Life Lessons Children Learn Through Sports - I

Sports has become a multi-billion-dollar industry in today’s world and it is no more a child’s play or extra co-curricular activity. This industry is creating business and career opportunities around the globe. Its good to see now that parents are realizing this and are inclined towards encouraging their children taking some sport.

Other than skills in various sports, there are a lot of life lessons children learn on their journey through playing and participating in those sports. These life lessons are by far the most important part of playing any sports.

You can make a huge difference in the lives of your children by helping them learn the important life lessons that I believe all children learn through playing sports.

We are going to see 7 life lessons here and will take up other lessons in next coming days…

1. It’s okay to make mistakes.

There will be many times when players make mistakes during games or practice. Whether that be losing the ball in a drill, turning the ball over during a game, or taking a bad shot. Coaches have to reassure their players that it’s okay to make these mistakes, they’re learning experiences.

A good coach will challenge the players to evaluate the mistake themselves with questions such as ‘Why do you think that happened?’ and ‘What could you do next time to change the outcome?’

As long as players are learning from their mistakes, they should be pushing themselves and making as many mistakes as they can.

2. How to control emotions.

Sports can be frustrating. Not only for the players but for parents and coaches too.

There will be games when the referees don’t seem like they even have a whistle in their mouth. When these things happen, players will learn that getting angry or frustrated about it doesn’t help the situation and inevitably impacts performance. There will be times when players get so worked up that they receive a technical foul which can be a great learning experience for a player if handled correctly by the coach.

Experiencing feelings of frustration and anger and learning how to control them will help players in all aspects of their lives.

3. Setting and achieving goals.

I’m a big believer in goal-setting in all aspects of life. Everyone should do it.

Youth sports is a great place to learn how to set goals and determine how to achieve them with no repercussions if they fall short or fail.

Players will learn that setting goals gives you a target to reach for and adds motivation while on the journey to achieving them.

They’ll then learn the important step of figuring out how you’re going to reach those goals by breaking them down into achievable steps.

You can’t just set goals and cross your fingers that they’ll come true, you need to work out a plan and work hard to make them come true.

4. Success requires hard work.

Players will learn that the best players are usually the players that have worked the hardest on improving their game. While talent definitely plays its role early on, sooner or later it’s the hardest workers that rise to the top.

This will show them that if they want to become great at anything, whether that be the guitar, learning a foreign language, then it’s going to take hard work. And a lot of it.

There are no shortcuts. There’re no magic words. Being great at something takes hard, consistent work.

As the team begins to see their hard work paying off, make sure to point out to them that it’s their consistent, hard work that has led them to these improvements.

This would also be a good time to point out how they will see similar improvements if they work hard at anything else, they want to do or achieve in life.

5. How to win/succeed with class.

In sports, there is definitely a right and a wrong way to win.

I’ve seen some disgusting acts of sportsmanship from players and coaches on winning teams. Mocking their opponents, refusing to shake hands and other forms of horrible behavior.

Good coaches will teach their players how to be proud of their achievements without putting down their opponents.

This often involves shaking hands after the game with the referees and opposition players and giving positive comments to each player such as ‘good game’ or ‘well played’.

Although, how a player acts after a game should be the same regardless of a win or a loss.

6. How to lose/fail with dignity.

Youth sports is the ultimate environment for players to experience the emotions and feelings that come from failure and defeat since there are no long-term consequences of losing.

This can be after losing a grand finale, being cut from a team they really wanted to make or missing a game-winning shot.

Good coaches will teach players to lose with dignity and respect, and that there is always a learning experience to come out of every loss or failure.

Players should always shake the hands of the referees and the opponents after every game and not blame the loss on external sources like the referees or the court conditions.

One of the best things I like to do after a loss is to first ask the team what they can learn from the loss. What should we have done differently? Where do we need to improve in order to be better next time? Allow them to evaluate the loss.

7. Success requires sacrifice.

There’s only a certain amount of time each day and players will soon realize that they can’t do everything. They’ll have to sacrifice certain things to spend more time on what they consider more important.

This requires players to determine their priorities which is a great skill for later in life.

Players will realize that if they’re determined to put in the work to be a great player as well as keep up with their studies, then they won’t be able to attend every party that their friends do. They simply won’t have time.

They’ll be forced to use their time more productively. This might mean instead of spending another night out with their friends, they’re in the gym working on their shot.

This lesson will serve them well when they get to exams and have to make studying a priority.

Without taking away from the competitiveness of the sport, we must understand that the life lessons learned by children/players on their sports journey are much more important than the final score of a game.

Here’s a quick recap:

1. It’s okay to make mistakes.
2. How to control emotions.
3. Setting and achieving goals.
4. Success requires hard work.
5. How to win/succeed with class.
6. How to lose/fail with dignity.
7. Success requires sacrifice.

To finish this post, I’ll leave you with a few quotes…

“The world needs good sportsmen & sportswomen, but it needs more good sons, daughter, husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers”.

“Sports teaches students lessons that they can’t learn in a classroom”.

…And this question:

What other life lessons do players learn from youth sports that aren’t listed above?

Let me know by leaving a quick comment and keep looking at this space for the next 7 life lessons children learn by playing sports.