The answer to this question is simple.
Sports are fun, they keep children busy, it affects their future physical and mental health development positively.
Getting children to participate in outdoor activities, such as sports, regardless if it is a team sport or an individual one, helps them explore and develop skills that are considered and will be beneficial throughout their lives. By participating in sports, children are exposed to numerous benefits, and here are some of them:
- Teamwork– a very necessary skill that nowadays is constantly required. When it comes to teamwork, the child learns that there is no I in a team. They’ll have to get to know each other and work together to achieve a certain given goal, “Teamwork makes the dream work”. In this way besides learning their teammate’s strengths and weaknesses, they also create life-lasting friendships and bonds.
- Self Esteem– It is proven that taking part in sports helps and boosts self-esteem and confidence. Certain gestures that are used by the teammates and the coach during the match and after the match is over, words of encouragement lead to building confidence and self-esteem. It helps to learn how to trust and improve your skills and abilities and accept your weaknesses and work on them.
- Fair play and learning to accept failure– In sports there are winners and losers and this applies to most of the things you will encounter and do in your life. Through sports kids learn sportsmanship; they learn that they can’t always come out as a winner and to accept that is it okay if you lose and to learn how to cope with it. In the end, what matters, the most is to be a good person, show good sportsmanship, and get back up and try again.
- Stress relief – It is proven by experts that when exercising and after it, kids are much happier. This is due to the part of the brain that releases serotonin, dopamine, and endorphin that prevents stress and anxiety. Sport is a good way for kids to loosen up and just let it go. If the body is in a good health the mind will also be strong and clear.
- Discipline– In every sport, individual or not, there is a set of rules that need to be followed, they need to listen to the coach. By doing this the child is developing discipline. This discipline could be mental or physical. Anyone who wants to improve and succeed in sports needs to excel at it. Besides all this, discipline helps the child to achieve its goals and also reach its fullest potential.
- Social Skills- Playing a sport helps children develop social skills which would benefit them even when they grow older. It teaches them about teamwork and cooperating with others. They learn to interact with people of different ages and gives children a sense of belonging and allows them to make friends that otherwise the chances are big they would have never met.
The list of benefits from sports is endless. Other benefits like healthier living, better academic performance, medical fitness mean that your child will become stronger not just physically but also mentally. As kids sports will keep them occupied and will learn life lessons and team strategies and best of all they will learn to overcome obstacles and challenges. However, remember to always be there for them, to encourage them, and to lead by a good example.
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