Should I enroll my child in sports?
It’s no secret that children of all ages can benefit from taking part in sports, but these days it seems like kids are spending more time indoors on their electronic devices than they are out on the sports field.
As a parent, should you be putting your kid into sports? Yes, absolutely! The list of advantages of playing sports is long and wide-ranging. Not only does it have profound benefits on the child’s physical health, but participation in sports helps to develop important character traits and lifelong values, which can create a positive impact on their lives.
In a society where junk food is readily available, and rates of child obesity are continuing to skyrocket, maybe there should be more importance placed on the partaking of sports for children. In this article, we will take a look at some of the key benefits of putting your kid into sports and in what ways it can help to set them up for success later on in life. Let’s get into it.
Benefits of playing sports
As our society becomes more disconnected and human interaction continues to become more lacking, the importance of sports rises considerably. Sports gives us a time where we can put down our electronic devices, set aside our problems in our lives, and focus on playing the game. It’s a fantastic way to socialize with friends and to learn new skills that may otherwise fall to the wayside.
Team sports, in particular, are an outstanding way to develop personal character traits that serve us well into our later lives. Learning how to communicate with one another, dealing with defeat, cooperating with people that you would generally avoid, and resolving conflict – the sooner these skills are learned, the better.
Here are some of the key benefits that kids can gain when they take part in regular sporting activity:
The 8 advantages of putting your kid in sports
A great form of exercise
First and foremost, sport is an incredible way to exercise. Your kids are out in the fresh air, running around, getting their heart racing and their blood pumping. For most of us, exercise is more synonymous with the word boring than it is with fun, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Putting your kid into a sports club or sports team will give them a great avenue to keep healthy and fight off the dangers of childhood obesity. Let’s be honest, how many children are you going to see running on a treadmill or sitting at a rowing machine?
They need a fun and engaging way to exercise, and sports provide precisely that.
Boosts self-esteem
Confidence is a crucial trait that almost every human being aspires to have. Being confident in your ability gives you the chance to stand up for yourself and what you believe in. And it supplies you with the determination to chase down your dreams and ambitions.
Sport gives your child a great platform to develop confidence, not only in their supporting abilities but in themselves too, as long as they have the help of a good coach and a sound support system.
Helps with their schoolwork
Sport is good for your kid’s grades! When we take part in vigorous exercise, it improves the blood flow to our brains, which enables our body to develop better and stronger connections between our nerves and our brain cells. This provides a whole host of amazing benefits that will help your child in their life, but especially their school work. Playing sport gives a natural boost to your kids’ memory, concentration, problem-solving, and creativity, which would all go a long way to improving their academic performance.
A healthy way to relieve stress
Exercise reduces the amount of the stress hormone that we have in our blood called cortisol. The more vigorous the activity, the more stress we release. We all know how damaging stress can be on our minds and bodies, and sometimes we forget that our littles ones also struggle from stress, too.
Enrolling them into a sport gives them a healthy way to boost their mood and keep stress to a minimum.
Great way to make friends
Team sports are a great way to make deep and long-lasting connections between friends. The sense of comradery and togetherness is a powerful way to develop friendships, which is a fantastic benefit of sports. For some children who struggle in social situations, sports is an incredible way to break down barriers between children, giving them a platform to compete and share the experience of working hard together.
Develop leadership and teamwork skills
Leadership and teamwork skills are two of the most important and most employable skills there are. Almost every job in the world requires you to communicate with other people. You must learn how to convey your ideas effectively and learn how to listen and understand other people’s points of view.
Sports offers a fantastic opportunity for kids to discover how to work with different types of people. There are disagreements, arguments, and sometimes even conflict, but this is all part of being human. Sports allow your child to experience all of these situations safely and healthily, which in turn will help them to grow into great leaders and team members in the future.
Great way to pick up other skills
There are a ton of skills to be learned playing sports, such as basic motor skills, hand-eye coordination, balance, mental focus, handling pressures, commitment, and dedication. These are all extremely valuable and desirable skills that will bring a lot of value to your child’s life in the future.
Develop a healthy relationship with competition
Let’s face it, we live in a super-competitive world. Your child will have to learn how to compete for things like their college placements, scholarships, future employment, promotions, and so on. Learning how to foster a healthy relationship with the competition is a great experience for other areas of life.
If they can use competition as a way to instill within themselves determination and motivation, then they will always be ready to meet a challenge head-on with a positive attitude. Sports also show us how to be competitive in the right way, without any malice or underhandedness. Sportsmanship is usually paramount to all coaches, and it provides an excellent example for kids and how they should live their lives and treat other people.
Emotional intelligence
Life is tough. We will all go through hard times at some points in our lives. It’s simply unavoidable. Sports teaches us how to deal with losing, fierce competition, conflict, and bad temperaments. Learning how to keep your cool in a heated situation is a great asset, and sports is a great way to develop these traits.
Sports gives your child a platform to learn how to both win and lose with grace, cope with stressful situations, and how to handle their own emotions when tempers are running high.
When is my child ready to start playing sports?
There is a lot of conflicting advice about when to start your child in sports, so it’s best kept to each parent’s discretion. Some people say the earlier, the better, others say that all forms of organized sport should wait until the ages of 6 or 7. This is because 6 is around the age where your child develops enough emotional and physical strength to engage in competitive sport.
That being said, that doesn’t mean that you’re 2-3 year old can’t benefit from playing some lighthearted and less serious forms of sport. We all have to start somewhere.
Thanks for reading.
Should I put my kid in sports?
Children can benefit greatly from sports; learning how to cope with failure, building confidence, and developing a healthy fitness routine are all benefits of introducing your child to sport. Signing your child up for a local youth sports league will allow them the opportunity to meet new people and develop a sense of independence.