In contrast to conventional textbook education, modern education includes sports as a crucial and mandatory field for children to engage in. Today’s educators and professionals studying school curriculum and child’s development have recognized and acknowledged the importance of sports in education. The idea is to promote more holistic development, and sports play an instrumental role in it.  In this blog, we have listed the various factors that make us realise the significance of sports in a child’s education.

Life Lessons We Can Learn From Sports

Health and Fitness

This comes as an exclusive benefit of sports. While children spend long hours studying, their physical activity becomes restricted. This causes a huge constraint on their health. Poor fitness and physical health can be a big disadvantage in a child’s growth. Thus, engaging in sports activities allows children to dive into physical exercise which is helpful in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

The five S’s of sports training are stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit. -Ken Doherty

Social Development

Many sports activities are group-based and require you to interact with your teammates. This helps in the development of social skills among children. Individual sports also require some level of coordination with coaches or interaction with competitors. Thus, in general, engagement in sports provides a platform and means for an individual to interact with others and helps one refine their socialising skills.

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Emotional Development 

Sports make you feel a variety of emotions, from winning to losing to competing to introspecting. Handling these ranges of emotions can boost one’s emotional development. Although it doesn’t come very easily to everyone, being indulged in sports helps you challenge yourself and stabilize your emotions with time to perform better. This can pave a way for an individual’s emotional maturity.

Leadership Skills

Guiding your teammates, striking a balance between different team players, holding a broader perspective, setting and leading the team’s spirit and vision comes as leadership skills as one engages in sports. Sports allows children to take up leadership roles which can be helpful in asserting themselves and guiding other members in their personal and professional life.

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Patience and Perseverance

Sports are often competing and include failures and success. This helps students be prepared for the hurdles ahead. Sportspersons have to devote many hours rigorously practising a particular failing, even after continuously failing at it. Even at a micro level, sports does build patience and perseverance inside an individual which are extremely crucial traits to have.

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Discipline

A very significant reason for the importance of sports in education is that it teaches discipline. Dedication and determination to make that one six or one goal require a lot of hard work. This builds discipline within an individual. No matter what you pursue in life, discipline is essential to your private as well as professional life.

Mental Growth 

It is a popular misconception that sports are only limited to physical growth. In contrast, sports supports the mental growth of an individual as well. Sports require players to make strategic and intelligent moves based on several factors like what the competitor is thinking. Moreover, playing sports in one’s leisure time can be a relief and stress relieving activity for children.

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Boosts Self-esteem

One of the many points that add to the importance of sports in education is an increase in self-esteem. Research has shown that playing sports has a positive effect on a child’s self-esteem and self-confidence. Getting recognised by the coach or getting praised for their one particular move can be a huge confidence boost for a player. Children who perform poorly in academics often have low self-esteem and find a resort in sports as a means to gain some self-worth. 

Improved Teamwork and Cooperation

Sports require coordination and cooperation among various team players for the team to win the match. This ensures that children learn to think for the team first and develop coordination among each other. These skills go beyond just the playground and are essential to one’s life as well. 

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Efficient Time Management

Be it time inside the playing ground, or outside, children learn effective time management skills after participating in sports. Time management is an important skill to learn and thus, sports is a great way to master this skill. Participating in such activities helps students to follow a well-designed schedule. This increases efficiency in time management and is also another basis for the importance of sports in education.

The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before. -Steve Young

Better Academic Performance

There exists a positive correlation between sports activities and improved memory and cognitive functions of the brain. Students can perform better in academics by including sports in their daily routines. Sports will keep their mind fresh, physically fit, and add discipline to their study routine. Skills such as coordination, multitasking and situational awareness will help in enhancing their academic skills.

Hope this blog helped you understand the importance of sports in education. The value that sports add to the education of an individual is endless, especially when education is so competitive in today’s world. If you’re a student and want to pursue a career in sports, connect with our Leverage Edu experts, and find your true calling.