Sports activities and events are very common. They happen regularly throughout the year and there is a great variety of them. With so many different sports events happening, families can usually find one sport that they are interested in and follow it. They may support a team that plays that sport professionally or they may even support an athlete. They could go to their favorite team’s matches and eventually, the child of the family could also learn the rules of that sport by watching.
As time passes by, that kid would have to then move on from just watching to actually playing that sport. This is when the child will get signed up for an organized sport in his/her school or any local club. Starting from a young age, this could really prove to be beneficial when the child grows up.
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How to gain a child’s interest in physical activity?
Even though we adults know the importance of physical activity, the same cannot be said about children. There will be a lot of children that may not like any physical activity or sport at all. A lot of parents get confused about what to do in this situation. One way to solve this issue is to engage in physical activity with your child. When the rest of the family would be engaging in physical activity, the child would naturally too. Make exercises fun for the children so that they don’t lose interest. Starting off like this will help the child later when he/she starts playing any sport.
Benefits of organized sports for children
Participating in organized sports has many benefits for children. A lot of these benefits are not only physical but also mental and social.
Physical Benefits
Joining organized sports will definitely secure the good physical health of your child. Being unhealthy and overweight has become quite a common issue nowadays. Being a part of organized sport will help children build a routine in which they would get used to exercise regularly and maintain a good physique.
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Mental Benefits
Playing regular sports and training will definitely improve your child’s mental health. Performing well in sports will help improve the child’s sense of self-worth. Moreover, a child will get many more positive habits such as being punctual. This would also better the child’s self-discipline.
Social benefits
By joining your child in organized sports, you will have secured your child’s social life in the future. Playing team sports requires teamwork and coordination. This would help the child learn how to trust other people and how to work together to overcome difficulties. It has also been proven that children who play sports are less likely to get involved in drugs than other children.
When to let your child join organized sports?
There are children from various age groups in organized sports. Many parents would think that letting your child play sports from an early age would benefit a lot, however, beginning too early is not good too. From age 2 to 5 years old, the best would be to not join organized sports yet. Children at this stage are just learning to walk and run properly. Organized sports may not be the best choice for this age group.
The next age group is from 6 to 9 years old. At this age, children will have a little knowledge about the sport they want to play. Starting organized sports may be the best choice for people of this age. Children of this age group could be polished to be great players by the time they reach teenage-hood.
Finally, age 10 to 12 years old. At this age, children would have clear knowledge about the sport. They would know how to play and a little knowledge about different strategies. At this age, children could join organized sports and they could be made better in no time.