The majority of parents are aware of the numerous health and fitness advantages of encouraging their children to participate in a team sport. These could include… forming a routine of regular exercise from a young age Strengthening one’s muscles and bones Developing cardiovascular fitness
Maintaining a healthy weight
Understanding the significance of healthy eating lowering their risk of disease and illness However, the immense mental, emotional, and social benefits of playing a team sport for your child are less frequently discussed. A growing body of research is now focusing on these advantages. This research highlights many advantages that your child will enjoy by becoming involved in team sports. It doesn’t even matter what sport your child decides to play, or their skill level. The lessons and mental, emotional, and social skills they will acquire through team sports are crucial. So, let’s take a look at some of the advantages team sports offer to children. Happier children On a strictly scientific level, children are happier when they exercise. Endorphins are released by our bodies when we exercise. It has been scientifically demonstrated that these naturally occurring chemicals improve our mood, alleviate stress, alleviate anxiety and depression, boost self-esteem, and aid in better sleep. This all leads to happier, positive, more relaxed kids every time they finish training or playing a game. Now what more could you want as a parent?
Learn Important Values
Your child will learn important values about teamwork that will help them through adolescence and into adulthood. Respect for coaches, teammates, opponents and umpires
Discipline by learning to play as a team and follow the rules of the sport
Patience by having to work alongside other players even if they don’t get along. Furthermore, understanding that the team comes before their own needs or desires
Build Self Confidence
Learning any new skill is a great way to build self-confidence and doing it as part of a team environment where your success leads to more success for those around you only serves to magnify that self-belief. Team sports help kids to confront setbacks and obstacles without seeing it as a negative reflection of themselves but more as a challenge to be overcome. Professor Margaret Talbot, President of the International Council for Sport Science and Physical Education, once wrote: ‘Sports and other challenging physical activities are distinctively powerful ways of helping young people learn to ‘be themselves’. “These kinds of activities can teach young people to question limiting presumptions they might have picked up, and come to view themselves and their potential in a new way,” she says. kids-picking-a-sport
Improve Communication Skills
When playing as part of a team, communication is a crucial skill no matter what sport you’re playing. A team sport will teach your child valuable social skills like when to be quiet and listen and how to speak up for themselves when they have an idea, opinion, problem, or solution. These valuable social skills will come in handy as your child grows up. It’s not only verbal communication that improves either. Much of human communication is nonverbal. Participating in any team sport requires a significant amount of nonverbal communication, such as body language, eye contact, and facial expressions. Time Management
As kids grow older they have an increasing number of duties to manage. As they reach adulthood, this only gets bigger and bigger. Having the responsibility of managing school and family duties as well as being on time for training and game day helps your kid to be better prepared for the increasing time demands they’ll face in the future.
Better Students
Kids that play team sports have been found to perform better in the classroom as well. The Aspen Institute’s “Project Play” found that children who participated in team sports performed 40% better on school tests than those who did not participate in any sports at all. They were also reported to have better behaviour and more respect for teachers in the classroom.
Assistance System It’s important for kids to have a good support system around them. Often family is the main place they feel supported, as most schools tend to lack in this department. Sporting teams offer an ideal secondary support system and peer group to lean on when things are a little tough. Going to training and blowing off some steam is also a great alternative to some of the more negative behaviours kids can get up to after a bad day at school.
Making New Friends
There is often no better way to make new friends than to join a local sports team. Your child will make friends from different suburbs, backgrounds and cultures. They will gain tolerance and acceptance, as well as the ability to form relationships with children they have never met before. But most of all they feel that they belong, and build a large network of friends from different schools which can be especially helpful when moving from primary to secondary school.
Memories to last a lifetime We never forget the lessons we learn from sporting victories and defeats, the friendships we form, and the experiences we have on the field. Having the chance to be part of a sporting team and enjoying all the physical, mental, emotional and social benefits that comes with it is a gift that every child deserves to experience. if you are unsure of where to begin when looking for a child’s team sport. Australian Sports Camps coaching programs are a great way to sample different sport for a few days each to see what your child enjoys the most.
