Team Sports: Can he Next Generation Survive Them?

NEWS FLASH:  Schools are having a hard time filling Football and Hockey Teams.

 

Wow, and I thought the human species was destine to end with every man and women over 30 years old dieing of arthritis caused by injuries received from playing high school, college or professional football or hockey 

Not to say Baseball, Basketball and the other team sports are any better.  Why do I say this?  I have now seen three generation of violent behavior being coached in these team sports.  All of which is just to gain advantage.   

There is no way to write about this affliction on the next generation without sounding like a whiner.  By, that is what the kids today will be doing in 30 years with the injuries they incur now, so I will whine away for them in hopes someone will think about what these sports are going to do for these kids health in 20 years..

I was there when tactics with the purpose of inflecting bodily injury was methodically taught to kids by coaches obsessed with being the leader of a winning team.  Mostly due to economics.  They weren’t going to be working too long if they coached a losing team.  And no kid wants to go to a college with a losing attitude. 

What was the result?  Well look around at the baby boomer generation.  9 out of 10 of the men over 50 years old who played High School football or hockey now have some sort of arthritis over at least 40% of their body.  Was the fun worth it?  No.

There is no surprise when you hear of high school athletes taking drugs.  Or even the professionals.   Most have to take drugs to deal with the pain.  And on the other side of the coin, the news on kids taking steroids to get bigger so they can inflect pain on others is no surprise either.

Look at your sport section of any newspaper today and you will see articles all year around glorifying team sports.  What does this do?  It does two things.  First the parents, who either missed out on becoming a professional athlete or out of greed to get their kids into a high paying profession, push their kids to playing a sport they are physically not built to play. 

Secondly, kids see the highlights of their hero running a 98 yard touch down, of scoring a goal from center ice.  They only see what they have been taught is excitement, someone getting hurt, foaled or penalized.  Not the sport.  

Yes, the media will tell you about the player who was knocked out, broke his arm or was slashed with a hockey stick, but only after they tell you who won the game…accepting  the violence as just part of the game.. No wonder kids do not want to play in team sports.

I am sure if you are still reading this, you either have heard it all before or you are wondering what point I have that is different.

In my business I play golf to learn more about people I want to do business with.  And recently I am working with a large number of clients in their fifties who decline my invitations to play golf with explanation for having a hand, elbow, knee, hip, back, neck, finger or any other part of the body injury.  Everyone one of them was from a High School and in some cases earlier, injury.

I too have several fingers that are not working correctly and knees that are creaking and vertebra that are popping, all from the days when, to be cool in school, played football.   I did not get the injuries because I was not physically built for football, which was the problem; I was the size to really hurt someone who was not as big as me. 

I think you get my point.  Now what is different is the violence is purposeful in team sports and causing even more injuries to today’s youth, which is releasing even more people into society with injuries that as they get older will cause tremendous health issues society will have to deal with…

So, I guess my point is?  Well, I am typing all of this in considerable discomfort… you make the point from that and why I do not find it a surprise or a concern kids are not wanting to play in Team Sports.

 

Scot Duke

Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC.

scot.duke@innovativebusinessgolf.com

www.innovativebusinessgolf.com

 

‘My Blog’ http://businessgolf.blogspot.com

 

Author of: ‘How To Play Business Golf’, From The Boardroom To The Fairways…

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