How Can Sports Participation Help Children - Essay Example

HOW CAN SPORTS PARTICIPATION HELP CHILDREN? Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Insert Date Here (Day, Month, Year) OUTLINE INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….3 SUMMARY………………………………………………………………………3 ADVANTAGES OF SPORTS…………………………………………………..4 DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR SKILLS………………………………………6 PARENTING ISSUES…………………………………………………………...7 GENDER ISSUES……………………………………………………………….8 MOTIVATION…………………………………………………………………..8 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………….9 Introduction For Children sports’ is fun. It is fun to play out in the park or a garden with friends; sometimes fighting, sometimes bullying while sometimes holding hands with each other running after the ball. They belong to the world of innocence, without any trouble, or tension. But, this trend is diminishing slowly as innocent world is getting lost amidst the technological world. With remote controls in their hands, they are often seen glued to their television sets. Very few of us may realize the extent we are creating harmful circumstances for our children- without any physical activity, children’s mental and physical health may jeopardize leading to illness and other problems and sports is the only solution. Summary It is the parents who have to inculcate the interests and spirit of sports into the children’s life for their overall well-being. Fortunately for parents and as several research suggests exercises and sports are one of the few rare events that provide equal social relationships, physical challenges and competition spree. There is no doubt of the fact that sports increase the self esteem of the child and their academic performance while reducing to a considerable degree their chance to inherit disease and use of drugs. Here again the desire of a child is a search for fun and not to make sports any other boring class sessions. But, this innocence is yet again getting lost in the professionalism making an endurable wave into the psychology of a child who is interested in sports. And, parents are forced to think about the decision to have their child specialize in one sport or join a club or attend special camps. On one hand, they want to have their child excel in one sport, join a club or attend special camps whereas on the other end they also think about the lengthy time child needs to devote to the sports, and financial burdens. If we look at the advantages these sports events inculcate in the child, these problems appear only like a small piece in an iceberg. Advantages & Disadvantages of Sports To analyze the prospective benefits sports have on children, last Sunday i.e. on September 20, 2008, I went to a nearby ground where children from near locality gather together and organize one or the other sporting event. I met young eight-year-old boy who was accompanied by his parents, and talked to him about the sport, his interest and what prompted him to take part in this particular sport. He replied his name was Jack, and had come to join the team of soccer. The other boys with the ball were standing waiting for the Jack and two more boys to join them. And when I asked Jack why he loved soccer and he replied soccer was fun and he loved running after ball, kicking it and pushing other guys. This was his innocent answer but the crux of all is he loves playing soccer and has an aptitude for the same. The ways he dribbled with the ball and passed it around clearly showed he was an upcoming star of soccer team. It was the competition between Jack’s team and the team of boys staying in the nearby locality. The name they gave to the team was also amusing - Horte and Cool. Jack was Horte. But soon I saw boys of opposite teams entered into arguments, and one from the Horte group pushed his rival even before the game started. This case I introduced to focus certain disadvantages sports can carry with it and these are: a. Enmity with the rivals b. Injuries c. Deviation from studies d. Boys can get into the habit of bullying. But, these disadvantages are very minor, and can be removed if proper coordination is applied and some elder person is appointed to supervise them along with the all safeguard measures, and safety kit is kept ready at hand. After sometime, boys resumed their game and the way they were coordinating with each other and passing the ball was very inspiring. They were playing with unity and showing complete sportsmanship as they had forgotten all what had happened before. This is the biggest advantage of sport. It increases the energy level and not only make them physically strong but also bring in following advantages: a. Develop Sportsmanship. b. Cultivate Unity c. Increases spirit of competitiveness’ d. Motivates children e. Develops motor skills f. An eye for details g. Increases focus h. Teaches them to maintain the balance in life. Development of Motor Skills Motor skills are the movement of muscles in a body. There are two types of motor skills: gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills are the large movements involving entire arm, leg, feet muscles and also the entire body. They are activated when a child is running, jumping or crawling and fine motor skills involves small actions of children like picking things between the thumb or a finger or making use of toes to make movements into sand or taking our tongue to taste the food items etc. As the boys were playing the soccer, they were using the gross motor skills. The game involves the movement of every part of the body and also quickness and fragility on the part of boys. They were running fast, quickly jumping to get hold of the ball even falling and as the need arose, one of the boys even crawled between the legs of rival to reach at the ball. Naturally all these activities involved force and agility and were spontaneous and quite natural, without any direction from the adult. The pace at which some of the boys were running and skillfully rolling the ball no other boy of the age eight years could do. This shows many of them must have undergone training of the use of the motor skills