There are lots of great reasons to get your child involved in sports, with the benefits going way beyond just the physical. In fact, playing sports can mean kids live a healthier life, have improved mental health, not to mention it can have a positive effect on their emotions and social skills. Here are some of the reasons why it’s so important for parents to encourage children to get involved and participate in sports. We bet they’ll enjoy it too!
Physical Benefits
Improved Health
One of the most obvious benefits of kids getting involved in sports is being physically fit and having a healthier body. With indoor activities such as playing video games and watching TV becoming more and more popular, getting kids to participate in sports has never been more crucial. In fact, exercise is an essential part of maintaining a healthy body composition and children who regularly participate in sports tend to be leaner and have less risk of diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.
Better Coordination and Balance
Children who participate in sports learn early on to have better control of their bodies. This positively affects important functions such as coordination and balance, as they quickly develop the neurological pathways to support these skills. Even better, having improved coordination and balance lasts a lifetime.
Increased Strength and Stamina
Participation in sports helps kids to develop and strengthen the muscles they might not use in regular daily life. Not only does this help to keep them healthy, but over time leads to an increase in their general strength and stamina.
Social Benefits
Improved Social Skills
Getting involved in sports can have a positive impact on a child’s social skills in so many different ways. As well as learning to interact with people from all different age groups, joining a sports team also helps provide kids with a sense of belonging and gives them plenty of opportunity to make friends. As team sports promote teamwork and foster relationships, kids also become better at communicating and build up confidence when interacting with others.
Leadership and Teamwork Skills
One of the great benefits of kids participating in sports is the leadership qualities they build. On top of building up leadership abilities, playing sports also teaches the important lesson of learning how to work well with other people. Working closely together in sports means kids quickly learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and over time children will be able to easily strategise a plan that’s best for the whole team. These two important skills will also help them excel in school, life and in the workplace.
Sportsmanship
Being involved in sports helps kids learn that both winning and losing are part of life, and they understand how to handle it graciously. This sportsmanship also helps them know how to treat their opponents respectfully, win or lose.
Emotional Benefits
Improved Self-Esteem
Recent studies have suggested that taking part in sports can help improve your child’s self-esteem and confidence levels. Gestures such as a high-five from a teammate or a pat on the back after a match, helps build confidence, whereas words of praise or of encouragement from their coach or teammates help build-up their self-esteem. Being involved in sports also helps kids to learn to trust their own abilities and have confidence in their intuition.
Less Stress
Exercise and sports have been shown time and time again to have positive effects on the body and mind by reducing stress. In fact, kids that participle in sports at school will likely have a much lower risk of suffering from poor mental health and may even delay instances of mental health issues such as depression from happening up to four years later.
