Trying something new creates a unique sense of creativity and adventure. Good things happen when you’re not afraid to try a new activity.
According to The American Academy of Pediatrics, team sports are appropriate for children six years old and up.
Team sports as soccer, handball, basketball, volleyball, hockey, synchronized swimming, football and more can be fun for kids to participate in. See the complete list of sports (A to Z).
In this article, For Kids will outline 18 major reasons that team sports are good for children.
18 benefits of team sports for kids
1. They develop self-confidence
As kids make progress in their team sports training sessions, their levels of self-esteem and self-assurance will increase dramatically.
2. They teach responsibility
Even though team sports involve more than one player, each player in the team will have specific tasks to do.
Completing these tasks will teach any child to be responsible and to take other tasks, such as doing homework, seriously.
3. They train children to adapt
When playing a team sport, a child will face different situations of winning and losing. They’ll play in different types of weather and will travel to compete with other teams.
This will help a kid learn to deal with new changes calmly, while expecting and accepting them.
4. They enhance social skills
Team sports teach kids about teamwork and help them establish contact with peers.
A group of like-minded kids within a team will help a child become more confident and friendly.
5. They require self-discipline
Team sports will help increase your child’s patience levels.
They will teach your child how to be self-disciplined by focusing and controlling themselves and their actions.
6. They create challenging opportunities
When a child is part of a team and spends lots of time training, they’ll naturally interact with other kids.
This will increase their opportunities for cultivating new friendships with others who have the same interests. This type of friendship that’s based on common likes and dislikes tends to be long-lasting.
7. They teach a child to focus on specific skills
Practicing particular skills and repeating certain exercises many times will teach a child to focus properly on any task and to notice any minor changes that are made to the task.
8. They teach children new skills
Team sports form and strengthen positive qualities that will be useful for a child later in life, such as willingness to work hard, personal responsibility, the desire to win, discipline and courage.
9. They train children’s muscles for different movements
Intensive exercise in and around the playground with their teammates will help a child keep their body in great shape overall.
10. They present a unique set of workouts
Each day, as part of a sports team, a child will train by completing challenging exercises.
They’ll try to do their best and score new records, and they’ll be able to transfer their understanding of competition and self-improvement into their life outside of sports, too.
11. They require and teach team-building skills
A child will learn the basics of working as part of a team, including how to lead other people and how to break up a set of tasks, while participating in a team sport.
12. They require training time
As a team player, a child will spend a lot of time training, performing the same action many times.
This will not only teach the child patience, but it may also lead them towards being an extrovert, as training will require them to interact with others.
13. They offer new game-playing strategies
Team sporting activities will teach a child about new strategies they can use while playing a particular game.
In real life, this will make the child realize that they can search for new ways to solve their daily problems.
14. They can introduce children to new sports
Individual sports require more concentration, so children should start these at an older age.
On the other hand, team sports can be played at an early age, so it’s better to start your child with these to allow them to get fit for individual sports (such as karate) later.
15. They teach children to respond positively
During every day of training, a youngster will meet new challenges and they should learn to deal with them quickly. This will make the child respond faster in various situations that don’t involve sports, too.
16. They present different workout philosophies (consider karate vs. soccer)
Individual sports often have strict rules that make them more complicated and difficult to learn, but team sports can be more straightforward.
17. They highlight the need to show respect
A child will learn to respect their teammates, opponents and coaches, and obey each game’s rules.
18. They allow for learning something new
In general, learning something new, like a sport, is a good experience in life.