Is It Wrong to Let Children Do Extreme Sports?

I was raised just like these kids in this article, now I'm 30 with 2 kids, here is my 2 cents.

I feel it is important to raise kids in a safe environment. I believe I was raised in a safe environment, even though I have injured myself multiple times throughout the years.

When I was a child, my parents supported me to do just about any activity as long as I became competent in safety, it was something I was going to enjoy and they could be there to support me. I could have played football or baseball but, I chose to ski, snowboard, race moto, rock climb, skateboard, wakeboard, ect... Because I chose to do more "extreme" activities, I don't feel this put me at any greater risk than if I was to play football or other mainstream sport.

What you don't see when you hear of a kid doing an "extreme" sport is the parents involvement. It is up to the parents to decide how they raise their children, not the media. Granted there are parents who let there kids do activities with a total lack of understanding safety and not being involved keeps them blind to know when the child is being reckless or being way too pushy and forcing them to do something they have no desire to do.That is where, in my opinion, the risk increases and is just bad parenting.

The biggest issue I have is how kids are trained, team sports are the worst in my opinion. No child should have to go through such vigorous training at such young ages, if done incorrectly it could be very detrimental to there growth and have life long consequences. My parents wouldn't allow me to weight train until I was 15. I have a friend that played football form age 6 throughout high school and trained hard from day 1. Today he has migraines daily and chronic back and knee pain, it keeps him from doing things he would like to do. The only thing he has ever done to beat up his body is play football. I'm not saying all his issues are driven from football, but it seem likely. On the other hand, I have an extensive list of injuries myself from "extreme" sports, fortunately nothing that keeps me from doing the things I enjoy. I'm not condoning football or comparing one to another, I'm just saying there is risk in everything we choose to do. It's a matter of being educated to make the best decisions to reduce the overall risk.

It's not a matter of what the child is doing, but how they are doing it. An incompetent unsupervised child could ride their bike into traffic and be killed. An incompetent unsupervised child could rock climb outside of their ability, with out proper training and safety fall to there death.

As backwards as it sounds, we need children to take part in extreme sports, its what has driven sports to evolve into what they are today. Most extreme sports now days are somewhat safer because they have evolved, better equipment and understanding. Look at almost every professional athlete, at what age do you think they started? Most likely as a child.

Don't hold kids back, educate, support, and supervise them. Allow them to choose to take on the risk themselves. I will raise my children similar to the way I was raised by my parents. Educate them about safety and risk, be involved, and support what they choose to do.

We are only making this world worse off if we continue to suppress our children.

This post is my personal opinion, driven from a life filled with love and support from loving family and friends to allow me to understand risk. Looking back at my life, I would not change anything. Except that time I decided to be extremely reckless, do to incompetence, lack of safety and supervision, that resulted in a lengthy hospital stay.

Edit for spelling.

Super Fluke wrote: Don't hold kids back, educate, support, and supervise them. Allow them to choose to take on the risk themselves. I will raise my children similar to the way I was raised by my parents. Educate them about safety and risk, be involved, and support what they choose to do. We are only making this world worse off if we continue to suppress our children.

I absolutely agree with everything you say.

Part of being a good parent is saying no. I hate to be the judgemental guy, but the dad featured in the article (whose kid skates the megaramp with many concussions under his belt), is not being a good parent by letting his 8 year old continue to be put in a position where he can get future concussions. Maybe the kid will hate him for it now and for a few years, but he might thank him later in life (when he is able to hold down a job because he doesn't suffer from TBI).

Stagg54 wrote: Doesn't really answer my question. As a 13 year old how were you prepared to take care of medical expenses, etc. if you were injured? As an adult, I have health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and emergency fund. As a 13 year old...

Sorry but you really need to learn what those things will do. Because from the sound of it you think your insurance will cover rock climbing. I knew as a kid that they didn't... you need to learn that all those insurance you are talking about will not cover rock climbing.

Just because as a kid you may not be the one working the job doesn't mean you don't know the cost of getting hurt. You seem to be the one lacking an understanding and knowing that what you are talking about don't cover extreme sports.

Today i have insurance because i am a diabetic, not because i rock climb. If i was not a diabetic i would not waste my money on insurance for rock climbing because 90% of what i do today as an adult has clauses in my insurance that say they will not cover getting hurt. In the same way when i was a kid I knew insurance would not cover injuries caused by extreme sports.

Maybe that is something that all these "older" climbers need to realize and look at. I had special insurance when i was a kid that my parents paid for, i bet 90% of the climbers on here think that their normal insurance would cover rock climbing injury. (well they will as long as they don't know what caused the injury, i would total say i slipped while hiking if i had to go to the ER)

^^^Fallstate?

ViperScale wrote: Sorry but you really need to learn what those things will do. Because from the sound of it you think your insurance will cover rock climbing. I knew as a kid that they didn't... you need to learn that all those insurance you are talking about will not cover rock climbing. Just because as a kid you may not be the one working the job doesn't mean you don't know the cost of getting hurt. You seem to be the one lacking an understanding and knowing that what you are talking about don't cover extreme sports. Today i have insurance because i am a diabetic, not because i rock climb. If i was not a diabetic i would not waste my money on insurance for rock climbing because 90% of what i do today as an adult has clauses in my insurance that say they will not cover getting hurt. In the same way when i was a kid I knew insurance would not cover injuries caused by extreme sports. Maybe that is something that all these "older" climbers need to realize and look at. I had special insurance when i was a kid that my parents paid for, i bet 90% of the climbers on here think that their normal insurance would cover rock climbing injury. (well they will as long as they don't know what caused the injury, i would total say i slipped while hiking if i had to go to the ER)

I would say with life insurance and disability insurance that you are right to an extent in that not all policies cover that, but you can find ones that do.

