Sports that ALL children should play

One of the questions I get asked most often is which sports I think offer the best developmental potential for young athletes.

This is a trick question for several reasons…

First of all, ANY sports activity led by a quality coach is wonderful for children.

That said, the real crux and effectiveness of that statement rests heavily on the ‘quality-based coach’ comment.

It’s only when undereducated and overzealous parents and coaches (ie adults) get too involved in youth sports can the experience turn sour. Parents often push too hard and seek success at a young age; Coaches often have a limited understanding of developmental science and routinely ‘train’ kids with ‘sport-specific’ exercises (I hate that phrase) that are too narrow in scope (not to mention many youth sports coaches don’t know how to TEACH specific aspects of movement or speed and yet get upset when their athletes don’t perform a given exercise at a high enough level).

One of the most prominent and troubling realities of the above comments is that there don’t seem to be many (any?) outlets for kids to play anymore. Every youth sports activity is a life and death struggle that MUST culminate in victory…heaven forbid we teach strong developmental skills in a fun and energetic way to promote the developmental integrity of our youth, which by the way should include stability (for example, highlighting emotional skills gained in a given season rather than increased “wins” and trophies) and mental stimulation (in the form of engaging life lessons that instill a lifelong love of the activity instead of winning at all – cost mentality that can overwhelm children with various complexes for years).

With that said, I encourage parents to suppress the desire to see their 8-year-old win the weekend tournament; I encourage coaches to remove their ‘Lombardi’ hats when entering a practice or game situation; I also encourage strength and conditioning coaches to remove the desire to “test” young athletes from a biomotor perspective and only seek to increase a child’s ability from a performance perspective.

In fact…

My message is simple…

Practice sports according to the season.

Find trainers and programs that emphasize skill acquisition rather than victory.

Find coaches who do the same: work to instill skills in kids instead of creating performance markers.

So, here are my top four sports every kid should play (in no particular order):

1) Soccer

In most of North America, children lack foot dexterity, and soccer is a wonderful natural enhancer of both foot dexterity and foot-eye coordination. Don’t pigeonhole this skill as only necessary for soccer, either. Remember, the crux of developing a ‘well-rounded’ athlete is to soak them up in as many athletic stimuli as possible at a young age. Increased footwork will, over time, round out the overall ability of youngsters and allow them to progress in their “chosen” sport more efficiently.

Also, while many North Americans find soccer ‘boring’ (although I’ll need an explanation on how soccer is boring, but baseball and golf are America’s pastimes), it is a wonderfully athletic and tactical sport. Sudden bursts of explosive power, changing direction, looking two plays ahead, playing a “force” based defense where the defender uses his body/skills to change what the offensive player wanted to do – these are fantastic athletic lessons that can be archived. in the nervous system and used at a later time in any sporting activity.

2) swim

Unloaded shoulder and hip mobility adds great flexibility to a young athlete’s frame. With so many injuries occurring due to restraints and stress on children (yes…I wholeheartedly believe that many of the youth sports injuries we see annually around the world could be prevented with a simple and basic increase in both strength systemic as in mobility) Hip and shoulder mobility initiatives are crucial.

Furthermore, kinaesthetic differentiation is a physical skill that many children lack (this refers to the knowledge of how much force is necessary to produce a desired result). My opinion on this matter is simple: everything we tend to do with children, both in sport and in training, is based on maximum effort. In our quest to search for those ‘performance markers’, we overlook the notion that submaximal efforts are good for development and build certain physical qualities not seen in high strength based results. Swimming is at the core of building kinaesthetic differentiation: kids just won’t last long in a pool if they put as much force into each stroke as possible.

3) Martial Arts

Almost all the martial arts that I am familiar with are based on the acquisition of skills as the main marker. Not only is it mentally and emotionally good for a child, but it infers the teaching of patience and ‘enjoy the journey’ rather than ‘seeking the destination’.

While a lot of martial arts practices in North America have been watered down (8-year-olds getting black belts; if you knew anything about traditional martial arts, you know how ridiculous it is), most of the organizations you I am familiar teach a wonderful style. of developing patient skills and discipline.

Athletically speaking, dynamic flexibility, end-range systemic strength, mobility, spatial awareness – the physical ability built through martial arts is impressive and can be applied to any sport.

4) Gymnastics

Again, the physical elements that can be built through gymnastics are amazing: spatial awareness, flexibility, relative strength, dynamic and static balance, and the list goes on.

If for no other reason, the ability to know where you are in space and take a fall “right” is a necessary skill for any sport.

So… there’s my list.

Don’t get me wrong, the list is nothing without a quality coach at the helm of each of these respective sports. Martial arts instructors, for example, are often archaic in their knowledge of warm-up design, as are gym trainers in their flexibility-enhancing practices. Having said that, there are good coaches out there and I urge you as a parent to find them. I also encourage coaches to seek joint venture partnerships with quality coaches and enhance a child’s development with training habits based on solid strength and skill acquisition.

Play soccer in the fall.

Swim in the summer.

Participate in martial arts during the winter.

Take gymnastics in the spring.

Mix in some developmental training and play other sports recreationally for interest and development (basketball and baseball, for example).

At the age of 13 or 14, you will have a solid athlete with limited injuries who understands sport tactics and is strong, mobile and flexible…

Not a bad place to be!