How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls' Sports: The Pay-to-Play Pipeline, with a New Preface

Sports are great for girls, but few young athletes report "fun" as a reason they play. The rates of concussions and repetitive-use injuries are on the rise, and kids are encouraged to specialize in a single sport at earlier and earlier ages. How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls Sports looks at how college sports shape the athletic and personal landscape for girls and young women, with powerful interview excerpts from women athletes of all ages, coaches, league officials, and others. It is an important and timely reminder that changes need to be made in college and youth athletics to improve the experiences of young athletes so that sports become fun once again.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 08 February 2023
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

More girls are participating in sports than ever before, which is fantastic for girls because sports provide young women with enjoyable and empowering experiences. However, few young athletes list "fun" as a reason for participating in sports in reality. Concussions and repetitive-use injuries are on the rise, and children are pushed to specialize in a single sport at earlier and earlier ages, even at the expense of friends, other activities, and health.
Rick Eckstein, through years of extensive research, discovered that college athletics have had an alarming impact on this trend in youth sports, particularly for girls.
Sports examines college sports and how they shape the athletic and personal landscape for girls and young women. The book is filled with powerful interview excerpts from women athletes of all ages, as well as coaches, league officials, and others, chronicling how college and youth sports have become more commercialized, to the detriment of participants. The book looks at a range of sports, with case studies including soccer, field hockey, ice hockey, figure skating, and Ultimate Frisbee.
Featuring a new introduction to bring this evergreen topic up to the present, How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls Sports is an important and timely reminder that even as we celebrate sports' potential to have a positive impact on a girl's life, changes need to be made in college and youth athletics to improve the experiences of young athletes so that sports become fun once again.

Weight: 367g
Dimension: 228 x 150 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538176801