How Sport Can Help Your Child’s Development
Participating in sports is a natural transition for kids. As soon as a child opens his or her eyes, motor skills take over.
They react to different stimuli around them. At first everything is instinctive but soon they realise there is an effect to every stimulus. Discovery becomes playtime!
Physical activity increases as kids become more aware of movement and their individual capabilities.
In time, exploration and discovery lead kids to find sports as the best activity.
Here are 5 great reasons why joining sports is the best activity for kids…
Develop Motor Skills
Learning a new sport is never easy. You learn new movements and develop neural pathways to help your body adapt to different functions and techniques.
In time, the movements become easy and natural. But it doesn’t end there.
Once you have reached a certain level of proficiency, you will have to go through a new cycle of learning and adaptation. This is called progress!
Kids who are in sports move and function better than those who lead sedentary lifestyles.
Physically active kids develop their levels of agility, coordination and are in tune with what their bodies can do.
Prepares Kids For The Game Called Life!
In many ways, sport is a metaphor for life. Even if you have achieved an appreciable level of proficiency in a sport, if you don’t put in the time to get better, you’ll be left behind by those who worked harder or are more gifted.
Thus, sport prepares you for competition in the field and in life!
There are different arenas in this game called life: home, school, society, work and business. And competition exists everywhere. Participants who enter the arena are your competitors.
Those who are unwilling, passive and unprepared will be swallowed up and forgotten. Those who are confident, prepared and determined will have the best chance of winning.
Participating in sports teaches kids the importance of preparation and sacrifice. Each time you win or accomplish an objective, you have to aim higher because this is how you progress.
But as you move up, the challenges become more difficult. You will have to work harder and sacrifice more to maintain your winning ways.
It’s the same thing in other facets of life. School itself is a competition.
You have to prove yourself to hundreds of students who want to be better than you. Work is competition.
In order to get that promotion or salary increase, you have to work harder than your co-workers.
In business, if you don’t pursue opportunities, a competitor may beat you to it.
Teaches Kids How To Handle Challenges
One of the hardest things to deal with in sports is failure. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have accomplished at this point. Failure will always be a painful experience.
Many people are afraid of failure because they cannot handle the pain, deal with the disappointments or face the embarrassment.
But these are nothing more than fears and self- limiting beliefs because failure is a part of life and therefore you must learn to accept it.
Sport is a zero sum game because there can only be one winner.
Kids who are exposed to failure get to experience the sheer impact of its reality at a very young age. And it can be transformative!
Those who succeed after experiencing failure are those who view it as part of this process called “winning”.
They are able to see their faults and weaknesses and work on them relentlessly until they become their strengths.
For them failure is not the enemy; it is their teacher.
They grow up knowing that in every venture they get into, the reality of failure is always there. But they will no longer be afraid.
When you do not fear failure, your focus will be greater. You will be able to see the opportunities that those who let fear consume them never will.
Teamwork exists in all types of sport. Even if you participate in an individual sport such as boxing, you still depend on a coach, strength and conditioning expert, sparring partners and corner men.
Talent and natural gifts can only take you so far. If you don’t learn to work with those in the team, it will be difficult to win in sports.
We’ve seen it before; the athletic specimen who can run faster, jump higher and do just about everything better than anyone else.
Yet his team hardly wins because they do not play well together. In order to win, you must set aside personal interests for the greater good.
You have to set aside differences so you can focus on the task at hand.
Kids who participate in sports learn early on that in any organisation, everyone carries value and can contribute to the group’s success.
The challenge lies in harnessing all the talent so they can work as one.
Lead A Strong, Healthy And Fit Life
There is no denying the physical benefits kids get by joining a sport.
Their muscles become stronger, blood and oxygen circulation are more efficient and the various physiological systems function better.
Kids who engage in sports develop important values such as discipline, commitment and respect for others.
They take care of their health and stay away from potentially harmful activities.
They are more confident, self- assured and generally have a wonderful disposition.
They can manage stressful situations better because participating in sports has put them in similar conditions.
Getting kids to participate in sports is not an easy task for parents.
They can suggest but ultimately, it is the child who must decide which sport he or she wants to take up.
The best advice would be to let the child participate in various sports and ask him or her which one was the most enjoyable.
For a child to participate and excel in a sport it must all start out as fun and games.
Parents often live vicariously through their children. They may want to re- live the past or fulfill a dream interrupted but this is the child’s life to live.
It is his or her time to dream! The most important thing is that the child joins a sport they enjoy!