Sports are a great way to stay in shape and can help with developing children’s social lives. Many teenagers and young children enjoy physical activity and the competitiveness that comes with a sport; however not everyone enjoys playing sports. For these children sometimes the pressure of playing sports is put on them by their parents. This idea of pushing kids to do things they don’t want can be frowned upon by some, but greatly supported by others.

To get a coaches perspective on the matter, I interviewed coach Angie Hiemstra. She made some very valid, and eye opening points on the topic of whether or not kids should, or should not be forced to play sports they may not be interested in. She believes that children should be exposed to many different activities while they’re young, so they can figure out what they are passionate about. Coach says “Let them pick what they love and as they get older, they can have a better idea of what they’re passionate about.” It takes a lot of parental support to be successful, but coach Hiemstra doesn’t feel that a parent should ever force their child to play any sports they don’t want to play. Forcing a child to play a sport requires a lot of effort from the coaches, parents and the child. In the process of pushing, it is no longer fun for anybody.

Everybody should find something they love and make it their own goal. It is often seen that the parents reasoning for pushing their kids is because sometimes they rest their own dreams onto their child’s shoulders. This only creates pressure and maybe even less of an interest in the sport. A positive to playing many sports though, is being a multisport athlete. Multisport athletes are the best kind of athletes to have on a team. Being in many sports takes kids out of their comfort zone and forces them to become more mentally tough, coach Hiemstra states “Sometimes you have to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation in order to get better.”

Michelle Felker is a firm believer that children should play sports. She said “I would push my child to play a sport, because I feel they may not always know what is best for them.” The statement is very valid, because sometimes children don’t base all of their choices off of their thoughts alone. They listen to what everybody else is saying and doing and this usually makes the decision for them. Michelle strongly believes that sports can have a major impact on somebody’s life. Being involved teaches teamwork, time management, commitment and many other skills useful later in life.

In the long run sports are a great thing that everybody should be a part of. If somebody has been made aware of all of the pros and cons that come with sports, and still choose to not be apart of them, then it is their decision that they should be able to make. The quote “A team is being apart of something else bigger than yourself” expresses the full picture of what it’s like to play sports and being involved with a team.