Motivating Children to Take up Sports

Children in schools today are increasingly overburdened with academics. Most parents make all efforts to get them to excel at studies. However, going withthe popular saying, 'all work and no play' is not necessarily the best strategy to improve your child's performance at school.

For children to grow and develop into healthy individuals there needs to be a reasonable balance between work and play. Sports play an important part in the development of children.

Benefits of sports

Participation in sports helps children to:

• Maintain good health: Unlike academics, sport is both physical and cerebral. Involvement in sports helps children develop physically. Outdoor sports encourage them to be out in the open air. The discipline associated with sports teaches them such as right eating and exercising.
• Cultivate team spirit: Most outdoor games involve teamwork. They teach children how to coordinate with peers to fulfil a common task or accomplish a common goal. This involves superior the capacity to assess situations, and the ability to take immediate and critical decisions. Children will require these skills when they finish school and step out into the professional world.
• Become confident: Taking part in sports can boost children's morale. Children realise that being selected to represent their school in a tournament is an honour and a responsibility. Their ability to fulfil this responsibility instils confidence in them. Children who are into sportsare known to display confidence in other areas of their life, such as academics, making friends, and relationships with adults.
• Cope with failure: Sports is as much about winning as about losing. It helps children not just to accept failures, but also to learn from them. Participation in sports teaches children to cultivate perseverance and single-mindedly pursue their goals.
• Surpass limitations: Sports is not just about beating an opponent; it is about surpassing individual capacities. Playing a competitive sport helps children to know their limitations and work towards overcoming them. It helps them to develop the spirit of continuous self-improvement.