Top Five Reasons to Have You Child Play a Sport

This is quite a talked about issue. Do parents put to much pressure on their kids by making them play sport when they are young? I personally think it’s a great idea. I have played soccer since I was three. Then I played travel, went to state cup, went to practice every day, worked my butt off with every other girl, but still had fun. Me being on a travel team many people thought I wouldn’t be to smart because I played soccer nonstop, plus I had played softball and basketball since I was at least seven, but no, I didn’t have bad grades, because me being on quite a few sports teams didn’t make a difference, and I was in all Honors classes with Straight A’s each year, all my life. What I’m trying to get to, is that having your child start playing a sport from a young age and playing a lot is not a problem, whether your afraid of them not liking the sport when they get older, or afraid they’ll be completely burnt out and not doing good in school. It just doesn’t happen, every girl that I played with has never had a problem, and I do mean every single girl.

1. Reason to have Children play sports. Skills. This is the lowest because when your in Recreations leagues as younger children like I was, you aren’t going to learn the Mara Donna, the qwruaf*Don’t think I spelt that right…*, or basically any skills because its all for fun and not really for the future aspect, but don’t get me wrong, you do gain some skills when you are younger. With soccer as you get older, its not like you can just jump into the game without any knowledge if you want to win, or play good. When your younger you get all the fundamentals right then and there, instead of having to wait until your twelve, thirteen, or fourteen, when most competitive players know everything about the fundamentals in another language, which can be intimidating if you don’t them and go into that type of environment.
2. Reason to have Children play sports. When your kid plays sports when they are younger, they develop teamwork and leadership skills that can be used when they get older, and are playing on travel teams, high school teams, college teams, or just flat out for school. Being a leader can have its ups, which is for sure. When your a leader, your going to be the first looked at by the teachers at school, your coaches during your sports, and your fellow classmates and teammates, whether it is for help, an answer, or a big save or big shot in the biggest youth sport game of your life. Then again you may have a lot riding on your shoulders, but it is well worth it when it comes right down to the bone and when you need it.
3.  Reason to have Children play sports. The social aspect. All kids like to do is talk talk talk talk and talk some more. And let me tell you, I definitely was one of those talkers when I was younger during recreation leagues before I got into travel soccer. When the kids are playing these sports with other kids, they are making new friends, which of course is a great thing to have as you get older into your high school years. I mean who can ever forget there best friends? Guess what, a lot of kids first good friends, and life long friends are from sports. And I’m a great example, I met one of my first best friends when I was around five years old, and guess what? I still talk to her every day of the year, and never had one fight with her. That’s what sports can do, bring everyone together as friends and some people as family.
4.  Reason to have Children play sports. The second reason to have more children playing sports at a younger age is obesity that is sweeping the country with overweight children, and more men, women, and children developing things like diabetes, which obviously you can not do anything about if you were born with it, but you can make your chances of developing it slimmer by keeping healthy and at a good weight, and a great way of doing this is playing different types of sports, especially sports that involve a lot of moving, such as basketball, soccer, football, and tennis which gives you great foot skills as well as keeping you healthy and fit. Being able to look back and think, “Oh wow, I managed to do all of this together and stay fit, but look Jane Doe, what happened to her!?!” When I was younger, I definitely never wanted to be like Jane Doe, which is why I did sports all of my life.
5.  Reason to have Children play sports. The Number reason according to everyone is to have fun. I disagree, but will go over that in another topic. So no one hurts me in my first article, the number one reason to have children play sports as children is for the fun aspect of it. All kids like to be active, as they grow to be teens they tend not to be as active, and more lazy, not really caring about the fun of sports, only wanting to I-m, Myspace, and facebook each other, and of course we can’t leave out tweeting =], but the point is, if they are playing when they are young they will have fun and instead of getting to the lazy teen phase, they’ll still be playing as they are thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and so on, which will leave parents with less worries, and kids with a lot more similar interests if they all are playing sports.

If you have ever been a parent that has done this, a kid that has been through it or now an adult that’s been through it like me, you will realize playing all these sports will have helped you, unless you really were putting to much pressure on yourself when it comes to sports. At this point in the article, I would like to say to any parents that are reading this, you can’t be putting to much pressure on your kid to win win win, when there younger, I do believe there is no problem with putting them on the field, but please don’t be the stereotype Soccer Mom, Football Dad, Baseball Dad. I have heard it for quite a few years, and I had quite the idea, just let the players go on the fields and have the parents watch from somewhere else, because no kid likes to hear the parents screaming at them, and yes I’ve heard it all, because I did soccer, softball, and basketball, while my brother did football, wrestling, and baseball all his life as well, which left me there all of my life listening to it because my brother is older than me. So Thanks for reading my first ever article! Don’t be too harsh =]