Sports play a key role in the holistic development of a child. It is a powerful activity that engages both the mind and the body and allows children to inculcate habits that will last for a lifetime.
Gone are the days when children are forced to study. Times have changed and parents have understood that co-curricular activities are just as much as important as curricular ones. Engaging in sports, both indoor and outdoor sports gives an opportunity for children to develop new skills, discover themselves, and learn a whole of values and morals that textbooks would not be able to educate them on.
The question – ‘Is sports important for kids?’ always lingers.
In this article, we will explore why sports is important for children.
Top 6 Reasons why Sports is Important for Kids
- Nurture a healthy body
Playing sports has a positive impact on your health. Sitting around all day will weaken the bones and muscles. Stretching the muscles, running around, and sweating is good for the body. Sports burns calories, reduces calories, and helps strengthen the muscles. Vigorous physical activity reduces the risk of obesity, bone problems, and cardiovascular diseases. You may think how will a kid face such problem? Well, the practice of physical activity over the years will ensure that kids do not have to face such health issues and keep them with a sound and healthy body.
- Win together and lose together
Playing sports teaches kids to be part of a team. They get a chance to learn how to work in team – listening to others’ opinions, win together, and lose together. This will give them an experience of working in teams when they start their careers. Playing sports can help kids meet children of their age group and interact with them. This creates new friendship and keep the children happy.
- Instil self-discipline
Sports involves a lot of rules and to win the game, scoring high points is as much important as adhering to the rules. While playing any sport, a player should be well-behaved, follow rules, and respect the authorities. These traits are applicable for a person irrespective of the place or role they are in. Playing sports will teach kids to respect elders and authority even if they do not like the rule being imposed. Being introduced to such valuable traits at a young age will help kids to develop it and make it a habit. This self-disciple will certainly be of help in various other situations in life.
- Cope with defeat
Ups and downs are common in life. This is applicable to sports too. A sportsperson would know he/she has much chance of winning as that of losing. In a game, if one team has to win, then the opposing team has to lose. Kids, when engaged in sports would learn this from a young age. This is a critical life value that even a few grown-ups are finding difficult to understand. Children playing sports will lose a match or be defeated in practice. But they do not stop there and bounce back to play better and harder. This trait is applicable in other areas of life, too. Life throws many obstacles as children grow into adults and they need to be prepared to overcome such hurdles.
- Develop motor and cognitive skills
Sports is not simply running, hitting the ball, passing the ball, etc. For example, a game of cricket involves concentrating on the ball and cutting off external noises, hitting the ball right on target, calculating how many runs to take, when to stop, etc. This requires concentration, aligning hand and feet movements, and breathing right. Engaging in such activities will help kids develop their motor and cognitive skills.
- Build patience and perseverance
Playing sports helps kids to have healthy competition. To win, children have to stary determined and work very hard. In this way, children learn to be persistent and work hard without giving up. This trait of perseverance will come in handy when the time comes to prepare for examinations and also in other situations in life. Patience is key when playing sports. Not everything will happen as a person wishes, which is similar to other aspects in life. We will have to wait for things to happen which kids can learn easily when engaged in playing sports.
Sports can create huge positive impact in the growth of a child. Apart from growing and learning at home, if a child is engaged in sports, he/she will be part of the society’s upbringing. He/she will be exposed to life skills and values at an early stage in life, which will prove to be useful throughout their life.
