Childhood stage is a tough period, though most adults no longer remember this. During this period, your child is in his/her building and actualization stage. If your child has low confidence, it will affect him/her in a number of ways – physically, emotionally, mentally, etc.
As a parent, if you realize that your child has low self-confidence, this might raise your concern. Then why don’t you enroll your child in team sports? Team sports are not just about dealing with soccer mum’s or winning trophies. In fact, team sports have much more to offer to improve your child’s confidence. Here are various steps on how team sports can boost your child’s self-confidence:
Your Child Feels Happy and Physically Fit
Medically, when we engage in exercise, some chemical compounds are released in our brains that make us feel really happy and good. Moreover, studies revealed that exercise is capable of easing depression and anxiety. Therefore, there is no doubt that when you child joins a team sport, he/she would participate in some sort of exercise on a regular basis that would make him/her start feeling better about himself/herself. This would eventually give your child more self-confidence.
Eliminates Boredom and Anti-Social Behaviours
Most times, bored children are those that act up with anti-social behaviours. However, putting your child in team sports will reduce boredom and can prevent any anti-social behaviour, which would have developed in your child due to being idle for a long period of time. A report has it that children with good behaviours are more confident than those with bad behaviours.
Making new friends
Enrolling your children in team sports is a very good avenue for your child to make new friends. Aside from making friends within the team, most team sports organize social occasions within the year. This gives your child more opportunities of interacting with new friends off the field. Your child would be able to develop his/her confidence with new friends. Thus, team sports do not only enable your child to exercise himself/herself alone, but also a great way of encouraging physical activities as your child would be eager to see his/her new friends at every training session, practice, or game. Joining a sporting team gives your child a common thing to have interest in with their new friends. Whether it is talking about the latest basketball sneaker releases or what’s new in NBA superstar sneaker trends, your child will have so many new things to obsess over with their new friends!
Feeling Included
Team sports encourage cooperation and team spirit. Team sports require that everybody work together. As a result, your child would not want to feel left out. He or she would like to show everyone that he/she is also an important member of the team. This, therefore, improves his/her confidence.
Encourages Group Work
In almost all levels of childhood, your child would have to work in group conditions. Enrolling your child in team sports would encourage group work in your child and will help your child to develop the necessary skills to effectively work in a group situation. When your child puts those basketball shorts and the teams basketball jerseys on, it encourages them to work in a team for one central goal. Wearing a uniform gives them the feeling of unity and lets them know that the entire team needs to work together to win the game, this same lesson can be taken when entering school or a working environment when you have been given a group assignment or task to complete.
Keeping Fit and Healthy
Confidence has to do with feeling good about oneself. Participating in team sports will help your child to feel good about himself/herself and also to stay healthy and fit all through their childhood years. This will help your child to stay confident, energetic and focused. Teaching your child early on that fitness and a healthy lifestyle is very important will make your life easier when they are going through their teen years and refusing to be active or eat the right things.
Rewards
Though this should not be the major reason for enrolling your child in team sports, an assurance of reward for playing a good game can help build your child’s confidence. As little as a sporting trophy can act as a memento. Having some incentive for completing some hard and good work is always an added bonus for your child. It shows them that working hard can pay off and is worth all the effort and emotion that is put in.
Enrolling your child in team sports has several benefits. Aside from the fact that team sports can help build up your child’s social skills and provide mentoring opportunities, team sports may be just what your child needs to give him/her the necessary confidence boost.
