Building Your Child’s Physical Fitness
Sports are a popular form of exercise because it provides physical stimulation and mental exertion that are required by humans. There is a big difference between recreational sports where the participation is competitive. People play different types of sports for different reasons. Some people play sports to relax and have fun while other play sports as a competitive form of exercise.
The physical characteristics that come from practicing various sports can help people in strengthening their muscles, building up their stamina, and enhancing their overall physical well being. Sports that are practiced on a regular basis can improve people’s motor skills. Motor skills include hand-eye coordination and speed. Playing sports such as basketball and netball has been known to improve hand-eye coordination, while playing soccer helps improve people’s stamina. Skateboarding is a good example of an athletic sport where one performs tricks in order to gain points, and balance and strength are required to do tricks.
Pediatric News reports that children who play sports are less likely to suffer from sports injuries such as twisted ankles, cuts, sprained ankles and torn muscles. This is because sports prevent children from becoming careless and moving in ways that they may normally do. Sports also keep them physically active and away from the sedentary lifestyle associated with most other types of activities. In fact, playing sports for longer periods of time has been known to improve mental fitness.
The benefits of playing sports are endless; from improving your eye coordination and hand-eye coordination to building up your stamina and helping you become more fit and in better shape. Physical education has been made a compulsory subject in schools across the United States and the amount of physical activity done by children has been steadily decreasing over the years. With technology constantly increasing the amount of physical activities children can engage in, the trend toward less physical activity may be expected to continue in the future. Children who are involved in sports tend to do better in school and are more likely to have good grades.
Many experts agree that children who participate in sports or other athletic activity early in life are more likely to develop a lifelong passion for the sport that they love. It has also been shown that participation in sports improves their motor skills, hand-eye coordination and other early physical fitness skills which contribute to their later skill development and later academic achievement. For this reason, physical fitness is essential for healthy childhood development. As sports participation becomes an important part of a child’s life, they are more likely to take part in all sports in their later years.
As children grow up and begin to enter puberty, the amount of physical activity declines but participation in sports or other sport activities like soccer or lacrosse are still essential for optimal health and motor skills. Some children play sports for the fun and excitement, while others play sports due to a desire to build up their motor skills and well being. The type of sports that you choose to participate in will determine how much time you need to spend on your sports. However, with any type of physical activity it is important to warm up and cool down properly.