How Youth Sports Help Kids: 5 Important Benefits
Laura Coulter | Upward Sports
Families have many different reasons for joining youth sports programs. Maybe your child has shown an interest in the sport, or maybe it’s simply to get them to burn some of that extra kid energy and stay active. The truth is that enrolling your child in a sport can benefit them in countless ways—both now and in the future.
1. Sports help improve kids’ physical health
This benefit might be obvious, but it can’t be overstated. The Health Department recommends that children ages 6 through 17 should engage in physical activity for at least one hour per day. With screens offering on-demand entertainment—from watching videos to playing games—kids are often tempted to choose that over playing outside. However, both indoor and outdoor sports are a great way to make physical activity fun and engaging and keep kids moving. Regularly active children have been shown to have better heart and lung health and stronger muscles and bones than inactive children. They are also less at risk for obesity and chronic diseases. Sports also help children develop motor skills and flexibility.
2. Sports help improve kids’ mental health
Staying active through sports also positively affects kids’ mental health. For adolescents, participation in sports is associated with lower rates of stress, depression, and anxiety. Physical activity has been shown to improve self-esteem and confidence. Kids active in sports also tend to do better in school, with physical activity linked to improved test scores, memorization, information processing, attention span, and more.
3. Sports help kids make friends and learn social skills
Participating in sports gives kids the opportunity to meet new people and build friendships with their teammates. From the first practice on, they learn and work together with a common purpose. Additionally, seeing teammates on a consistent basis and collecting shared experiences during a season helps foster strong bonds.
In a Project Play survey, 64% of the high school students surveyed said that playing with and making new friends was their primary motivation for playing sports. Next to school, youth sports are one of the most accessible avenues for children and teens to meet and interact with people their own age.
4. Sports help kids grow in maturity and learn teamwork
Playing a sport requires athletes to engage in problem-solving and decision-making. Making choices within competitive environments—such as deciding whether to pass or shoot the ball—can help kids develop these skills. Participating in sports can also help kids learn how to process emotions as they deal with successes and disappointments and experience a variety of interactions with other people.
Team sports also foster a sense of community and teach kids valuable lessons about working together with others toward a common goal. Being part of a team teaches kids how to interact with different people, handle conflict, encourage others, be a good sport, and more.
5. Sports help prepare kids for the future
While all of these benefits help set kids up for success, it’s also telling that people who participate in sports as children are much more likely to become active adults. The skills and habits kids build early on can give them a significant boost toward having healthy habits and pastimes in adulthood. According to Project Play, physically active adolescents are also 15% more likely to go to college to continue their education and even report 7-8% higher annual earnings as adults.
If you’re interested in getting your child involved in youth sports, you can find a league near you at play.upward.org.
If you’re a church leader interested in starting a youth sports league for the kids in your community, visit https://www.upward.org/church-leaders/
For over 28 years, Upwards Sports has equipped churches with the tools for reaching their communities through sports ministry. Today, Upward Sports serves hundreds of thousands of participants annually through their leagues and camps, with the mission to promote the discovery of Jesus through sports. The organization is best known for providing first-class resources and support for basketball, soccer, flag football, cheerleading, volleyball, baseball, and softball.
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