Parents "Team Sports Linked to Fewer Mental Health Difficulties for Kids"

[high5]

Team Sports Linked to Fewer Mental Health Difficulties for Kids - Neuroscience News

Children who participate in team sports have better mental health outcomes than those who play individual sports or take part in no sports at all. Those who play individual sports have worse mental health outcomes than those who do not play sports.

neurosciencenews.com

I came across an article on the positive impact of team sports on child mental health, and it caught my attention since gymnastics is listed as an individual sport in the article. My child enjoys gymnastics, but as a parent, I often question if it's worth the time and money, especially when dealing with social challenges like mean girls, conflicts, and pressure to win. However, I believe that learning gymnastics offers valuable benefits, such as setting personal goals, developing resilience, and cheering for others, in addition to physical strength. Nevertheless, when the team spirit is not maintained well, it can be mentally challenging for my child. Quite a subjective question, but how do you all parents balance these? As you can probably guess, my kid is in a lower compulsory level right now.

 

[Aussie_coach]

But in many ways gymnastics is a team sport. They train together and they compete together.

Teams spend so many hours together, that they become incredibly close.

I know I’m my gym they are always behind each other. When someone is working a new skills everyone is there cheering them on. When someone gets a new skill everyone cheers and screams and runs and hugs their team mates.

Last night I set my gymnasts a challenge to complete and I had intended for it to be a bit of a competition between them. But we started and they all just did it as a team, helping each other through.

When I finished I told them that it had impressed me that instead of trying to win they had all just decided to help and support each other as a team.

They said “because we are a team”

 

[Dahlialover]

This is discouraging. I definitely see several kids having gymnastics-induced emotional distress in boys level 3!!!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

And yet I know of far too many suicides of athletes

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I'd be shocked if low-level gymnastics didn't have mental health benefits, especially with good, positive coaching.

I won't place bets either way with regards to an extended, high-level gymnastics career.

This is purely anecdotal, referencing a skewed sample of a skewed sample, but looking at all the coaches I've met in the aggregate, if the average mental health of the general populace is even worse than ours, then..... yikes.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

And yet I know of far too many suicides of athletes

I'd be shocked if low-level gymnastics didn't have mental health benefits.

I won't place bets either way with regards to an extended, high-level gymnastics career. This is purely anecdotal, referencing a skewed sample of a skewed sample, but looking at all the coaches I've met in the aggregate, if the average mental health of the general populace is even worse than ours, then..... yikes.

There is a certain level of anxiety that often drives high performing, successful individuals. However that anxiety can be well over the threshold of coping or is poorly managed.

 

[Aussie_coach]

This is discouraging. I definitely see several kids having gymnastics-induced emotional distress in boys level 3!!!

This is crazy. If the gymnasts are stressed out to this degree then they are not being coached well.

As a coach, of you want to get the most out of your gymnasts you need to coach them with positivity, encouragement, enthusiasm, creativity and fun.

If our gymnasts can’t do the conditioning, we don’t yell at them we cheer them on.

When they lose a skill or have fear we create fun and exciting ways to work through the fear and get it back.

We don’t dwell on mistakes, we celebrate triumphs.

Gymnasts who feel supported by their coach, loved by their team mates and find their time in the gym exciting, positive and fun learn skills at a rapid rate, work hard and don’t have many mental blocks.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Agreed, the coaching style can have a HUGE impact on this in either direction. A positive and nurturing coach can teach confidence and resilience and a host of other skills that will serve a kid well for the rest of their lives.

An abusive coach, on the other hand.....

 

[JBS]

The issue with gymnastics is that it is only a team sport in certain cases. Below are two different scenarios...

1. Team scenario
   • The club has enough gymnasts at that level to be a team
   • The club participates in many meets where the athletes are not put in sessions by age group... rather... they choose many meets where the whole team / level competes together in the same session
   • The club really pushes team over individual (very hard to do based on the way that gymnastics works)
2. Non-team scenario
   • The club does not have enough athletes to form a team.
   • The club participates primarily in meets where the sessions are grouped by age thus splitting the team into a bunch of individuals

Gymnastics can be made into more of a team concept... but it's not easy compared to hockey / baseball / soccer / etc.

Let's face it... partaking in large endeavours on your own is typically harder and more stressful than with a group of people.

 

[JBS]

I'm not saying that the $100 million dollar quarterback in the NFL doesn't feel and immense amount of individual pressure.

I'm saying that the overall way that gymnastics works on the youth level is very different than team sports.

Here's more interesting stuff...

• Club Gymnastics (awards focus on individuals... team is definitely secondary)
• High School Gymnastics (awards focus more on team)
• College Gymnastics (awards and coverage focus more on team)

The thing is... most athletes first go through the club level system before entering high school or college gymnastics.

 

[JBS]

I guess the question is...

Can a primarily individual sport be made so that it will perform just as good as a team sport in a study such as above?

Or another question...

What if individual awards were eliminated in gymnastics? What if clubs had to group their athletes so they always had teams? If a club had a team of L6 and a team of L8 but only one L7... what if that L7 had to be grouped either up or down to play?

