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7 Good Reasons to
Get Your Child Involved with Sports
Stacie Mahoe
Encourage a Healthy Lifestyle
Making exercise a part of your child's life teaches your child
the importance of fitness. This, along with proper nutrition,
plays a vital role in maintaining health. Children need physical
activity every day and participation in sports helps fill
this need. With today's wealth of video games and increasing
computer literacy, daily physical activity is often times
forgotten. Getting your child involved with sports helps them
make exercise a part of their lifestyle and increases their
chance of a being a healthier adult.
Promote Self Esteem
When a child realizes that they are getting better and better
at their sport, they can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment.
Choosing a sport your child can grow and improve in gives
your child an opportunity to build self-esteem. Together,
with positive reinforcement from you their parent, they will
gain confidence and have a more positive view of themselves.
Learn Goal Setting
I'm sure you'll agree goal setting and success go hand in
hand. Participation in sports gives your child a fun, practical
way to learn about goal setting. They'll see, experience,
and learn about how goal setting works. If your child's coach
doesn't cover goal setting, that's okay! You as a parent can
sit down with your child and set goals. By assisting your
child in developing this skill, you give them a better chance
at succeeding in life.
Learn and Experience Teamwork
How often have you read a help wanted ad where the employer
wants a "team player" or a candidate that "works well with
others"? I see it all the time. How much more valuable are
you as an employee when you can put differences aside and
get the job done? Sports teach children about teamwork and
about how their actions affect other people. If they can't
learn to work together with teammates while playing a sport
they enjoy, how will they be able to work with co-workers
they may or may not like while performing a job they may or
may not enjoy? This is an important lesson to learn. Encourage
your child to be a team player and, as a sports parent, keep
tabs on whether or not your words and actions promote this
trait in your child.
Develop Time Management Skills
Adding extracurricular activities to your child's schedule
encourages development of and time management and prioritization
skills. Teach your child that taking care of responsibilities,
such as school work and cleaning up after themselves, comes
first. This gives them their first taste of prioritization.
Next, help your child formulate a plan which enables them
to efficiently handle their responsibilities while still leaving
time for sports practices and competitions. For example, show
your child how working on homework instead of playing outside
during their after-school program helps them finish their
homework in time for practice each day. Then go ahead and
make that part of your plan.
Learn About Dealing with Adversity
Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has problems. How well you
handle these mistakes and problems directly affects happiness
and quality of life. Many people "get in a slump" and can't
get out of it. Others continue making the same mistakes over
and over again. In sports, we always try to minimize errors,
but we're human. Mistakes happen. Even professional athletes
make bad choices and make bad plays, but it's not the mistake
that counts. What you do from that point forward carries much
more significance. If your child learns how to deal with adversity,
errors, and challenges in sports, chances are, they'll be
able to translate that skill to real life and effectively
minimize mistakes and/or bad decisions as well as competently
recover from setbacks.
Have Fun!
Positive experiences play an essential role in raising a happy,
healthy human being. Sports provide numerous opportunities
for positive experiences both for your child as an individual,
and for your family as a whole. "Sports parents" are blessed
with the chance to watch their child have fun while learning
and developing as an athlete and as a human being.
Stacie Mahoe
Owner - www.AllAboutFastpitch.com
For more sports-related articles visit www.AllAboutFastpitch.com
Article Source: www.theoracle2006.com
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