Many parents have a difficult time debating whether or not they should encourage their children to play sports. Even though they have an obvious physical benefit for anybody, they can sometimes be a little too intense for very young kids.
With that being said, there are plenty of benefits that come with partaking in various sports. Below, we will be discussing a few activities that can positively influence your kid’s life. From improving their communication skills to developing their hand-eye coordination, our list of sports will be sure to teach your child a few valuable life lessons.
In this article, we will be looking at the benefits of playing sports for children, reasons to get your child started playing sports, as well as suggestions for the best sports they can try first.
Why Should Children Try Sports?
Even though certain sports, like weightlifting, are obviously not suitable for young children, there are plenty of benefits when it comes to encouraging physical activity.
As with everyone, exercise will improve your child’s overall health, preventing the onset of obesity from a young age.
Lowered Risks
Doing physical activities will also help reduce the risk of them developing other health conditions, such as diabetes.
However, on top of this, there is a long list of other advantages that come with part-taking in sport from a young age.
Advantages of Sports
Depending on the type of sport that your child enjoys, it is likely that they will develop a few important life skills while playing it.
For example, team sports are great for improving communication and collaboration skills.
On top of this, various activities are perfect for improving hand-eye coordination, balance, aim, flexibility, etc.
Encouragement
For these reasons, it is important that you encourage your child to part-take in various physical activities.
Do not be forceful, but help them understand the benefits of these different sports.
Football
By far, the most popular sport in the world is European football. With massive names like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as ambassadors, millions of kids worldwide have taken an interest in this team game.
In fact, football is considered to be the best sport for children, as it involves plenty of exercise and teamwork. This popular sport encourages communication, collaboration, fairness, and discipline.
On top of this, it is great for improving fitness while simultaneously not pushing young kids too hard.
Upsides
Many children love football because of the tactical element – in other words, they enjoy skilling their opponents and showing off how good they are with their feet.
Whether your kid loves or doesn’t know much about this sport, it is definitely something to consider.
Swimming
Swimming is a very important life skill that children should start learning from a very young age. Having your kid develop this ability from early on will make life much less stressful for you and much more fun for them.
Being able to swim will enable them to part-take in various other interesting sports, like water polo.
Swimming for a team is perfect for children who need to develop their communication and teamwork skills. It is also a great way to boost fitness and improve muscle growth.
Extra Skills
On top of this, many parents send their children to swim classes because of the fact that it can teach breathing control.
There is plenty of skill and technique required when it comes to this sport – for this reason, you should consider it when choosing a sport for your child.
Cycling
All young kids love cycling and the thrill that it brings. There is nothing better than flying down the road with the wind in your hair and the scenery whipping past you.
For this reason, encouraging your child to take up cycling may just be the best move possible, One of the most important things learned when cycling is road safety.
By teaching your kid the dangers of the road from a young age, they are likely to remember how to stay safe for the rest of their lives.
Advantages
This sport also encourages patience, discipline, and self-esteem.
On top of this, the physical benefits of cycling are massive – your child will experience a rapid increase in fitness, endurance, balance, and reflexes.
Basketball
Another extremely popular sport that your child may be interested in trying is basketball. This team sport develops plenty of important skills, such as hand-eye coordination, balance, and aim.
More so, there are massive social advantages that come with basketball.
As basketball is a team sport, it will improve your kids’ communication and collaboration skills.
Benefits
They will also learn about the importance of each, as their team will not succeed without fluent teamwork.
This activity is also great for developing fitness, stamina, and reflexes.
Cross Country Running
Most children love to run around. In fact, as parents, we often wonder where they store all that energy. Luckily, sports like cross country burn energy, and your child will develop a few important skills along the way.
Cross country is a form of running where the athletes run across natural terrains, such as grass fields or dirt tracks.
If you are looking for that social element, you could even encourage your kid to take part in a relay race or team event.
Benefits
This activity has plenty of physical benefits – for example, it will drastically improve your child’s fitness, endurance, muscle strength, and lung power.
On top of this, it can be incredibly fun and rewarding.
Track
Track is another great sport that has similar benefits as cross country. This form of running takes place on a tartan track (hence the name) and is not as technical as cross country. However, this does not make it any easier.
In fact, track events require plenty of stamina, fitness, and strength. If your child has plenty of energy to burn, you may want to consider entering them into a track team.
There are plenty of events to choose from, such as the 100m sprint, 400m dash, or the 1500m long-distance run.
Advantages
Whatever your kid decides to do, they are likely to benefit from a few advantages that come with this type of running.
For example, this sport brings about focus and concentration. More so, running can work wonders for improving endurance, stamina, muscle strength, and cardiovascular fitness.
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is one of the most popular Olympic sports out there. More so, it is quickly gaining popularity as a children’s sport. There are various reasons for this.
gymnastics can drastically improve flexibility, muscle strength, and balance. It also has a great social aspect to it that attracts many young kids.
This sport encourages children to be as flexible and as nimble-footed as possible. It also requires plenty of strength and endurance, meaning that most of your kids’ physical attributes are likely to improve.
Upsides
Gymnastics can be quite daunting at first, as certain tricks and flips can seem impossible.
However, the longer your child sticks to the sport, the more fearless and head-strong they will become.
Tennis
Tennis has gained plenty of popularity amongst children over the past couple of years. Many young kids have a competitive spirit that they love to show off – if this sounds familiar, this sport may be worth looking into.
There are plenty of physical benefits that come with tennis. The longer your kid plays the game, the more nimble-footed they will become.
More so, this sport encourages quick thinking and develops hand-eye coordination.
Benefits
On top of these advantages, the social aspect of the game also makes it perfect for young children.
Tennis can be played as a team sport, meaning that it will improve your child’s communication and collaboration skills.
Cheerleading
Contrary to popular belief, cheerleading is actually an extremely difficult sport. Even though young children are unlikely to do backflips or other dangerous tricks, they can still benefit from this sport in various other ways.
There is a great social aspect to cheerleading that will encourage communication and teamwork.
On top of this, the sport will improve their flexibility, balance, and agility.
Attributes
One of the most important attributes that your kid will need when cheerleading is a positive attitude. For this reason, this sport will promote enthusiasm.
If your kid has a natural sense of rhythm and plenty of energy to spare, this may be the perfect sport for them.
Karate
Unfortunately, self-defense is extremely important in today’s world. If you want to teach your child to defend themselves from early on, there is no better sport than karate.
This form of exercise is incredibly fun and develops plenty of essential life skills.
Karate helps to instill a sense of self-discipline, focus, and control.
Upsides
On top of this, it also has a great social element that makes it much more fun for young children.
Most classes involve repetitions of punches and throws, improving fitness, endurance, and muscle strength.
Summary
It is very important that children are active from early on. There are various sports out there that each offer their own benefits and advantages.
A few of the best physical activities for young children to try include karate, football, tennis, gymnastics, cross country, track, cycling, swimming, basketball, and cheerleading.
