Today's society places great emphasis on competition. It's no good coming last or coming second. For many, the real victory is coming in first place. From early childhood, children are taught that it is important to do their best, but above all to win. The value of victory is probably the most widespread in sporting events. Every year millions of people tune in to see who wins the Super Bowl or which team wins the NBA Finals. However, this competition is not just about professional sporting events. In fact, completion begins in childhood. Parents go to their children's games and push them to win. They believe that the true determining factor in whether or not their child is good at a sport and/or has the potential to become a professional athlete comes from how often they win. In this article, I will express the nature of competition between children against their parents as a driving force, as well as the negative effects that competitive sports have on children both physically and mentally. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay It's easy to think that many parents are limited to supporting their children at their sporting events, but this is often not the case. There have been many instances where I have gone to sporting events, especially wrestling matches, and seen a parent scold their child for losing a match or not making the right move. In these cases you have to ask yourself if the sport is really fun for the child or is he simply trying to please his parents. Would the child be able to quit the sport without upsetting the parent? Do parents hope they can turn their child into a professional athlete? The answer to all these questions is yes. Almost every week you can Google a story about a parent who gets angry at a child's sporting event and yells and/or argues with the coach or argues with another parent. According to a 2001 U.S. survey of 500 parents in Indianapolis, IN regarding parental violence in youth sports, 55% of parents report having witnessed other parents engage in verbal abuse at youth sporting events (Morrison, 2001). In this same survey, 21% said they had witnessed a physical altercation between other parents at youth sporting events (Morrison, 2001). Based on these statistics it can clearly be assumed that parents take sport a little more seriously than children. This proves my point, as well as that of many others, that parents who push their children too hard into sports have an ulterior motive and simply do not want their children to play sports to acquire sportsmanship and athleticism. Aside from parents and their affiliation with sporting events, there are terrible physical dangers a child can face in competitive sports. Just recently, there has been a great debate about the concussions that young people can suffer during football and how these concussions can have lasting effects well into adulthood. Between 2001 and 2005, there were approximately half a million emergency room visits for concussions among children ages 8 to 19 (Boyles). And of those half million emergency room visits related to concussions, about half were sports-related, and 40% of sports-related concussions involved children ages 8 to 13 (Boyles). These statistics show the severity associated with youth sports. However, what these statistics do not take into account are the young people who are not treated for their concussion.