Your kids play soccer twice a week, take gymnastics after school and have tennis lessons every weekend. But are they getting any exercise?
That’s the question being asked in a provocative commentary this month in New Directions for Youth Development, a medical journal. While it seems obvious that kids with several extracurricular sports activities are in fact exercising, the reality is that kids in organized sports aren’t necessarily moving around a lot — or even breaking a sweat, notes Michael F. Bergeron, director of the environmental physiology laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia.
Many local sports programs sign up too many kids, or they don’t have enough coaches to pay attention to everyone. And in some competitive sports, coaches let the kids with the best skills play while others watch from the sidelines.
“There is often too much standing around while waiting for a turn,’’ writes Dr. Bergeron. “Consequently many children routinely leave practices and even competition events feeling bored and as though they did not do much activity at all.”
There’s lots of scientific evidence that youth sports like soccer, swimming, tennis and gymnastics are good for kids. Kids who take part have lower levels of so-called bad cholesterol and higher levels of healthy cholesterol, studies have found. Participation in organized programs has also been associated with leaner body mass in children. Some researchers have found that kids develop denser bones when they take part in sports like basketball, gymnastics, tennis, soccer, lacrosse and distance running.
But it’s not enough just to sign a kid up for a sport, Dr. Bergeron notes. Parents also need to follow up and make sure their children are having fun and getting exercise. “Parents leave them at the club or the field, and in their mind they think their kid is getting the benefit,’’ he said.
The solution is simply to watch your child’s sports practice. It should be obvious immediately whether your kid is getting much exercise. Look for sports programs that have a limited number of participants, as well as those with coaches who emphasize fun and encourage every kid to take part. Small groups — say, a tennis lesson with no more than four kids — can eliminate long waits for a turn.
Dr. Bergeron notes that it’s important also to consider whether your child is having fun, even if he or she is not typically breaking a sweat at practice. If a kid enjoys the time, that’s okay, he said, but parents should think about adding another, more active, class. Better yet, parents can take time themselves to kick the soccer ball around with their kids.