Best Sports for Kids & the Benefits
There are a number of benefits to your child’s overall mental and physical wellbeing that come with regular participation in sports and fitness activities.
Many studies show that children who’re physically active from a young age are more likely to be physically active adults, which suggests that encouraging your child to engage in sports will hopefully inspire them to stay healthy for their adult life.
How Does Sport Benefit Children?
It’s no secret that sport, and fitness in general, is beneficial for children. Just like adults, staying fit via various sporting activities is a great way to maintain and improve your overall health.
Below, we’ll discuss four ways that sports can benefit your child:
Physical Health
Participation in sports can aid in maintaining a child’s physical health and wellbeing along with an improvement in fitness, increased strength, endurance, and coordination, and building a strong foundation for future endeavours.
Premier Active has compiled a list of physical benefits that sports have on children:
- Improvement in general fitness
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Growth of bones and muscles
- Reduced blood pressure
- Strengthen muscles
Social Skills
Team-based sports introduce children to the idea of working together, as a team, towards a shared goal. Learning how to effectively communicate with their peers is an invaluable skill that can be utilised in their future years.
Sports can teach many valuable skills such as sportsmanship, abiding by the laws of the game, and accepting loss.
Self-Confidence
Developing new sporting skills can help children build confidence. Whether the development comes from self-recognition or respect from their peers, evolving sporting abilities is a great confidence builder. Experts believe that children who play sports are less likely to have a bad body image, which further enforces the premise that sport improves self-confidence.
Achievements such as scoring the winning goal, beating a personal best, or helping your team win a trophy can have an everlasting and profound effect on a child’s personal development.
Mental Wellbeing
Building a child’s confidence can improve mental health. Experts believe there’s a direct correlation between participation in sports and the management of issues such as anxiety or depression.
It’s also been found that children who engage in sporting activities are less likely to experience emotional and behavioural problems.
Choosing the Right Sport for Your Child's Age
As a parent, it can be tricky to choose the right sport for your child, especially when age is a factor. For example, children who are three years old have different physical capabilities to that of a 10-year-old.
Below, we’ll provide some helpful information on choosing a sporting activity suitable for your child’s age:
Aged Two - Five
At this age, especially at the lower end of the age scale, organised sport isn’t necessary. Experts recommend children partake in physical activities, but simple unstructured free play such as running, jumping, dancing, throwing, swimming etc.
This isn’t to say that organised sport should be discouraged. If your child indicates a desire to play certain sports, this can be achieved through specialised sports classes, specifically designed for toddlers.
Aged Six+
Generally speaking, children aged between six and nine, are beginning to develop their overall physical abilities – vision, concentration, strength, cognitive skills, etc. Many sporting opportunities become available to children around this age.
Some experts recommend children aged six and seven are best placed to start their sporting journey, due to their physical and mental ability to compete.
5 Best Sports for Kids and Their Benefits
Hockey
Hockey is a great sport due to its high-tempo, rigorous play. The game is enjoyed by an estimated 1 billion players around the world. Due to the relatively low cost of hockey equipment and its ease of play, many schools offer hockey as a sporting option.
Benefits of Hockey
The benefits of hockey are vast. Improved hand-eye coordination, physical endurance, and teamwork are just some of the benefits. Hockey is a highly competitive team sport, which requires a high level of movement and accuracy. These aspects of hockey can benefit children in their physical and mental development.
Rugby
Rugby is one of the UK’s favourite sports. It originated in the English town ‘Rugby’ in 1823 - meaning British families have enjoyed the game for over 200 years! According to Statista, 5.5% of children aged between 5 and 10 played rugby at least once a month, while 14.6% of 11 to 15 year olds played on a monthly basis.
Benefits of Rugby
Rugby is an intense game that promotes high levels of speed, endurance, and strength. The Oscar Wilde quote “Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen” highlights its ability to instil discipline and respect throughout rugby’s pool of players, despite the combative nature of the sport.
Relying heavily on teamwork, rugby ensures a child will develop great communication and social skills, along with strategic thinking.
Touch rugby is also an option, which avoids contact and encourages a faster paced game and a quicker style of rugby.
Cricket
Cricket has many unique qualities for the physical, social, and mental development of children. This popular sport is enjoyed by an estimated 2.5 billion people across the world, notably in Asia, Australia, and the UK.
Benefits of Cricket
Engaging in organised sports provides immense opportunities for children to better themselves in almost every aspect of their life. Cricket is a prime example of this.
Cricket requires children to quickly learn the fundamentals of running, throwing, and catching. It’s believed that regular participation in cricket can improve children’s concentration and coordination due to the intricate nature of the game.
Swimming
Among the British population, a massive 88% of us know how to swim. We often forget that this skill is also a great way for children to improve their fitness and mental wellbeing.
Benefits of Swimming
The undeniable benefit of improving a child’s ability in swimming is that it’s an essential lifesaving skill. Accidental drowning is still prominent among children, meaning confidence in the water is crucial.
From a physical perspective, swimming is a low-impact sport with high-level results. Swimming is unique in that it can be enjoyed unaccompanied, without the need for competition.
However, like many other sports, swimming has a great competitive community in which participants can engage with others and in turn develop their social skills.
Football
Football’s the #1 sport in the world. The Scottish Youth Football Association (SYFA) have stated that there are 68,000 children playing football across Scotland, with 4,000 youth teams officially registered.
Benefits of Football
Like many other sports, football encourages children to work together as a team and demands a high level of physical endurance. Football is a sport that requires great coordination to control the ball at speed.
The positive social aspects of football shouldn’t be ignored. The camaraderie between teammates improves children’s social skills, helping them make friends while staying fit!
Conclusion
In summary, the benefits of children engaging in sports are both countless and undeniable.
The physical, mental, and social development of children’s lives can be directly linked to the many sports available.
At The High School of Glasgow, we pride ourselves on providing outstanding sporting opportunities to all our pupils. Click here to read about our school’s sporting ethos.