Young Athletes Should Play Football
By:Samuel Wojchick
Introduction:
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Doctors suggest that sports keeps kids fit more than biking or walking to school does.A study found those kids who played on three or more sports teams in a year, were 27% less likely to be overweight, and 39% less likely to be obese than those teens who did not play team sports. They also found biking or walking to school had less of an effect on a student's weight - although it did reduce their likelihood of being obese.“We estimated that the prevalence of obesity would decrease by 22% if all adolescents walked or biked to school four to five days per week,” said Keith Drake, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Hood Center for Children and Families at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
The most obvious benefit to playing sports is the benefit to your physical body, but sports can help your mind stay healthier too. In fact, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that older people who participate in sports and exercise had significantly less brain shrinkage overall -- a sign of dementia and Alzheimer's disease -- than those who didn't do as much exercise.Most sports involve a certain level of physical activity; some more, some less, but all typically get your heart pumping faster at least part of the time. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends all adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity each week, to help stave off chronic diseases such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. Of course, it's still important to check with your doctor before embarking on any new sport.
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Joining Pop Warner offers even more benefit than playing a pickup game with your friends, Gorgens says. “Organized sports are a learning lab for life,” she says. “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 rates.”Numerous studies have shown that participating in sports also correlates to more success in school and work. A report from the Centre for Economic Policy Research, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, found that people who participated in sports earned higher pay. Students who participate in sports also tend to have higher grade point averages, better attendance and a higher likelihood of going to college, suggests Dr. David Geier, a sports injury physician based in South Carolina. More success in these areas can lead to a number of better outcomes, including better access to health care and more resources to deal with health-related issues when they arise.
Sports can teach kids all of these skills.Learning how to deal with failure – Playing sports will teach you how to lose. Losing is almost as important as winning, because everyone will fail at something in life. The important thing is to learn about the failure and to use it to your advantage. Losing a game or a tournament helps teach children that these are temporary losses that can be overcome next time. The same goes for setbacks later in life.Learning to work hard – In order to become good at a certain sport, constant practice is required. Those who practice in order to get better will reap the rewards in terms of improved skills and athletic ability. The same will be applied in life – the harder you work the more you will be rewarded.Learning to work as a team – People who play team sports will learn that the success of the individual is not as important as success of the team. This teaches them humility and selflessness, not to mention that it will teach them how to work well with others in order to achieve a common goal.
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In the short term, concussions cause memory problems, confusion, nausea and vomiting. Over time, repeated concussions have been linked to brain damage – and now, research shows that even one concussion can cause long-lasting issues.Even though you can injure yourself pretty badly in sports, why not take the risk?There’s only 4 in 40 athletes that will get a concussion.