Globalization has a major impact on youth baseball players because baseball is becoming more of a global event. Globally, baseball has a huge influence on the identities of youth both positively and negatively because baseball is one of the fastest growing sports around the world. More kids are finding interest in playing this interactive sport. Therefore, it is important to analyze the significance baseball can have on the identities of children. It is imperative to see how children progress into adults because baseball consumes a majority of young athletes’ lives. Frank Smoll and et al., from the department of psychology at the University of Washington at Seattle, state that a little over 20 million kids in the U.S. are involved in recreational sports each year (602). Therefore, it is critical to understand the relationship between baseball and the identity formation in adolescents in the United States of America.
Douglas Kleiber and Linda Caldwell, professors of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Georgia, and Susan Shaw, director of women studies at Oregon State, declare that the central problem for a child is trying to find one’s self and place in life. Moreover, adolescents have to go through rapid transformations because teenagers begin to think like and become mature adults (246). Kleiber, Caldwell, and Shaw make a fine point because youth have a multitude of challenges and uncertainty ahead of them. Sports can have a critical impact on how male children perceive their positions on teams. Although the game of baseball can be argued to be detrimental to American male youth baseball players, this sport has a valuable, gainful impact on male youth and their identities because baseball provides youth time to reflect on their roles in society, to improve on necessary skills important to society, and to give them valuable experience for the challenging future as adults.
Kleiber, Caldwell, and Shaw emphasize that there is a helpful impact on the roles of male youth in society on American youth baseball players because baseball offers tough occurrences for assessing abilities and viewpoints. The tough occurrences help the transitioning process from childhood to adulthood (247). These tough situations for youth are critically important, especially for males. The fewer the opportunities to play baseball, the harder it is for the male athletes to find the right identities and their correct roles in life. Without those opportunities, male youth will not be able to expand on the skills like leadership, responsibility, and communication that are requirements to being active, successful young adults.
Smoll and et al. assert that baseball gives adolescents the chance to work with coaches and teammates where male youth get plenty of beneficial advice, opinions, and viewpoints that provide constructive influences on identities (602). It is vital that male athletes be in environments where they can receive many opinions because the advice leads to better well-rounded athletes. Therefore, the advice helps adolescents develop and expand into well-formed young adults. Baseball allows youth to have fun, exciting moments with teammates who have many viewpoints, a fact that can open up completely new opportunities and enlightening experiences. The opinions and advice from teammates and coaches changes teenagers’ perceptions about the challenges they face, teenagers’ opinions about friends and families around them, and teenagers’ views on how they fit in with different groups of people.
The most crucial resource male youth have when playing baseball is the coach because only the coach knows how the players transform into well-rounded individuals as the season progresses. Smoll and et al. acknowledge that the coach is the essential adult role model for male athletes because the coach gives valuable advice. Also, the coach gives teaching and training that helps the kids build up attributes that are beneficial to the team (602). Smoll’s belief matters because the parents and the coaches can give encouraging feedback, but it is only the coach who can help improve the players’ skills through team practices. Only the coaches see how much the players improve from beginning to end. By having coaches, male youth have huge advantages in their lives. The young athletes will receive plenty of instruction for improving abilities important to being young adults in evolving communities. Male athletes improve their abilities with the step by step help from coaches. Kids can improve upon abilities with or without coach figures in their lives, but how kids reach their final destinations to adulthood varies. There are many successful ways for youth to become adults. Baseball instruction is just one of those important ways.
Overall, baseball has an affirmative impact globally because baseball leads all teenage players in the right direction to becoming successful adults, but young people located all around the world play baseball for different motives. Baseball not only is established in the U.S., but it is also prevalent in other countries. Baseball can inspire young athletes to develop skills and perspectives that assist them in the identity process. So, it is central to see if young athletes are motivated differently in different countries where baseball is an important part of kids’ daily lives. Jin H. Yan, from the Department of Kinesiology at South China Normal University, and Penny McCullagh, professor of Sport Psychology at the California State University at Hayward, report that youth in China are generally involved in activities that give them opportunities to solve problems, to meet people, and to maintain good health. American youth take part in teams to search for ways to develop and build upon skills. Yan and McCullagh respond that this difference in motivation may be due to different family influences, differences in quality of life, and differences in government styles (386-387). Yan and McCullagh’s findings are imperative for adults to understand the transforming identities of teenagers because young people have a large number of opportunities and challenges in front of them. Young people in China and in the U.S. need to know who they are and where they are going. So, they can make wise decisions in their daily lives at school, at baseball practice, in the community, at home, and wherever they go. Chinese and American youth are influenced on the baseball field in different ways, but it is important to point out there are similarities between the youth of these countries. When kids play baseball, they do not know how big an impact it really has on their lives. Kids are able to see how to work together with teammates they do not always like. In baseball, kids see more responsibility. For example, there is an increase in responsibility when the coach asks a kid to pitch five strong innings, or when the coach asks a kid to play a position that a kid does not like. Without even knowing what impact or influence baseball has, male youth in China and in the U.S. on the baseball diamond are finding and exploring ways to becoming active adults in their communities.
