Beth Finley                                                                                                      1/6/14

Biology IH                                                                                                       D Block Even

“Youth Sports: The Impact of Age, Gender, Pressure, Coaches, Teammates, Parents, and Injuries on Young Athletes”

            The poster that Killian made was about the impact of sports on young athletes and how it affects them in both positive and negative ways. She focused on how increased popularity in sports has affected both male and female athletes, and how the involvement of coaches and parents affects the children.

            To answer the question of how increased popularity and involvement in youth sports affected the lives of male and female athletes, Killian brought up the education amendment, Title IX. This was established in 1972 and it allowed females to participate in team sports at school. Since this Title IX was made, many more parents have encouraged their children to start sports at a young age so they can eventually play at a higher level and continue a sport. Subsequently, starting sports so early in life can ultimately led to pressure or stress for kids and teens, especially if they are playing at a competitive level. This idea of intensity and pressure showed how there are many factors that can help you overcome it and improve as a player, or how the stress can get to you and undermine your ability and confidence level.

            A few factors that she brought up included: your age, coaches and parents. Your age can impact your participation in sports because as you reach a more competitive level, teams will choose you if you are born in the first six months of your birth year because those athletes are usually more mature and developed. Coaches affect your sports life depending on their attitude and coaching style; they sometimes are the reason for too much stress and cause some players to unfortunately quit. An athlete’s parents are also a huge factor since they choose what sports you play and they encourage you to always try your hardest. Killian also talked about the positive and negative affects of being involved in a team sport. For example a positive affect is the important life lessons that you learn from sports, such as, sportsmanship, responsibility, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. A negative affect is the lack of confidence one could gain if they are not able to succeed their parents’ or coaches’ standards.

            Killian’s poster was very well put-together and she presented her information in a clear and concise way without reading off of her poster at all. Also, her poster itself was very bright and inviting, the pictures were specifically interesting and perfect visuals for her topic and were visual proof of her thoroughly searched research. Another special quality of Killian’s poster was that she included a section about her personal experience, which nicely tied, up her presentation. One thing she could have done better was explaining the Title IX; she somewhat assumed that we knew what it was and didn’t tell us that it allowed females to participate in sports until we asked her. I enjoyed the science symposium overall and it was interesting to learn from other students at our school. Another poster that interested me was one about the constellations where the girl made a beautiful painting of her different interpretations of the constellations. Overall, I think the symposium was quite informative and Killian’s poster was very well done.