The Many Ways Kids Benefit From Team Sports

Enrolling your child into a team sport may be one of the best decisions you can make for him or her. Read on to learn more about the myriad benefits your child can derive by participating on a sports team, as well as all of the lessons that he or she will be able to utilize well into adulthood.

Coaches that Become Mentors
Great coaches are really incredible individuals who are willing to help mold child athletes into even better people than they already are. Coaches don’t just take child athletes and make them even better athletes; they teach kids how to be more positive and they instill many valuable lessons about perseverance, respect, and having a positive attitude even in challenging situations. When a team does well, they thank their coach, and when a team doesn’t do so well, they look to their coach for inspiration and motivating words to get them to do even better next time.

If your child is exposed to positive coaches within their sports teams from early on, they will also be more likely to seek out mentors throughout the rest of her life. And during those hard teenage years that everyone has to go through, coaches can dramatically help teens who need someone they can trust and to whom they can vent if they need to, especially if they don’t feel comfortable talking to their parents.

Team Sports Instill Discipline
Being on a team requires a high level of discipline, and this is why children of all ages who participate in sports tend to have fewer behavioral issues and also perform better in school. Team sports require players to show up to practice on time, remain at practice until everyone is finished, and have the dedication to go to every game and put all of their effort into the events. You can’t be on a team and miss a practice just because you don’t feel like going because you’ll end up getting kicked off the team, and the sooner a child learns this responsibility, the better he or she will perform in other situations that require dedication, like school and work.

Being on a team also teaches a child to be patient, to help others who need extra guidance rather than laugh at them or ignore them, and to always strive to do better.

Working with Others to Achieve
Though our modern society seems to be all about the individual rather than the group, the reality is that none of us will benefit if we are all just looking out for ourselves, and people who play on sports teams from a young age realize this lesson right away. Teammates understand that they need each other to succeed, so they have to put aside their differences and work on helping each other succeed so that the entire team can do better. This is a very important life lesson that many children do not receive because they are not on team-oriented sports.

Andrew Dean is a personal trainer and expert in all aspects of health and fitness. He often advises clients to visit puddleducks.com to check out the latest swimming lessons for their children.

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