VIOLENCE IN THE YOUTH SPORT 2
Strategies That Parents, Teachers, and Little League Sport Directors Could Use to Help Decrease
the Amount of Violence in the Youth Sport
In any sport, acts of aggression are inevitable as one strives to win over an opponent.
They are the lead causes of violence that is often experienced in youth sports, where everyone
wants to be the best, with each team dreaming to take the trophy home. In brief, competition in
the game is the reason of all aggression, with no team being ready to appear inferior to the other.
As the struggle for the trophy continues, there is likelihood of inappropriate tackles and foul
play, social cohesion among the youth being lost (Atkinson & Young, 2008, p. 233). All this
happens in front of parents, teachers, and even youth sports directors, who are left with no option
but to try to control the situation.
In youth sports, there are games that have been branded as competitive, among them
football and basketball (Snow, 2010), where aggressive tactics are allowed to a certain extent. At
the same time, the player who engages into unfair play is said to act outside the provisions of
good sportsmanship.
In other games, aggression and violence go hand in hand, where contact youth games, for
instance, have provisions for both (Snow, 2010). Ice hockey, American football, martial arts, and
boxing are just a few therein. All of them are marked by what sports experts call ‘permissible
physical violence’. Violence translates into anger about devastating results (Abrams, 2010,
p. 19). There are, however, restrictions and specific penalties for offenders.
As seen in the above paragraphs, sports present the youth with opportunities to be
aggressive and violent. It is, therefore, the duty of parents, teachers, and sports authorities to
design certain strategies that can be used to advise aggression and violence, formulating them in
a manner as to address the variety of such activities comprehensively. Below, there is a short list
of such techniques that can be used by stakeholders