Youth sports offer children a variety of physical, mental and emotional benefits, with research showing children who play sports are more likely to grow up with fewer physical and emotional problems. Youth sports not only improves physical fitness, but promotes life skills, such as goal setting and discipline. Getting your child involved in youth sports will have far-reaching and long-term benefits.
Physical Benefits
Both the Surgeon General of the United States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that physical activity and exercise in young children not only prevents childhood illness, but promotes long-term health through adulthood. Both governmental agencies specifically include youth sports as recommended activities for children.
Physical activity helps lower weight, improve cardiovascular strength, reduce the onset of problems like obesity and diabetes, helps children's growing muscles, bones and joints, reduces stress and can lead to lower blood pressure and cholesterol.
Even obese children who do not lose their excess weight from playing sports benefit from the physical activity. The University of Athens found that obese children who had a higher level of cardio-fitness had lower body fat percentages than their obese peers who were not as heart-healthy.
Psychological & Emotional Benefits
To excel or even succeed at sports, children must learn goal setting, the discipline to do the work to meet goals, the ability to socialize with other children, how to handle defeat and victory in acceptable manners and how to deal with unfair coaches or officials, who will mirror the unfair bosses, clients or military commanders in adult life. Achieving goals and finding success instill pride, self-confidence and self-esteem in children.
The personality types adults must deal with in relationships, neighborhoods or the workplace, such as bullies, cheaters and gossips, exist on youth sports teams, and children will learn to deal with these while they are still young.
Adult Payoff
The Women's Sports Foundation found girls who had played sports in high school: were less likely to have dropped out of high school; were less likely to have an unintended pregnancy; were more likely to have higher grades; had developed higher levels of self-esteem and self-confidence and consequently, be more likely to leave an abusive relationship. The WSF also notes that 80 percent of Fortune 500 executives who are women played youth sports. According to Dr. Martha Ewing, an associate professor at the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University, children learn right from wrong playing sports, citing research from Shields & Bredemeier, which she says shows "moral concepts of fairness support the very existence of the notion of sport."
References
- President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports: Youth Sports in America: An Overview
- U.S. Youth Soccer Parents Resource Library: Promoting Social & Moral Development through Sports; Marty Ewing, PhD
- Women's Sports Foundation: Why Sports Participation for Girls and Women?
- A Sports Medicine Approach to Treating Childhood Obesity; Patricia Kellicker, BSN
- U.S. Youth Soccer: Purpose of Youth Sports
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