Sports talk: play or nay?
Within global reaches, athletic activity is on the rise of being encouraged into school age childrens’ schedules as a figure of academic motivation and exercise. Subsequent and existing case studies have sparked this controversial issue on the effects of youth participation in contact sports and the danger of concussions, and is debateable among many adults who have questioned the alternatives. This augmentation has both benefits and detriments to allowing school-age children to engage in contact sports, and can have profound effects on the physical and mental constituents of young students.
Advocantly, contact sports can assist children by providing them with physical exercise that is paramount to their maintenance of a healthy body throughout their childhood and adulthood. To demonstrate, a study from the University of Washington’s sports medicine department expands on the idea that the childhood obesity epidemic is a major problem in today’s society and that over one-third of kids inside national boundaries are overweight or obese due to insufficient exercise (Herring). Accordingly, students’ actions to use contact sports as an exercise genesis will combat childhood obesity at its inception and provide for a healthier youth society that promotes proper body maintaining through physical fitness. The implementation of adult support and encouragement to students to go outside and stay physically fit plays an essential role in this sedentation as well. Nevertheless, in addition to the benefit of contact sports on the combat against childhood obesity, Stanley Herring further proposes, “A lifelong interest and commitment to health and fitness has never been more important as we face a widespread increase in sedentary lifestyles and childhood obesity,” he says. “Being active as a child correlates with being active as an adult” (Herring). This clearly demonstrates that parents’ efforts to keep their children physically fit through sport activity will better-suit them for their latter years as adults. It will prepare them to maintain a healthy lifestyle and will induce them to pass this ideology on to future generations. As a result of contact sports, society is benefited through this perpetuation of good health on school-age children. Furthermore, as kids stay physically active they will sustain better cardiovascular function according to David Geier. In the article, The benefits of playing sports aren’t just physical!, Geier explicates that lower rates of hypertension and diabetes along with stronger cardiovascular and pulmonary function are more likely to be demonstrated by athletes in comparison to non-athletes (Geier). Specifically, athletic youths will have better health function and it is purported that they will be at less risk of bodily illnesses that may detriment their future. Analogously, the daily activity of taking care of your belongings will serve you by giving you a less chance of getting your things stolen or mistreated. In both cases, the effort to stay active in monitoring your daily movement in contact sports and with your possessions will benefit your well-being and will cause your body to function better. Undoubtedly, contact sports are advantageous toward school-age children as they help kids stay physically fit on a daily basis.
In addition, contact sports help teach kids life lessons that keep them emotionally and socially motivated on and off the playing field.. To illustrate, Kim Gorgens, a clinical professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver, expounds on the idea that organized sports serve as learning points for life. She states, “They steep kids in everything from frustration management to diplomacy to collaboration, and data suggests that involvement in team sports is associated with higher high school graduation rate” (Gorgens). This shows that the interaction of students among each other in an athletic environment proposes life lessons that can be valuably implemented into society in their future years. The estimation that over 55% of all students nation-wide were involved in sports during the years of 2010-2011 initiates a leap toward the growth of the application of life lessons gained by students involved in this activity. Values such as coping with frustration and teamwork skills can be applied in business corporations and other social factors in life and contact sports provide these on a daily basis. Moreover, the benefits of athletic activity on school-age children is greatly marked by the reduction and diminishing of widespread drug use. Dr. David Geier proposes that in a study of over 14,000 high- schoolers published in a journal, Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, the athletes were increasingly less likely to use drugs. Similarly, a survey done by the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse demonstrated that students athletically involved were also less likely to smoke cigarettes and use drugs and were more likely to show disapproval toward such involvement (Geier). Certainly, contact sports give athletes emotional and social benefits as sources of motivation to do the right thing and to adhere to high moral standards. The study of over 14,000 high-schoolers tests a wide spectrum of different students that are athletically involved and non-athletically involved. Also, the widely distributed survey was taken among a large variety as well, and it is made clear through these studies that students are more motivated to stay out of trouble and to do what is right for the mental and physical aspects of their life when they play sports. Lastly, the contribution to a successful future is a result of the gain of emotional and social support. An extensive survey conducted on the level of executive Vice President of 75 of the Fortune 500 companies, supported that 95% of them played high-school sports (Geier). This clarifies that the development of teamwork skills such as leadership, cooperation, and determination, can help equip youths with these values later on in life at their job and around the community. It shows that athletes in high-school have potentially more successful futures and lead to higher levels self-development as an adult in society. The emotional and social incitement among students involved in sports has life-long benefits of sustaining good values for the future.
The implementation of contact sports into kids’ daily routines can provide for stronger academic performance, optimized concentration, and better cognitive function in the classroom. For example, an investigation published in the journal, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in August,