Monday, February 18, 2013

When Should Children Start Sports?

Sports at a young age have the potential of helping our youth to be better at a lot of things, especially school. Sports help teach life lessons, keep kids physically active, reduce chances at an unhealthy life, and can increase motor skills. These reasons alone should encourage parents to enter their children in sports at an early age.

One of the major life lessons sports can help teach children at an early age is teamwork and physical fitness. Team sports teach children the importance of teamwork and inform them that there is no such thing as a one man/woman team. One of the greatest benefits that children get from youth sports is that they are engaging in physical activity which can help keep aid in the prevention of becoming overweight or obese.

Sports at an early age can also help increase motor skills such as speed, accuracy, and proprioception, which in turn can improve agility and overall performance within a sport. Enrolling children at an early age has numerous benefits when it comes to performance in a sport at a later age. Not only will kids benefit physically and mentally, but they get to have fun while doing it.

5 comments:

  1. I agree strongly with what you are saying about the benefits of sports participation at a young age; with not only the development of motor skills and proprioception, but competitive nature as well. I believe it is very important to learn how to compete at a young age, ultimately developing motor skills and physical fitness comes down to wanting to be better than what you are now. Having fun instilling work ethic into young children through practicing basketball, baseball, volleyball etc. is a great way to be active and grow physically and emotionally at the same time.

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  2. Sports at a young age can have benefits on the kids’ lives. I agree with the statement on how sports can teach life lessons. From my experience in golf, golf teaches patience, honesty, and many other things but honesty is a huge part of a life lesson in golf. This alone is a good reason to enter your kids into some kind of sport because all sports teach children some kind of life lesson like team work. Having kids moving and learning sports keeps them active and healthy and in return hopefully they will take the lesson of physical fitness with them throughout their life. Sports are fun and will help teach kids that physical fitness can be fun too. I wonder what the statistics are on kids that start sports at an early age and their physical fitness compared to kids who start sports at a later age and their physical fitness.

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  3. I think sports are a great way to stimulate competition especially at a young age. I think many of today's young people lack competition and the desire to win. The more you can place a child in a competitive environment the better. Life is competitive. There are winners and there are losers. As a coach, it is our job to instill the will to win into these kids. Also, the development of sports skills at an early age is also important especially in those sports which require a high amount of skill. The earlier a child gets involved in sport, the better prepared they will be for the future.

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  4. Sports at a young age should be encouraged by every parent. Parents that think sports/ competition is bad are doing their children a disservice. Sports not only develop motor skills but also prepare them for the real world. The World is full of competition and for those kids that have been sheltered all their life are at a huge disadvantage. I remember growing up and that the kids that were not in sports or in some type of function like band were socially awkward. Kid’s need interaction with other kid’s and for parents’ not to allow their kids to play sports is harming their development.

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  5. I wish more parents realized how beneficial the involvement in youth sports truly is. When recruiting for my high school dance team, many students who have never been involved in any sport at tend to struggle with understanding the importance of discipline, competitiveness, and social interaction with teammates. Also, some are not nearly as advanced developmentally as the children who have played sports before, as youth sports help children learn fundamental skills like coordination, balance, etc. I know that many parents fear they may be putting too much stress on their children by putting them in competitive environments, but I wish they realized just how much they would be benefiting their child. Not only would they benefit them for physical activities, but also by teaching them skills that they will use throughout their lives.

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