The Importance of Sports for the Youth of America

The leaders of tomorrow are being shaped and molded in the here and now. The lessons we teach the youth of today will be with them for the rest of their lives, and there is no better place to teach children about the world than on the field of play. Competition teaches more than just how to win and lose, it teaches a person how to win with class and at the same time be gracious in defeat. It promotes respect for your opponent and teammates, i.e. your co-workers or partners, encourages teamwork and a willingness to work with others towards a common goal. All of these traits can be beneficial in the every aspect of life, not just in the sporting arena.

Growing children need inspiration and physical stimulation, and sports are a great way to provide such things. In this video game age we are currently living in, all too often kids would rather stay inside staring at the TV, running the Playstation for hours on end than go outside and start a pickup game of baseball, football, basketball, or whatever. They actually choose to stay inside and play video games as opposed to going outside! This is a travesty and should be addressed or the future of America is looking rather bleak. Children are our future and we need to insure that they learn the things they need to know at a young age before they venture out into the world.

Sports are an important teacher for youngsters, it teaches them so many things that just can't be as easily learned anywhere else. Parents can teach their children to persevere, to spit in the face of adversity, to fight the good fight and never give up, but those are lessons that really cannot be learned until they are put into practice. Anyone can say they are going to see something through, but until they actually do it, it is just talk. Sports give children a chance to work hard and achieve their goals.

It doesn't matter if the child is not good at their chosen sport either, they don't have to be a star to benefit from being on a team. The good players should play more than the bad, that is obvious, if everyone plays equal amounts, no one will gain anything from the sport. The good players won't be rewarded and the bad ones will gain a sense of entitlement even though they didn't work to get anything and don't deserve it either. The lesser players are role players, they may not start and may not play in every game, but that should only inspire them to work harder and improve. They have a role on the team and they must play it perfectly if the team is to succeed. This may mean they sacrifice personal glory for the greater good, a lesson that is very hard for most to learn, but we all have to do it.

Those with an abundance of talent should play all the time and learn how to lead their team, how to gain the respect of their teammates, and how to co-exist with their teammates in order to achieve a common goal. Kids that are not the best players learn as much as the good ones do. The star players learn how to be leaders, how to set a goal and meet that goal. How to inspire those around them to greatness and lead their peers to new heights that were thought to be unreachable. The lesser players learn a valuable lesson in commitment and perseverance. If a youngster wants to be a starter but isn't really good enough, he needs to put in extra time and practice and work to improve. The lesser players may actually learn more about life and the real world than anyone else, they learn early on that there are no free rides and they will have to earn everything they get in this world.

Sports teach so much more than what is easily seen on the surface. The physical benefits are obvious, as are the social benefits I stated before, such as learning to work with others and acceptance of those different from yourself. It allows for participants to find their role, change or adapt their role, and redefine who they are. It can give those who are involved a sense of self worth and accomplishment. Sports allows for team and individual success and failure and young athletes will learn something every time they step onto the field. Participation in sports does much more for youngsters than just keep their bodies in shape and growing at a healthy rate, it helps them learn the ways of the world, the benefits of hard work and determination, and how to co-exist with others, even if you don't particularly like them, to reach a common goal. These are traits that can be invaluable in the real world, and developing such traits at an early age can only increase the chances for success later in life.