Sports competitve impact on studies

Sport can pay an important role in teenager’s life. Competition requirements and trainings are added to the youngster’s educational obligations, having an impact on them. Some people defend this impact is positive, while others claim it’s negative. On the one side, it’s unavoidable that athletes develop many skills applicable to their daily life and further education, such as the capacity for effort, teamwork and resilience, among others. What is more, competitive youngsters learn how to manage their time, as they need to balance their academic responsibilities with the sportive ones since they are very young. As an ex-young promise athlete, I have experienced myself the benefits of being a teenager athlete and the impact it had in my studies, as well as working and personal competences development. On the other side, high level competition can be a double-edged sword. Competing in a high level, require a great sum of time spent in training, competitions, travellings, etc. These responsibilities, give young sport talents few time to dedicate to education or leisure purposes, which sometimes impacts negatively in their educational careers. Moreover, the truth is that there are not that many opportunities for athletes to earn a life-long living, specially in minority sports, so by the time they finish competing, those who left apart studies, don’t have more alternatives than becoming a coach. To sum up, I would say that competition sport careers have much more positive than negative effects in teenager’s education, but the most important part is the balance among both responsibilities in order to have a wide range of possible careers once the competition life is over.