And as far as health insurance, I've gotten injured rock climbing and been completely honest about it and they covered.

Honestly you come off as a spoiled little brat who knows nothing about the "real world"(I generally hate that phrase, but it seems appropriate here).

ViperScale wrote: Sorry but you really need to learn what those things will do. Because from the sound of it you think your insurance will cover rock climbing. I knew as a kid that they didn't... you need to learn that all those insurance you are talking about will not cover rock climbing. Just because as a kid you may not be the one working the job doesn't mean you don't know the cost of getting hurt. You seem to be the one lacking an understanding and knowing that what you are talking about don't cover extreme sports. Today i have insurance because i am a diabetic, not because i rock climb. If i was not a diabetic i would not waste my money on insurance for rock climbing because 90% of what i do today as an adult has clauses in my insurance that say they will not cover getting hurt. In the same way when i was a kid I knew insurance would not cover injuries caused by extreme sports. Maybe that is something that all these "older" climbers need to realize and look at. I had special insurance when i was a kid that my parents paid for, i bet 90% of the climbers on here think that their normal insurance would cover rock climbing injury. (well they will as long as they don't know what caused the injury, i would total say i slipped while hiking if i had to go to the ER)

This sounds true for some life insurances, but none of the medical insurance coverage I've had (small sample of n=4 across my climbing career) made exclusions based on activity/cause of injury. For life insurance, there's variation across companies and plans with respect to climbing. Some cover, some don't, some it's gray.

Your repeated characterization of yourself as hyper rational (automata?) is making it hard to take your responses seriously.

jaredj wrote: This sounds true for some life insurances, but none of the medical insurance coverage I've had (small sample of n=4 across my climbing career) made exclusions based on activity/cause of injury. For life insurance, there's variation across companies and plans with respect to climbing. Some cover, some don't, some it's gray. Your repeated characterization of yourself as hyper rational (automata?) is making it hard to take your responses seriously.

Well maybe it is state based, I have had 6 different medial insurance policies over my lifetime and every single one had clauses that said dangerous (even some said climbing) was not covered. Noone else i know of from my state that climbs has medical insurance that will cover it either, some have bought special policies to cover it though. Most of us just assume unless we have to be air lifted off the side of a cliff that we would just go to the ER and not tell them we were rock climbing.

Not at all. I'm sure you can find extra small wingsuits. They'll be a little nervous that first time. Just give them a little push and once they're flying they'll love it!

Stagg54 wrote: As a 13 year old how were you prepared to take care of medical expenses, etc. if you were injured?

I dont think kids are legally responsible for their own medical expenses. I would imagine a hospital would have a hell of a time going after a minor for medical damages, and it would be pointless anyway as anyone with half a brain knows kids make exactly zilch in dough. So the answer to your question is easy: via their parents.

Chris Hill wrote:Not at all. I'm sure you can find extra small wingsuits. They'll be a little nervous that first time. Just give them a little push and once they're flying they'll love it!

It is much the same as scuba diving, you aren't going to find a public place to certify you to sky dive just like you have to be a certain age to get padi or dan scuba diving certification. However if you have enough money and your own plane there is nothing that will stop you from jumping out on your own.

I know of a guy who's dad is a helicopter pilot and has friends that have taken them up to jump out. So at that point you don't need certs to go do it.

I have taken plenty of people out with my own scuba gear to let them try out diving. You only need certifications if you want to rent air tanks (which you can technically own and fill your own, and it may vary based on the shop) or go out on a commercial dive boat. I have never gotten my advance dive certification but normally when i go dive i spend a week+ diving 2-3 times a day and have never had problems with a shop letting me do deep dives down to 150ft (it is easy to pick out divers who know what they are doing and those who do it once every few years). I even got a job offer at a shop, 2 of the dive masters there offered for me a spare room to stay with them, onetime after i dove with them so much.

As a teenager myself, I'd like to throw in my two cents...I'm 16, and have been climbing for the last 10 years. Not only competitions and bouldering, but difficult trad and multi pitch as well. I understand my brain is apparently unable to analyze risk as it should, but I also believe that my experience climbing provides me with the ability to make choices of consequence within the sport, and make them well. My parents respect this, and hold the rope on more than a few scary head points as a result. I climb because it's one of the only places I'm allowed to make decisions about myself, for myself, based upon experience, not age. And I couldn't imagine this being taken away. So if you want to take away my ability to do what I love based off my age, please also prevent every inexperienced adult who needs a rescue off a big wall from climbing as well, based off their stupidity.

Very well put, Isaac, and you do seem quite a bit more self aware than the average person. Maybe all that climbing helped your personal development? You and your parents seem to be taking a more sensible approach than the kid in the article, who had had 10 concussions by age 13 ( that number still boggles my mind!).

Yeah, that is a good point...at least in that particular example, it does seem as if the injuries are far more numerous than those of the average skater. Perhaps the question then should not be if children should be allowed to participate, but how the existing community of adults within an extreme sport can foster the development of a child's skillset, providing them with the experience necessary to make important decisions within the sport. I don't think that kid should stop mega ramp skating, but maybe could use someone encouraging him not to huck something he hasn't landed in the foam pit yet.