Playing team sports can teach children about teamwork, discipline, sportsmanship, and more.
A new study from the Netherlands suggests that the skills they learn in practice could also benefit them at school.
Playing a team sport is much more than learning to kick, pass, or shoot.
The recent study found that children who play team sports rather than individual sports seem to have better executive function, which includes memory, focus, ability to adapt, and emotional control.
“I think that it’s the practicing of those skills in a team sport, allows a young person to have another venue where it’s like working out, right? You can get some of that in school, but this is a venue where you’re doing more of it,” said Cleveland Clinic Sports Psychologist Dr. Matthew Sacco.
Sacco says the findings make sense when you take a closer look at team sports.
Children have to consider their teammates, remember plays, take instructions, and make quick decisions.
Sports have also been shown to help kids with social skills and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Researchers noted that 70% of children in the United States stop playing sports by the age of 13.
Sacco thinks that may be due to the pressures of playing in more competitive leagues as they age.
“Kids get tired of it, and they can get burnout, especially if they’re in something that may not be rewarding or as reinforcing for them or as it once was. Because once we get out of that, ‘hey, this is fun,’ everybody is kind of playing, everybody is having a good time, which is that traditional kind of recreational model, the competitiveness is not for everybody, or developmentally not yet for some people,” Sacco said.
If your child wants to try a new sport, Sacco recommends signing them up for a rec league.
To see if they truly enjoy it without committing to a team that has more time-consuming and expensive requirements.
