13 Oct Youth Sports are Effective for Kids
From films like “Remember the Titans” that emphasize the power of collaborating from steep odds and the power of friendship to conquer racial barriers to a film like “Riding Giants” that leaves the viewer amazed of pushing the envelope in big-wave surfing, there’s just something about sports that is exciting and motivating. Whether you’ve been a team player, supported one, or worked hard to accomplish a personal athletic goal, it feels great to persistently pursue a desired end result.
Starting with a young age, we typically get our kids engaged in sports. Maybe it’s because we enjoyed playing the same sports when we were little, or maybe we never played but our kids are showing interest therefore we sign them up. No matter what the impetus behind it, there are several beneficial things that come from getting our youths involved with a sports team, and a number of it has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with learning more about life.
Let us start with an evident reason, and that would be better health. Due to the innovations in technology and embracing the virtual world as no previous generation has, these days’ kids are less active than their predecessors. Playing games today usually happens without ever leaving the couch. On the other hand, getting kids in the pool, out on the track, breathing in crisp air out on the football field for autumn practices, or on a court exercising drills and technique is a way to obtain kids moving. Not only does your body usually perform better if it is getting appropriate exercise, it’s proven that it improves your overall health. And, aside from that, you’ll get your kids away from gaming, and rather, help facilitate options for them to engage and interact with real people, real opponents, rather than folks that don’t exist except on a screen.
It grows belonging. It’s an innate need to belong, to associate others, to make connections. When this doesn’t successfully happen for our children, they usually check out other outlets that aren’t productive or healthy. Team sports are a good way to be part of something and belong, and this is more suitable to drugs, alcohol, or other addictive tendencies that inevitably suck the life out of these kids we love so much. If you fill that need with something positive, they’ll be less willing to go looking for, or get engaged in, avenues that result in trouble.
Sports are a fantastic way to infuse discipline. If you’re entailed with a team, or are merely trying to break your own personal best record, it consists of dedication and sacrifice. It means being there for practice regularly, even when you don’t feel like it. It may mean being careful about your diet to achieve greater physical strength and endurance. It might mean time away from family at championships and many hours dedicated to training. But what will they come away having learned from all of this? Dedication. Diligence. Persistence.
As a companion thought to that last point, the discipline and dedication that is desired ultimately allows them to learn that backbreaking work is required to achieve aspirations. As Matt Biondi, an American Olympic swimmer (who won 11! medals) said, “Perseverance can change failure into incredible achievement.” Our kids have to learn that persistence is required when you really want something, and this will apply all through their entire life, long after their days playing sports are over.
As a conclusion to the last two issues, there’s this: In today’s world, where we extremely hear the term “entitlement” and see its manifested behaviors surfacing in our youth, team sports are a good way for our young people to learn that you don’t always win, and things don’t just happen. It’s important to let our kids lose, to have to get up again, to have to really work for something. If our children go through life expecting that it is going to be something akin to perpetual success, sunny skies and cake with sugared frosting on top, they’re going to fall hard when the struggles that come to every life come to them.
As Mary Lou Retton, an Olympic gymnast, said: “A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.” Maybe that’s what it’s all about, by the end of the day: providing experiences where your kid can learn life lessons and have memories that will preserve them over their lives. Maybe they’ll go back to a time when their coach shared something meaningful with them during a specifically difficult practice when life gets difficult. Or maybe, years down the road, when an old familiar song comes out, they’ll be repossessed to traveling in a motorcoach to the state championships, and they’ll fondly recall the strength of those companionships and the laughter and jokes that were shared. The conveniences of sports aren’t held hostage in that one moment or time; they’re carried over a lifetime, laying a foundation for everything that follows.