 

[TheXcelMom]

Gymnastics can be damaging if the club/coach/team offers upward mobility based on body type and/or makes it a point to shame athletes for gaining a few pounds. The intense scrutiny of a girl's body can be a nightmare, especially through puberty.
We've all seen it, and most of us know to run away from it, but some families only have one gym nearby and don't have much choice.
The hyperfocus on body image can cause eating disorders, anxiety, depression etc etc.
Does any team sport do this? I don't know.
I'd hazard that this could be the reason for the crappy mental health stats for gymnastics.

 

[Dahlialover]

This is crazy. If the gymnasts are stressed out to this degree then they are not being coached well.

As a coach, of you want to get the most out of your gymnasts you need to coach them with positivity, encouragement, enthusiasm, creativity and fun.

If our gymnasts can’t do the conditioning, we don’t yell at them we cheer them on.

When they lose a skill or have fear we create fun and exciting ways to work through the fear and get it back.

We don’t dwell on mistakes, we celebrate triumphs.

Gymnasts who feel supported by their coach, loved by their team mates and find their time in the gym exciting, positive and fun learn skills at a rapid rate, work hard and don’t have many mental blocks.

It is truly not our coach’s fault! He cares much more about the kids’ character development than their athletic achievement. He rewards kids for effort, teamwork, and positive attitude and never talks about scores or performance. We have kids on the team with disabilities who are absolutely thriving, despite scoring last in every meet.

The problem is talented kids with parents who are never satisfied. It’s hard for the coach to fix the damage caused by parents who say things like “Second place is the first loser.” and “With all the money we pay, you should win!”

 

[Deleted member 18037]

It’s not just gymnasts

Suicides spike as NCAA athletes struggle with exhaustion, anxiety and more

"As athletes, you know you will never be perfect," said a two-time softball champion who struggled. "But you will die trying to climb that hill to reach perfection."

abc13.com

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Gymnasts who feel supported by their coach, loved by their team mates and find their time in the gym exciting, positive and fun learn skills at a rapid rate, work hard and don’t have many mental blocks.

Not having mental blocks doesn’t equate to good mental health.

So much more complex. The internal pressure kids put on themselves lends itself to athletics.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Let's face it... partaking in large endeavours on your own is typically harder and more stressful than with a group of people.

Not true. High level athletes take a huge amount of responsibility for the outcome of games.it’s internal not external

OMG, goalies. Our team lost a game recently 18-1. it was clearly an experience thing. Opposing team has girls playing lacrosse since they were 7/8, travel teams with Div 1 commitment. Our team most/all girls never picked up a stick until 3 years ago. Our goalie was devastated. After the game I was like please don’t own this all, that ball got past 11 other girls, not just you.

 

[JessSyd]

I think the club ethos plays a role. My daughter’s former club liked the girls to be hungry for a win. While individual coaches may have been better at promoting a team vibe, overall competition between the girls was promoted and sometimes arbitrary cutthroat scenarios were put into place just to see it happen (like they would say to a very equally skilled squad, “we’re going to test you all and cull the lowest scoring three from this training group into a lower group in three weeks so you’ve been warned…”). Serious divide and conquer stuff. Even the ‘stars’ were stressed, let alone the more average gymnasts. And it spilled over to the parents and was just…..well, not great for mental health.

Compared to her current club which tries very hard for a team vibe. My daughter no longer becomes more anxious as we drive to training, she relaxes. It’s her happy place.

Having said that, even if the kid loves the sport and is happy in the gym, it can exacerbate existing issues. My kid, for example, is an anxious perfectionist. Any piece of assessment or homework will take ALL the time available for it because (if allowed) she will keep working on it until it is perfect, at the expense of sleep and leisure time. An A isn’t good enough - it has to be an A with full marks. I think a sport where even barely perceptible imperfections are deducted reinforces that hyperconscientious mindset.

 

[JBS]

Not true. High level athletes take a huge amount of responsibility for the outcome of games.it’s internal not external

OMG, goalies. Our team lost a game recently 18-1. it was clearly an experience thing. Opposing team has girls playing lacrosse since they were 7/8, travel teams with Div 1 commitment. Our team most/all girls never picked up a stick until 3 years ago. Our goalie was devastated. After the game I was like please don’t own this all, that ball got past 11 other girls, not just you.

I honestly have no idea where you are going with this?

I'm not saying that the $100 million dollar quarterback in the NFL doesn't feel and immense amount of individual pressure.

I'm saying that the overall way that gymnastics works on the youth level is very different than team sports.

 

[TheXcelMom]

“Second place is the first loser.”

Taking parenting cues from Dance Moms is… not a good idea.

 

[JBS]

Here is more to consider... we had our L10 sessions of Regionals yesterday. Just looking at the first session of L10's...

• There were 30 teams... 17 or them only had 1 athlete on the floor
• There were more coaches on the floor than athletes

The other two sessions were very similar.

The only team competition is between the states... and honestly... no one has any idea how it even works or what athletes are on the state teams. Overall... less than 1/3 of the athletes are competing for their state teams. This means that 2/3 of the athletes at L10 Regionals were competing in an event that was only about the individual competition.