Sports Clubs for Kids: The social benefits of children's sports clubs
Sports Clubs and Activities for Children: The Social Benefits Explained
As my two children have now started to work their way through primary school, I've seen them develop in terms of both physical and social confidence. They’ve also started to find their own personalities, likes and dislikes and develop groups of friends. I've been considering lately all the different opportunities I've offered them in their early years and thinking about the impact these activities have had in shaping them as young people.
Are there particular social benefits of sports clubs and activities? Can sport lend itself to developing confidence, just like learning a new language can boost your life opportunities?
In particular, I feel that it’s the ‘physical’ activities that potentially make the most difference. Those endeavours where kids are engaging actively in the sports by moving, exercising, using a piece of equipment, or working alongside a team. This includes football, swimming, golf, bowling, gymnastic and dance, to name but a few. Considering these sports I thought it worth looking into which have had the most impact on my boys and I wanted to break down the individual activities to highlight the benefits.
Getting started with confidence via a swimming class or club
From their first years, I wanted to get my own children used to the water and swimming. I wanted to be able to show them that it was something to be aware of and safe around, while also developing some simple skills surrounding confidence.
In the area of Norfolk where I live there is a franchise referred to as Water Babies. This is a baby and toddler swimming class that specialises in small sessions for babies and toddlers. Their sessions are built with water confidence and safety in mind. From the outset, the sessions look at acclimatising babies with the sensations involved with being in the water. They help to unlock the natural instincts to want to paddles, float and kick for safety, all in a scientifically thought out effort to help babies and toddlers get their water wings.
Most of the pools that I experienced using as part of Water Babies were in high schools or primary schools. This was excellent because it began to expose my children to what a school setting looks like, way before they were old enough for school. The very first classes also entailed using sensory pools of a warmer temperature than a standard pool.
The sessions involved rhymes, games and active movements that encourage the children to get used to not only the swimming pool environment but what they can and cannot do in and around the water. There was some initial outlay on swim nappies, floatation vests etc, but overall I felt the sessions were great value for money. Particularly because even though we didn’t continue once the boys were at school, the sessions did give them the chance to gain confidence in what their bodies do and how they react when they kick, pull or crawl in the water.
They also learn to not be shocked by a splash or putting their faces under the water and how to blow bubbles slowly in order to contain oxygen underwater calmly.
I took my kids to Water Babies for nearly two years, but with the arrival of my youngest, it was easier and more affordable to take both of them simultaneously along to a local pool and use the techniques I’d learnt from the Water Babies sessions myself. The sessions did give many new parents the chance to make bonds and support each other.
I highly recommend that anyone who can find a similar water confidence class in their area should try it out. I believe most of any worth do free trial sessions as tasters.
Local grassroots football clubs and their benefits.
I took my eldest along to the local village football sessions on a Sunday. These were run by volunteers from the local grassroots teams and the proceeds of the sessions went to paying for the club kits and needs.
We started to make use of the local football club’s offering as a way of introducing ourselves in a new area we had just moved to. There’s something easy about bonding with other parents over a hot flask of coffee while you’re freezing on the sidelines of the pitch. Whilst not necessarily the most organized of affairs, it did give my kids the chance to mix with children of various ages and learn how to interact with them.
My eldest was, and is, a reasonably shy individual. It took time for him to warm up to the others as he prefers the company of adults in many ways, but he was soon diving in.
Each session had elements of skill, such as dribbling, turning, passing and shooting for goals. After 45 minutes, the children were then grouped into teams for a little 15-minute game. Yes, there will always be those that are more skilled, faster, or unethical in character. But this kind of forum allowed my eldest to learn about collaboration, respect, effort, failure and most importantly in my opinion about unfairness and imbalance.
Often the teams would be mismatched in terms of age or ability or the favourite regulars would be picked for the captain. I’m not unhappy about this though, because it’s a good learning experience for kids to understand that things aren’t always fair and success isn’t just about effort.
Take for example the weekly award for “player of the week”. It’s a symbol of success, but should be treated with a pinch of salt in terms of children's sports classes and the model used in some. It’s often about automatically getting an award for turning up and that’s not helpful in nurturing effort to improve. Trophies have to be earned for fear of creating a snowflake generation. My eldest was happy with the occasions he won the trophy for the week, but he also understood that on weeks where he hadn’t received it he may have put in more effort.
I see why there’s the consumerist love in the western world to receive an award just simply for turning up. But, whilst this might be necessary on some occasions it has to be worthwhile winning otherwise there really is no value in it to the child because ultimately they will know if they have not put in the effort to stand a chance of achieving something.
It's also important to note that whether it's a football club, tennis club, golf club or similar, it must be something the child is interested in. If you're simply taking them along to the club because it’s the “in thing” or because for some kind of vicarious reason you’re replaying your youth via them, then it is not a good thing to do.
Let your child be their own person and find their own passion.
Learning to deal with failure in a sporting situation.
I have a love-hate relationship with crazy golf courses. There's a couple in the area and I’ve been asked regularly by my boys to take them along for a round or two. The ones nearby have quirky dinosaur, safari and pirate themes.
All of them offer the children opportunities to take it in turns. Having to wait for another person to take a turn is a big thing when you're young. It also gives them the opportunity to practice their aiming skills, learn not to hurl around a golf stick at a hundred miles an hour like a weapon and also deal with barriers and obstacles in both a physical and metaphorical way.
The peril of having to dip your hand into an icy cold water feature to fish your ball back out can, for some, be daunting. But it's all about gaining confidence and resilience to pick up your ball, place it back down, and start again.
Ten-pin bowling with the kids
The same goes for activities like bowling with children.
Whilst it's important for them to get used to how to handle the balls, try not to rely solely on the self-aimed bowling rails. Also, take those safety barriers down from the side of the lanes. Children like to learn what works and what doesn’t. After all, most of the EYFS year in primary schools is geared up for exploring and experimenting, so let them approach sports and games like this also.
Let them learn what the ball does and that if the ball spins off toward the gutter, and goes into it, it's a gutterball! It’s like taking the stabilisers off a bike… learn to balance sooner and experience “how to” sense progression and gain true confidence from the sporting activity you're engaged in.
Other things to try to gain confidence in body and mind.
Keep your eyes open for local gyms or dance studios where they have visitors. Often, if a theatre is touring the area, they will have some of the creative team or dancers visit the studio to give one-off sessions.
This is mainly so the dancers can make a bit of money on the side while on tour, but they give real aspirational expertise and a professional rationale for learning a skill or sport. My oldest son has taken part in some of these in the local area and has been lucky enough to dance alongside those who have worked with both Britney Spears and stars of the London stage show Matilda. Truly inspirational.
For some children who aren't particularly coordinated, just getting the chance to see others move in a certain way and express themselves helps them to refine their own movements.
In a similar way to this, younger years providers often have baby gyms and soft playgroups available. These can be amazing and invaluable for developing infant skills, but be wary of the costs involved in some of these sessions. Some startups and franchises have cottoned on to the fact that they can charge a fortune for baby services and don't always offer the best value.
