Have you seen a team of five-year-old’s playing soccer? They look like adorable bees swarming the ball. Have you seen 10-year-old’s playing soccer? In addition to being taller, they appear more organized and it’s clear they’ve learned a few things. As a parent, I love seeing the growth and development in my kids that comes as one of the many benefits of youth sports.
When parents and coaches contact Sudz Fundraising for the first time, they usually agree that youth sports are good, but they aren’t sure they will survive another season. Their biggest complaint is always fundraising. For this reason, I’ve decided to share 7 life-changing benefits of youth sports, including Sudz’ Fundraising secret that helps parents enjoy their kids’ time in youth sports.
7 Benefits of Youth Sports
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Being Active
Kids need to play and be active. Extra points are awarded if kids play outside because our bodies depend on sunlight to make vitamin D, which helps in developing our bones and strengthening our immune systems. However, even if play is kept indoors, the exercise is still beneficial. With so many devices, shows and video games vying for kids’ attention, sports helps us parents get our kids to be active. Youth sports also provide a foundation of athleticism that kids can build on later in life.
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Socializing
Making friends, sharing, and working together are actually learned social skills. While a child may have to live with their siblings, this is not quite the same as socializing with kids outside the home. Sports put kids in situations where they have to communicate with others, get along, and work as a team. All of this is done within the structure of the team and under the guise of a coach, giving young athletes plenty of learning opportunity.
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Learning how to win and lose well
Good character is practiced and youth sports provides plenty of opportunity for your child to practice. When their team loses the tournament they worked really hard at, they are faced with the choice to get upset and throw in the towel or to assess how they could do better and train better for next time. Likewise, when the team wins, kids have the opportunity to become proud and rude to the losing team or humbly accept the win.
Of course, choosing the right response to winning or losing must be demonstrated by parents and role models. How do you respond to their wins and loses? How do you respond to your own?
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Developing coordination
Opposed to a popular belief, coordination is learned and practiced. It does come more easily to some, but without physical activity, even kids gifted with coordination would be behind the curve.
Youth sports expert Brian Grasso said, “Younger athletes who learn to master the elements associated with good coordination (balance, rhythm, spatial awareness, reaction etc), are far better off then athletes who are not exposed to this kind of exercise stimulation until advanced ages. The ability to optimally develop coordination ends at around the age of 16.”
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Learning time management
Let’s face it, between practices, tournaments, and daily life, sports seasons can be tough. However, these hectic seasons raise your child’s threshold for what they can accomplish and they are forced to find a way to get all of their work done. Life can’t be sustained at this rate forever, but those bursts of activity can help your child learn time management skills if they let them. By that I mean, they have to recognize they are in a tough season and step up to the plate. They can’t blame their teachers for forgotten homework assignments or their coaches for missing cleats.
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Building self-esteem
For all of the other reasons I have listed, youth sports helps develop self-esteem. Because of the situations their sport presents, as they get older, they will know they are capable of challenging themselves and working within a team environment. Their involvement on a team also gives young athletes a sense of belonging that emboldens them to be involved with other groups.
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Fundraising
There are certainly many lessons children can learn from having to fundraise, but let’s be honest, they probably won’t pick up the skills needed to responsibly manage their adult income from fundraising. Children can learn from fundraising, however, business principles like selling quality items people actually want. In a nutshell, that is the Sudz Fundraising secret. By offering high-quality household items, like laundry detergent, sports teams can sell more and make more while actually saving their supporters money.
Sudz’ Fundraising also provides convenient and easy-to-use order forms and web stores personalized for teams. That means supporters can support you in whatever way is most convenient for them.
Be sure to check out our variety of sports fundraising options, including spirit wear, and let us know if you have any questions!
And to all you young athletes out there, enjoy the game and leave it all on the field/court/track/bars/...water...you get the idea! Have a great season!
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