The governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan, has told a conference the near obsession with elitism in sport is damaging young people's mental health and taking from the enjoyment of participating in games.
People needed idols, but there had to be a balance and there had to be "something for the ordinary guy", Mr Lonergan said.
The current "madness about success" even at under-10 and under-12 matches would lead to mental breakdown, Mr Lonergan predicted at the Kerry Mental Health Association conference in Killarney. The conference was attended by local authority delegates.
He described football and hurling matches with "lunatics of parents on sidelines". The abuse young people were getting for losing was such they would never forget it. Equally, the excessive praise they got when they won left them ill-equipped to cope when their team eventually lost.
Mr Lonergan said individuality was being "coached out of people" with over-training and he urged a return to the enjoyment of sport.
There were clear links between crime prevention and participation in sport, he said. In the most disadvantaged areas where most criminals came from there were no or few sporting opportunities and "sport is almost entirely absent" from these areas, Mr Lonergan said.
"I am certain that given the opportunity some of these people would be outstanding sports people but they are not given the chance," he said.