Sports for kids are a necessity. It is one of the healthiest habits that your kids can pick up. We say this based on the fact that sports will give children a plethora of health benefits and present a great opportunity for children to learn how to cooperate and socialize with others.
The only thing that can pop up as an issue, from time to time, is the act of choosing what sports you want your kids to participate in.
Instinctively, most parents base their decision on prior experience (the sport they used to play as a child), or personal preferences (they send their kids to their favorite sport). This is not a bad thing per se, but there is another alternative for making this decision.
We will refer to this third method as the rational option. Some parents make the choice for the sport they will have their children attend based on the greatest benefits attainable.
You want to find the best sports for kids, the ones that are safest and give the most benefits, hence why this approach could be named the rational approach. If you are reading this, you are probably trying to achieve just that. Highest possible benefits, in the safest environment.
Sports for kids get messy…
Sports encapsulated a wide range of activities, on the other hand, when talking about kids, there are a million factors to take in consideration. The age group, the level of physical development, the areas in which a child is lacking for the moment being, and so on.
When you mash these two together into sports for kids, things will get messy. There are far too many variables for anyone to pick a single sport as the best one there is for children.
Having this in mind you need to always know that at the end of the day, the advice you will get about sports for kids are a sort of broad spectrum advice.
They can be amazing, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day, all you can do with them is use them to help you make the choice, and always keep in mind that the main factor here are the needs and desires of your children.
We have tried to find some of the best sports for kids that are always a good idea, or at least can always be a fantastic option to take into consideration.
1. Swimming
Let’s start with the obvious. Swimming is the best of sports for kids, no doubt about it. Both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that you send your children to swimming lessons from ages 1 to 4. So this one of those sports for kids, that even toddlers can participate in.
Some, among the numerous health benefits that swimming provides include: fantastic cardiovascular health, lean body, fitness, healthy development and formation of muscles, etc.
On the other hand, statistics on infant injuries show us that the most common type of injuries and even fatalities include drowning and water, which makes teaching your children how to swim a great idea. Indoor swimming, and swimming as a sport has also a very low rate of injuries.
2. Free play
We already mentioned that sports for kids are wide and broad in the things they include. Free play is just one of those things that isn’t truly a sport, but has all the necessary ingredients to be one. Free play is a type of sports for kids meant for the younger ages, 1 to 5 mostly.
Free play can include anything that gets you children running and moving. Anything for cycling, running, walking, jumping, throwing and catching some ball around, works and is preferable.
We choose free play because the younger ages that still aren’t ready for actual sports, need the benefits of sports too, and free play can provide them. Free play is also a very safe activity as you can be there and monitor things at all times.
3. Soccer
If there was an award for the healthiest sport, soccer would definitely be in contention. When it comes to sports for kids, soccer is a bit limiting with the age group. Most experts on both ends, pediatrics and soccer, suggest that the ideal age to start soccer is somewhere around 6 years old.
Soccer has all the benefits that the best sports for kids have and then some. Starting from fitness, cardiovascular health, improvement of spatial coordination, improvement of hand-eye, foot-eye coordination, enhancing of the muscle and bone forming processes, etc.
There are also other benefits such as: social skills, team work, socializing, and other psychological benefits that can help your child develop in a social setting or even a professional one.
4. Gymnastics
This is one of the most preferred sports for kids. More and more people are choosing to send their kids to gymnastics. There is a very good reason behind this. Before we get into that it is important to mention that gymnastics are meant for children above, at least, 5 years of age.
This doesn’t mean that younger kids shouldn’t do any sort of gymnastics, it’s just that the more serious type of them are meant for kids beyond that age.
Just like any other sports for kids, gymnastics comes with a great amount of health benefits, positives in the developmental aspect (tissue forming), general fitness and obesity prevention, however gymnastics is a very goal-driven sport.
This will help your children learn how to set and pursue goals in life. As far as safety goes, gymnastics is as safe as a sport can be.
5. Basketball
One of the most beloved sports of our nation, makes a great sport for kids too. Basketball is a bit more competitive than our previous entries. Just like soccer and gymnastics, it is prefered that kids participating in basketball are at the very least, 6 years old.
Basketball is part the last entry in our list of best sports for kids, but this doesn’t mean anything regarding the benefits of basketball. Starting from amazing hand-eye coordination, spatial coordination, all the way to cardiovascular health and tissue forming improvements, basketball checks every box on the list.
On top of that basketball is one of those sports for kids that requires immense concentration and thinking, thus this helps kids develop a healthy and powerful mind on top of everything else.
Sports for kids are definitely a tremendous benefit, and could be considered even a necessity. If you are in the process of deciding what sport to choose for you children, keep these suggestions in mind. Hopefully this will come in handy in making things easier for you.
