Some today argue that sports are an unimportant distraction in a country – and a world – with bigger problems to handle. They argue that sports do not serve a legitimate purpose, and because of that, sports at the youth, college, and professional level are little more than a waste of time and resources. As someone who has played sports, watched sports, and studied sports, I have an intricate view of the things that sports bring to the table. On the youth level, sports provide important lessons of team-building to participants, while also giving young people a reason to become and remain active. On the college and professional level, sports can help to galvanize communities and provide young people with the sorts of role models that may motivate them in the future.
At the youth level, sports can play a role in teaching young people important life lessons. What person who has been involved in a close game does not remember trusting a teammate to make a big shot or get the big hit? On some level, being thrown into these situations with teammates can be an extremely good thing for young people. They learn, almost immediately, about the beauty and power of working in a team. Teammates can help to support them, and they learn to deal with conflict. Likewise, they learn that they cannot always get their way. As a member of a team, it is necessary to sometimes make sacrifices so that the team can prosper. With sports, young people are taught these lessons the fly by coaches who have been through those things. Later in life, when those young people are working in groups in college or participating in the working world, they will be able to draw on the lessons that they learned from their time playing sports.
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"The Importance of Sports".
More than teaching life lessons, youth sports provide young people with an easy way to become active. Childhood obesity is becoming a major problem in the United States. More kids stay inside than ever before, playing video games and doing other activities that can harm them from a physical perspective. Likewise, these habits developed in youth can have an impact on people down the road. Those who are not active while they are young will find it more difficult to get into exercise when they are older. Sports, then, provide the structure in which children can get the exercise that they so desperately need. No matter the sport – from tennis to golf to football to track – young people are burning calories, working on their cardiovascular health, and gaining strength that will serve them well in the future. Getting up the motivation to go for a run can be a difficult thing for most children. Instead of doing that, most would rather run around outside with a basketball in hand. Part of the importance of sports comes from the ability of games to get kids off of the couch for a few minutes every day.
At the college and professional level, sports takes on a different character. People argue that sports stars are paid too much money and college athletics detracts from the real purpose of the university. They argue that these sports are dangerous. While these things may be true, their value is not enough to counter-act the positives that sports bring to the table. College and professional athletes can serve as positive role models for young people. When a young person watches his favorite player hit the winning shot at the end of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, that young person might be motivated to work hard for the future. It is true that many athletes do not turn out to be great role models. Some, though, live up to their billing and accomplish great things both on and off the field. These are people that children can look up to when they need a person to motivate them. Likewise, college and professional sports can help to galvanize local communities. College football in the South is like a religion, with fans from various schools joining together each Saturday to celebrate a win or lament a loss. In the NFL, teams like the Saints have helped to bring together communities when those communities have been hit by natural disasters. People rally around these sports teams, and when the sports stars decide to give something back to the community, it creates a very powerful win-win for all involved. It is possible that these communities could come together for some other reason, but sports can be a uniting force in communities that need that kind of force the most.
While some will argue that sports are not important, those people have likely not experienced the many benefits that sports can bring. At every level, sports return more to communities than they take out. Young people get their exercise, they work on their health, and learn valuable skills that will almost certainly make them better down the road. For college and pro athletes, the salary may be high, but the rewards are difficult to measure. These people serve as heroes to kids who want to believe that they, too, can make it if they put in enough hard work. Likewise, these teams can help to bring together communities during the world moments that a given community might face during the course of a year.
