Youth sports teach good life skills

  • Published
  • By Sandy Simison
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  A child participating in youth sports learns responsibility, commitment, and team building skills. When signed up to play a sport, the child attends and follows through, especially on a team sport; so from the standpoint of life lessons, commitment and responsibility carry on into other areas of life. Whether the biggest kid out there or the smallest, either can contribute to a sport in many different ways to help the team be successful.

When working in an office or other environment, some of those team building skills experienced growing up, positive or negative, can translate into successful interaction with colleagues and other people encountered in a work setting. Each person is capable of contributing in their own way to help their workplace be successful.

"I think that it is hard in other activities to get the same amount of team experience and reliance on other people for success, and I think it makes for more success in life--it builds good character, plus you get out and run around and get your heart rate up, said Lt. Col. Lauren Wolf, a pediatrician at the medical center. "Kids are supposed to get at least an hour of activity every single day. Organized sports are a way for kids to get those activities and enables them to meet friends with similar interests and many times build lasting relationships that span a lifetime," she said.

In today's world, when everybody wants to win, it's sometimes hard to lose. Losing develops the skill of handling defeat and determining what went wrong - to learn from mistakes and then move on. Winning builds good emotions, it helps people feel good so there is a good balance there for life lessons.

"With physical activity, there is a potential for injury. Before puberty, we're concerned with broken bones that might prevent appropriate growth of the bones. If a bone is broken at the end of a growth plate, it might impact how that bone grows. When children get into high school sports, we see more overuse injuries-anterior cruciate ligament tears, sprains, meniscal injuries, rotator cuff injuries. Seeing a pediatrician can ensure an injury heals and gets the appropriate treatment and also rest to prevent re-injury," said Wolf.

"One of the biggest pieces of advice I have for children is that a lot of the injuries are from overuse and adequate rest is the number one treatment. It's important to take care of injuries now to prevent a more serious injury that could potentially impact the ability to perform," continued Wolf. "The goal in going into a sporting season is staying active between seasons to retain a level of activity so that increasing the level of activity isn't a shock and the body is already acclimated to that activity. Stretching is also very important, warming up and cooling down.  Listen to the body-- if injured, don't continue to push through," she said. "If the child has a concussion, it's important to get evaluated to get the appropriate recommendations for rest and when they can return to play, as well as if they're having prolonged symptoms. Sometimes further evaluation or longer periods of rest is needed so that they don't increase the risk of long-term complications from a concussion."

In youth sports, parents and coaches help influence children to want to succeed; to want to do well, to eat healthy, and to have good relationships--it brings the community together as well.  Even in tennis or track, there exists that same sort of community engagement and reliance upon others. Different children will gravitate toward different sports whether it's an individual sport or team sport depending on their personality. In either instance, they're out there, they're getting their activity and they're learning good health habits for life.