Psychologists around the country stress a need for an active life style to develop healthy self-images. Eric Margenau, a psychologist and author, feels that early and frequent exposure to sports is the key to personal growth. Sports introduce children to healthy competition. A child's failure in competition helps them learn to win gracefully and lose with honor. It teaches youngsters that through perseverance and determination they can win next time. These lessons that children learn will stay with them throughout their lifetime. .
Some skeptics criticize the very premise of competition is hazardous to a child's psychological and emotional well-being. The critics of sports emphasize the detrimental affects of competition and the negative influence of untrained coaches and pushy parents. There are a huge number of children playing sports, but due to burnout, stress, psychological trauma, and lowered self-esteem as many as seventy-three percent quit sports by the age of thirteen. Rick Wolff, a former professional baseball player and coach, claims there are several factors contributing to this phenomenon such as: parents and coaches putting excessive pressure on children, specialization in one sport, over competitiveness, anxiety and loss of interest. This lack of interest may stem from the fact that they are cut from a team, injured, or receive little playing time. Another reason for high dropout rates is the structure of the programs. The sports programs are set up by adults, run by adults, and maintained by adults with a precise date and time. Spontaneous play and creativity are taken out of the equation. Coaches are choosing who plays and who doesn't in an effort to win. A study found that 90% of all children would rather be on a losing team if they got to play. Alfie Kohn, author of "No Contest", claims that competition is the downfall of sports. It is the very core of sports to produce a winner and a loser.