felt as if we had to please her. We were truly playing for the joy, and that day we made so many memories. That  just shows the effects coaches can have on an athlete and an entire team, and how coaching ethics play a huge role in the outcome of a competition. Coaches can change the way athletes perform just by taking away some of the pressure and placing value upon the encouragement of growth and improvement over winning.
One of the numerous benefits a child receives by being involved in a competitive sport is the amount of physical activity they receive. Physical activity plays an important role in competitive sports, and physical activity plays a huge role in a healthy lifestyle that carries over into adulthood.  A huge concern in today’s society is the obesity rate. One of the many causes of obesity is the absence of physical activity. Sports helps to get youth active and burn calories. Competitive sports can help an overweight child lose weight. Similarly, sports can also prevent children from obesity. “According to the British Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, approximately forty percent of deaths related to coronary heart disease are related to inadequate physical activity, obesity, stress and raised blood pressure. Sports can help with all of these physical issues, decreasing the risk of coronary disease by about 50 percent” (Cohen). Additionally, physical activity also prevents many cancers such as colon, kidney, thyroid and many more types of cancers and disease.  Getting children involved in youth sports is a critical step in getting a child to live a physically healthy lifestyle, which is why competition is beneficial to youth.

When people think about competitive sports they think about medals, trophies, and success, but positive social health is another benefit of competitive sports. The social skills a child learns from being a part of a competitive sports team include teamwork, respect, character, and there are so many more social benefits of sports (Morris). These “life skills are not caught they are taught” (Holt). Coaches need to capitalize on the lessons that can be learned through mistakes and utilize those teachable moments to build the success of the team and the individual athletes. Team bonding activities should be planned, such as the human knot. That team bonding game brings a unified attitude into the children while it also teaches them problem solving skills. Both of the lessons that could be learned during this game are skills the children will use for the rest of their lives, further proving that competition has positive impacts on children.

Respect is a social skill that needs to be taught by example. It happens too often that players witness a coach yelling at the officials, using an intimidating posture, swearing, and outright disrespect. Those coaches are not setting a good example for their athletes. They will grow up believing that it is acceptable to yell at officials and blame others. Instead, coaches need to model the importance of respect toward officials, teammates, and surrounding people by avoiding name calling, trash talking, and yelling at officials (Mike).  Coaches should always be courteous to the people around them because the children look up to them and strive to be like them. We want the youth athletes to grow up into respectful citizens, but coaches are ruining the chances of that possibility.
Competitive sports teach young athletes sportsmanship, by winning, losing, and working together as a team. Sportsmanship is a part of the most important things children can gain through athletics. A team's true colors are revealed when people see the sportsmanship displayed after a loss. If the opponent won’t shake hands after a game, or says rude things, he or she doesn’t have good sportsmanship, and they are what society calls a “sore loser.” On the other hand, some people lose with dignity and win with dignity. Good sportsmanship is shown when people lose yet they still personally congratulate the winner on their accomplishments. Undoubtedly, coaches can teach and model sportsmanship in front of their peer athletes by being assured through adversity, respecting officials, playing by the rules, and treating all youth athletes equally (De Lench).

All of the lessons, skills, and qualities that competitive sports teach go towards building and revealing character. Qualities like respect, responsibility, patience, teamwork, humbleness, and sportsmanship all build character.  Coaches have to be intentional while helping a child build their character. Otherwise, a child may get on the wrong path (Austin). They will find other sources of “fun” such as drinking,  partying, and using illegal substances:
“ A 2000 study reported by Pate et al investigated the relationship between participation in sports and health-related behaviors in US youth. Both male and female athletes were more likely to eat fruit and vegetables, and less likely to engage in smoking and illicit drug-taking. Not all risky behaviors performed by adolescents were curbed with participation in sports, however, the majority of teenagers who participated in sports appeared to be less interested in taking health risks than non athletes” (Merkel).

Coaches need to encourage their athletes to stay in sports. That would prevent athletes from taking part in taking health risks. Sports are likely to lead athletes down a narrow path full of opportunities. That would lead to good character which is a social benefit of competitive youth sports, and teaches life skills and qualities one will cherish forever.

One’s mental health may benefit from competitive sports. Sports may increase happiness, relieve stress, and help with relaxation. Sports distract athletes from all the outside things going on in life such as drama, homework, and problems at home. Practice and competitive events are wonderful places for children to run off their stress. Sports can allow the basic mental health of an athlete to be more in tune if they are physically active for thirty minutes a day, three days a week. Physical activity stimulates endorphins in one’s body, which are stress relievers. If coaches are confident in their players it will cause the children to be confident in themselves and feel a sense of self worth. Mental health is tied closely to how an athlete feels. That’s another reason competitive sports during adolescence can be beneficial to the youth athlete. Without sports, youth may not receive these benefits (Colbert).

Coaches and athletes mindsets differ from one another from rigorous and intense too optimistic and positive in order for competitive sports to yield in beneficial results. Competition can be a very positive experience as it teaches youth athletes life lessons, skills, and qualities they will use throughout their lives. These components of competition can be capitalized if coaches take advantage of all the teachable moments that cross their paths. Next time you attend a youth competitive sporting event, think about the athletes that may be receiving the positive benefits of being involved in youth sports. Additionally, try to identify the positive lessons, skills, and qualities they are developing just by being involved.