What are the benefits of team sports in children?
As someone who participated in a huge amount of team sports throughout my childhood and teens, I personally see so many benefits and ways team sports have helped me in so many areas of my life.
As so many of you would know exercise releases endorphins that make you happy. This has the same effect on children as it does adults and who doesn’t want their child to be happier?
Exercise doesn’t only help improve your mood, stress levels and anxiety but it also your physical health. Regular exercise is proven to help develop bone and muscle strength, cardiovascular fitness which helps reduce the risk of illness and disease. It also helps kids form the habit of regular exercise from a young age.
Apart from the physical and mental benefits participating in team sport and regular exercise has on a person it also provides so many important life lessons that can help children later in life.
It helps kids learn respect, not only for senior people in their life but for their opponents. It teaches discipline. Sports have a complex set of rules that must be followed. Not only are there game rules but also the coach’s rules. Abiding by multiple rules some that you may not agree with can be a hard lesson to learn but will prove to be very valuable later in life.
Participating in team sports is a great way for kids to learn how to socialise comfortably with many different people, it is also a great way to form lasting friendships. Communication is a huge part of all sports and a vital part of everyday life. Sporting teams provide a huge dynamic of different people you need to learn to communicate with, from your coach, umpires, opponent, teammates and even spectators. Each of these people need to be communicated with in different ways.
Participating in team sports can also help kids learn how to manage their time. As they grow older, they have an increasing number of things to manage. Having the responsibility of managing school, homework, family, friend as well as being on time for training and game day helps your kid’s to be better prepared for the increasing time demands they’ll face in the future. It has also been found that Kids who play team sports performed better in the classroom. According to ‘Project Play’ by the Aspen Institute, kids that played team sport scored on average 40% better on school test results than those who played no sports at all. They were also reported to have better behaviour and more respect for teachers in the classroom.
Being a part of a team is a great support system to many kids, it helps them feel included and a part of something important. Not only does a team provide support it teaches kids how to be supportive of their friends. There are many more lessons that can be learnt through participating in team sports but by now I’m sure your convinced that you should sign your kids up to your local club!