when they must be of age 3 or 4. Parenting Issues: In the whole game, I also observed attitude and behavior of parents. Some parents were quietly observing the match while others were feeling excited. Some were praying to God while some loudly clapped their hands whenever their child performed a goal or attacked the opponent with the trick of his ball. While, some were showing anxious faces when child failed to goal or perform well. The parents who were sitting silently observing the match portrayed good and decent behavior as the children were now at the performing stage and any excitement or anger sign on the face of parents could distract them from their goal. It is very natural on the part of parents to want that team to win in which their child is playing. But many parents I saw were cheering the opponent team too on their performance. This showed the sportsman spirit on their part and the values of sportsmanship they had taught their children. They believed sports were not merely for winning, but to show the endurable skills and for development of personality. Sports are also for preparing children to face the competitive world outside. But, some children really want to win and are aiming to win the match. They are eight years old so the spirit and inclination to win. Their approach goes with the four-tier system discussed by Rothschadl & Nunes. Hereby, the coach and children are following the second tier model. In the second tier, the focus is not to achieve the final goal but to give the best and show sportsman spirit. As the second tier of the model suggest the game can be divided into sixths or eights instead of halves or quarters enabling the players to get rotated into the game quite often. This type of game helps to keep the players remains focused on game rather than attaining the score. (Rothschadl & Nunes, 2004) The coach was also following every child’s hand and eye coordination and it was clearly seen that coach was following the complex skill development activities and was paring the less skilled with the more skilled players for overall development. The effects children were showing displayed the applicability of the tire system. For e.g. they were taking more risks and were setting standard goal for themselves and were undergoing self-correct errors which children of this age generally show. Their improvement might include improving the ability to play ground balls. The coach also focused on children showing best attitude, much improvement in skills, showing best defense, teamwork, positioning etc. Gender Issues Another aspect to the sports I noticed was the sign of macho man shown by the children. As they were boys and their age between five to eight years, many at some stages showed aggressiveness, naturally, which is gender specific and presenting the feeling of being a macho man and a boyish attitude. Motivation Many of the children were showing high motivation level. Intrinsic motivation was quite visible among them. Intrinsic motivation comes from within the heart of the person and it is emerged when there is an inherent inspiration to participate and succeed. Time and again cheering from the coach and the crowd was increasing motivation level. I saw one boy fell mercifully down and again he rose up and started running as if nothing had happened. All kids were enjoying themselves. As said by Rothschadl & Nunes, “Winning is primarily an extrinsic award, and extrinsic rewards do not sustain motivation to participate over a long period of time. Intrinsic rewards do. Utilizing a different approach can reduce the extrinsic emphasis and increase the intrinsic reward.” (Rothschadl & Nunes, 2004 p. 138) It was seen fully among these children. The coach was playing a very important role. They were all playing wearing T- shirts with pictures of Spiderman and Batman, and were feeling the same. When the game was nearing to an end, all boys of Cool team began to run joining hands with each other as if they were flying. In-between, when the coach announced foul- the whole air filled with fun filled laughter by young players, and when they attained goal, they would all jump on each other. Coach also seemed to enjoy every part of the game. Conclusion And I fully believe that this match would encourage more children to play soccer. The whole match displayed all the characteristics that mark the best sportsman and what the sports are and what the sports should be? Though in the beginning there was little bit of violent scene but it was soon taken in a positive note. Children showed best motor skills, their motivation was high and unity among their team. They displayed best sportsmanship even if their performance remained little weak. It was no doubt surprising as I saw children between the ages of five to eight playing like the way never seen by any other child before. This was possible because of the values and importance of sports taught by the parents to the children off the field and the same by their coach. More and more children should participate in the sports and the way is teaching them the importance of sports and motivating them by showing various events, buying them the kits and understanding their aptitude for the games. Reference List Bruni, M. (2006). Fine Motor Skills in Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals. Woodbine House. Deci E, Ryan R (1985) Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum. Ericsson, K.A. & Smith, J. (1991). Toward a General Theory of Expertise: Prospects and Limits. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rothschadl, A.M. & Nunes, C.M. (2004). Organized Play through Youth Sports: A Four-Tier System. In Rhonda L. Clements, Leah Fiorentino (Eds.), The Child's Right to Play: A Global Approach (pp. 137-143). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Schmidt, G.H. Gross Motor Skill Development. Retreived on September 23, 2008 from W.W.W: http://www.nfxf.org/html/motor1.htm. The Science and Practice of Sports Motivation. Retreived on September 23, 2008 from W.W.W: http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/the-science-and-practice-of-sports-motivation-33614 Read More