4 Reasons Kids Should Play Multiple Sports
As growing little humans, kids are learning and developing physically and mentally every day! One of the best ways to effectively, efficiently, and continuously develop a kid’s mind and body (without having it feel like a drag) is through sports!
Not only does having your kid play a sport contribute to their development in adolescence, but it builds amazing life-long habits. What’s even better than playing a sport? Playing MULTIPLE sports!
Let’s dive a little deeper into why we think it’s important to play multiple sports.
Daily Exercise
Sports are the best way for kids to get daily exercise. Why? Because it’s fun. Because they are doing great things for their physical and mental health without the drag.
Think about it. Would your kid want to go on a walk? A run? A bike stroll? It’s so much more exciting for kids to hear “Let’s go to soccer practice” rather than “Let’s go on a walk/run/bike stroll/etc…”
Sports are fun and kids look forward to participating. But many sports teams and leagues are once or twice a week. Participating in multiple sports provides opportunities for daily exercise that kids will look forward to.
Avoid Burnout
A poll from the National Alliance for Youth Sports found that 70% of kids drop out of youth sports by the age of 13 with early sport specialization being one contributing factor. Playing one sport exclusively often makes it feel like a chore that kids aren’t excited to participate in anymore.
Playing multiple sports gives kids different stimulation, activities, movements, people, and environments. The constantly changing environment keeps things challenging, new, exciting, and fun which minimizes sport burnout.
Once kids are at a place where they want to pursue one sport, they’re able to do so because they’re passionate and excited about it and their bodies will be able to keep up.
(Side note: Our very own, Coach Nick, played baseball exclusively and intensely from the age of 7. He had shoulder surgery at only 16 years old and regularly experienced elbow pain throughout college from overuse, which had him out of many games.)
Mental Development
What’s a growth mindset? See our blog post here that takes a deeper dive! Essentially, believing that abilities can be developed, rather than being natural or fixed, is a growth mindset!
While playing multiple sports, kids are put in more uncomfortable situations that challenge them to persevere and improve. Learning a new game, new rules, and being on a new team allows kids to learn how to improvise and focus on improvements rather than perfection.
And with every sport, there’s winning and losing. These opportunities teach kids to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses while building and learning from them. Sports are a low-risk way to teach kids how to handle these situations and emotions that surely will arise in other aspects of life.
FUN
At the end of the day, the best part of being a kid is all the fun that comes with it. Sports are fun. By playing multiple sports, kids will:
Make friends, build relationships, and build social skills by being involved with multiple teams and leagues
Learn what sports and aspects of athletics they like and don’t like
Be exposed to different activities, keeping them engaged, active, and excited year round
Most importantly, positive experiences with sports and finding what kids like and dislike will create a lasting love for sports and staying active.
__
While we think being involved in multiple sports is important, we also understand it’s not always practical! For tips and ways to keep your kids active and entertained on days they may not have practice, a game, or another activity, follow us on Instagram @nhsportsco!
Catch You Next Time,
NH Sports
