Photo by Anna Samoylova on Unsplash
There is growing research that links participation in sports to excelling in academics for children. Every kid has their sport. There are different games out there suited to every type of kid. Sports provides more than just physical benefits to kids. It also provides mental and emotional benefits as well.
Besides, sports can teach your kids good values early on through the idea of fair play. The importance of sports in your child’s learning can’t be underplayed. Let’s look at some of the reasons why sports is so important.
1. They learn soft skills
Soft skills are important for everyday life and can’t be taught in school alone. Many people tend to learn these skills over the course of life while making many mistakes along the way. Sports can offer a quick way for children to learn these skills.
Your kids will learn skills such as self-discipline and organization for children that play in both individual and team sports. These skills are acquired because consistency and proper planning would be required to succeed in the game.
On top of that, the ones in team sports will learn teamwork and communication, an important skill if they’re to take up a job such as in a professional essay writing service. They’ll be part of a bigger team. They’ll need to learn how to work and communicate as a unit to win. All these skills are essential and important, especially for building a great career.
2. Staying active and healthy
There isn’t much that needs to be said in this respect. This is probably one of the most well-known reasons for the importance of physical activity. Sports will keep your children healthy. It’s more important now than ever to encourage your kids to engage in sports.
Smartphones and gaming have become prevalent. Many kids spend hours sitting, so it's important for them to get up and get moving. Playing any sport help kids stay active and energetic.
In research conducted by James Pivarnik and his colleagues, the results stated that fit students scored almost 30% more than the less-fit students on standardized tests.
Being active gives an academic boost as the body can circulate the nutrients properly to where they are needed and improves the concentration level.
3. Talent Development
Sports is more than just a game. It’s also an avenue for your kids to develop other talents that they might have. This plays on top of the point we spoke above about learning soft skills.
Some children are good at studying, some in music and dancing or some other activity. Spending too much time on these activities or studying endless means very less time for kids to spend outdoors. This is where we need to intervene. Outdoor playing makes children learn at multiple levels compared to what they learn in indoor playing.
All these hidden talents can’t be found unless you get your child involved in sports. You can sign them up to a boxing gym or allow them to join the school team for their favorite sport. When these talents are found, they can be nurtured and allowed to grow and benefit your child in the future.
4. It builds healthy habits
Sports can have a long-term impact on your kids. Not only will it allow them to build soft skills, but it will also allow them to build healthy habits. Most physically active kids go on to become physically active adults.
This lifelong habit can protect kids from some of the chronic conditions we see today, such as cardiovascular diseases and obesity, to name a few. Don’t confine them, motivate them to go out, form a friend circle and play.
If there’s too much going on in the school in terms of homework, doing project reports, use a professional essay writing service to ease the pressure of writing tasks. This will give them more time to go out and play.
The kids might also get dietary recommendations from their coaches on how to achieve peak performance as kids. These dietary guidelines can help guide them as they get older on how to manage their eating habits properly.
5. It helps kids perform better academically
As stated earlier, there is research showing that kids who play sports tend to perform better academically. The thought process here is that by playing sports, they allow nutrients and blood flow to easily get to the brain, which in turn increases concentration levels, thus providing an academic boost.
Exercise and studying is quite a good combination. Many schools require kids to perform at a certain academic level to join/stay in the school sports team. This provides the kids with extra motivation to perform well to keep playing sports. It’s a win-win situation, the kids perform better in academics and excel in sports as well.
Even discounting all the benefits that we mentioned above, we believe that your child needs to be engaged in sports just for the sheer enjoyment of it. Participating in sports can help build fun memories for them that they may look back to with happiness.
Sports also gives them a chance to play and have fun overall. Participating in sports should be essential for all children as there are plenty of benefits that they can gain from it.
