Community Corner

Are Sports Essential?

Is the team experience the only way for kids to develop physical perseverance and discipline?

There are few parents among us who haven't signed our kids up for at least one of the many, many sports teams available to them almost from the time they can walk.

Over the years, my kids have participated in T-ball, soccer, swimming and tennis teams. My son opted out of tennis after a single high school season and his younger sister is finishing up her freshman year of soccer after rediscovering it as a seventh-grader. 

Did my son miss out on some essential skill set? Will he fail to compete successfully in the arena of life because he was never a "jock?" Or did he gain essentially team experiences in other ways, from other activities that require mastery, that offer steep competition and that developed mental toughness in a different way?

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Is my daughter the better for widening her horizons beyond her strengths—music, performing—in order to compete on a very different playing field where she will never be a "star?"

There's no right or wrong answer, I've found, beyond keeping any extracurricular activity within balance. I've never been a big fan of the "Chinese Mother" model, where one forces mastery—of a sport, a musical instrument or other extracurricular choice—on a kid. That said, I do believe a commitment to an activity over the long haul yields confidence, commitment and self-discipline.

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But is organized sports the only way to get those desired results? Or are other activities—scouting, theater, music, for example—equally effective?

 

 

 


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