Informative Essay: Should Children Participate In Team Sports

When children participate in team sports, they are not only learning about the skills it takes to successfully play the sport, but other health related information such as nutrition that not only helps them continue to play the game but helps their bodies in the long-term. According to Purcell (2013) children who participate in athletics need to learn what foods are good for energy, when to eat certain foods, how to eat during an event, and when and what to eat to refuel them after a game or practice; it was found that children who participated in team sports learned that from their participation in the sport. Also, in the study, Youth Sports Club as A Health-Promoting Setting: An Integrative Review of Research, which was conducted by Geidne,

For example, children who deal with social anxiety, or just tend to be overly shy could benefit from participating in organized team sports. Dimech and Seiler's (2011) research study, where they looked at whether or not participation in sports would help reduce social anxiety and shyness among school age children, found that children on sports teams were found to have reported fewer symptoms of social anxiety than children who were in an individual sport or not in a sport at all. Another way in which a child's social development can benefit from team sports is that it gives the child a place to make social connections and relations they may be lacking at home; these social connections may suffer because of a parent or caregiver jobs, health, or due to their only being one caregiver present. Per Batlle, Carr, and Brown's (2015) research study though, they found for these connections to be beneficial to a child's development the organized sport must give the child the opportunity to: to a safe environment, a chance to show competence, have social networks, moral and economic support, autonomy to gain experience, and hope for the future. However, it was also noted that these connections are often by-products of children learning the skills it takes to successfully compete and win, rather than making connections to replace the relational connections they lack (Batlle et al., 2015).