by Matthew

I believe that kids should play extreme sports. One reason is because extreme sports are popular. Another reason kids should play extreme sports is because injury rates are low. My last reason is that kids can achieve unique skills. You know, one day you could be the next Tony Hawk!

One reason kids should play extreme sports is because it’s very popular. For example skateboarding has surged 49%, 14 million U.S. participants. This shows that if skateboarding was banned, then the 14 million people that enjoy skateboarding won’t be able to do what they want. Another piece of evidence is that Mountain biking has an estimated 8.6 million participants. Same again, the 8.6 million people that enjoy Mountain Biking will have to suffer because it was banned. My last piece of evidence that I have is that snowboarding now claims 7.2 million participants. Overall in total is equal to 29.8 million which shows that extreme sports are super popular.

Another reason that kids should play extreme sports is that injury rates are low. For example, a British Journalist of Sports Medicine studied that most injuries happened because of kids not wearing protective gear. Another piece of evidence is that the British Journalist also says that only 139 skateboarders got injured over four years. This shows that there’s is a low injury rate for skateboarding over four years so it should be pretty safe. Another piece of evidence that I have is that rock climbing in indoor gyms is even a lower injury rate. There are about three injuries every 1000 hours. My last piece of evidence is that snowboarding injury rates were even lower than rock climbing. There are fewer than four injuries for every 1000 boarder days. Most injuries occurred by “failed trick attempts”. I still think that extreme sports create lots of injuries like the other articles against extreme sports but still, there is a low injury rate so I believe kids should play extreme sports.

My last reason that I think kids should play extreme sports is because kids can achieve goals and become popular. One piece of evidence that I have is that Tony Hawk nailed the first ever 900-degree spin in 1999 in the summer X games in San Francisco. I have to admit that is amazing! Another piece of evidence is that Andy Macdonald has been competing in the X games ever since it began. He has been the only one to make the first ever 1260-degree spin in X games in history and has been the only one to skateboard in the White House. My last piece of evidence is that Mike Metzger is called the “Godfather” of freestyle motocross. He is also well known for performing two back flips on a full size bike. If I loved extreme sports (I truly don’t) I would want to have a highlighted play that everyone knew.

On the other hand, extreme sports could be a little dangerous. In a bike world champion in Scotland 30 percent of 173 competitors in cross-country, downhill, and 4-4 events were injured. But however extreme sports offer an opportunity to challenge and express yourself. There exists an air of cooperation, without specific winning and losing that may help some children’s self-esteem. Still, kids can learn something about themselves and challenge themselves to also learn something new.

In conclusion extreme sports sometimes worry parents if their kids want to learn an extreme sport. Overall most parents think about safety instead of what their kids want. But, with better technology over the years, gear should be protective. Kids would enjoy it and parents would be happy to see their kids leave the house and have fun.