Baseball has an encouraging impact on children’s developmental stages into adulthood in the U.S. but how kids are motivated to play baseball greatly varies between cultures in the United States. Yan and McCullagh declare that American born Chinese (ABC) youth are a part of two cultures, Chinese and Western. Therefore, the behavior and motivation to play baseball should be similar between American Born Chinese and American youth because of the Western influences on both groups. However, research shows that ABC youth are more willing to play baseball in order to see many places, to use facilities, and to have valuable experiences with friends (387). The motives across cultures are significant to identify. If people realize that there is a cultural impact on the motivation of teenagers to play baseball, then sports can provide teenagers with opportunities and challenges that assist the many citizens in teenagers’ cities in different countries. ABC and American youth may have different motivations, but the opportunities and challenges of baseball help undeveloped athletes to experience and to learn what it is like to be a valuable, positive part of a group or a team. Teenage athletes from different cultures in the U.S. will fit right in with the rest of their friends and family if the athletes take time to develop, discover, and interconnect their talents and roles with their family, teammates, and community members.
Baseball has a gainful impact on male children in the U.S., but baseball has its negatives because males may use baseball as incentive to prove themselves as aggressive, stereotypical men making it challenging for the adolescents to find their niches to face daily obstacles. Kleiber, Caldwell, and Shaw confirm that baseball offers males with opportunities to explore possible alternatives and identities to find their unique roles. However, Kleiber, Caldwell, and Shaw contend that baseball strengthens the typical male gender role of aggression. A young person today has the idea that being a man means being tough (250). The youth baseball players in the U.S. feel like they have to verify their manliness by playing baseball. The young players have the abilities to use baseball as a way for them to discover their talents and responsibilities they have to their teammates, coaches, and parents. It is essential to be aware of the problems that baseball is having on today’s youth. When youth use little time to explore different talents and roles significant to being a part of a group, then youth will find it extremely difficult to find their identities at the local level. Thus, it will be challenging for emergent youth to contribute to groups or teams and to grasp the responsibilities of being mature adults at the societal level.
Baseball has a hopeful future in the U.S. for adolescents because the baseball field is a supportive environment that allows teammates and coaches to work together to help teenagers grow in abilities that are important to winning games and to their local areas. Smoll and et al. claim that environments where youth get significant time to work with older adults and peers are important for youth to find their true selves. The interactive environments are important because the environments give teenagers valuable input that encourages kids to keep improving on basic skills. The beneficial input allows adolescents to reflect critically on how they can contribute to a team or a group of people in their schools or communities with the talents adolescents possess (602). Smoll’s findings are fundamental to understand the significance feedback from a coach can have on a player’s individuality. It is vital to realize how players view themselves on teams. With little time to interact with peers and coaches, young athletes may feel left out. The interactions with peers and coaches help and aid the growing adolescents to feel comfortable as young individuals taking their positions on and off the playing field.
Male youth are provoked to perform in activities for many reasons, but the result for male athletes all across the globe is largely an advantageous experience that enlightens young boys of their unique gifts. Baseball is a sport for children to discover their individual positions in the field and in their cities. Teenage years are difficult for young athletes. These years include experimentation, development, and exploration. Kleiber, Caldwell, and Shaw assert that activities characterize the intermediate stages of childhood to adulthood for teenagers, a fact which provides youth solid foundations for turning into healthy adults (247). Therefore, settings of learning and experimenting are essentially helpful for children not only in the U.S. but also in other countries. All people have unique roles for interconnecting with friends, groups, and families in their local environments, even the emerging adolescents.
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