A perfect equation

“All parents know that good experiences nourish excited participation in anything, including sports. Athletics provide opportunities for learning life’s lessons, gaining real self-esteem, and experiencing a healthy, physically active lifestyle. Professionals, researchers, and especially savvy grandparents will tell you that participation in sports leads to balanced development and forms the foundations of success.” — Shari Young Kuchenbecker, Ph D, Raising Winners: A Parent’s Guide to Helping Kids Succeed On and Off the Playing Field.

I recently returned to the United States after spending almost three weeks visiting seven Indian cities, as part of an EduSports team engaged in propagating physical and sports education in schools across India. This was a meaningful experience for me, because a lifetime of playing and involvement with sports at all levels has taught me how important athletics is for children to improve their physical fitness and mental well-being. There is no doubt in my mind that sports and academics make a perfect equation.

Throughout my career as a counselor, sports psychologist and coach, I have emphasised the wonderful learning environment that physical activity and sports create. I often refer to the sports field as the “ideal laboratory for learning”. Yet what exactly is it about running around a soccer field, shooting a basketball or practising karate that improves the academic learning outcomes of children? I have several explanations:

• Sports activity is visceral. The human body isn’t designed to remain stagnant for hours on end; it is designed for movement. When kids are playing and having fun, they experience positive feelings in their very core, not just in the mind. Sports resonates with children in ways that academic learning cannot.

• Sports is hands-on. Kids — especially younger ones — learn best by doing and discovering. That is why sports and education make such a good equation. Says Joe Clark, former principal of East Side High School in Paterson, New Jersey: “If you can take a round ball, bounce it on a flat surface and shoot it at an angle to rebound off a rectangular backboard and through an oval hoop, then you learn algebra, you learn geometry.”

• Sports is fun. When an activity is fun, children are more than likely to get involved with it and become committed to improving.

• Playing fields and sports arenas are where kids want to be. If you offer any young person a choice between doing math equations and playing a game, which do you think she’ll choose?

Ideally, classrooms should incorporate all the factors that create excellent learning environments. However, that isn’t always possible. That’s why the next best thing is for schools and/or communities to introduce physical education or sports programmes, which when combined with co-curricular activities such as art, music, drama, and dance, enable students to expand beyond-the-classroom knowledge and experiences.

The right balance of sports and extra-curricular activities confers additional benefits upon children. Among them:

• Improved physical fitness and health. Physical activity lowers the risk of ailments such as coronary heart disease, stroke, some cancers and Type Two diabetes. Research shows that children who are physically less active are more likely to become overweight and under-achieve academically.

• Improved integration of mind and body. This is conducive to physical and mental well-being.

• Enhanced self-confidence and self-esteem. Confidence flows from competence. Engagement with sports develops extra-curricular competence and in turn, self-confidence.

• Enhanced social and cognitive development. Participation in sports and games helps kids develop communication and social skills such as tolerance and respect. It also improves concentration and listening skills.

Regrettably, despite these obvious benefits, less and less time is being allotted to sports and athletics in American schools. As a result of this and other factors, childhood obesity has increased to the point that it is a major public health hazard. At the same time, the academic scores of our students are low when compared to their counterparts in other countries. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

My hope is that India can avoid making some of the same mistakes as the US. With the help of EduSports, this is possible. EduSports is committed to helping families, educators and entire communities help children and adolescents grow into healthy, happy, productive adults by engaging in fun-filled sports and games. Parents, principals, teachers! Don’t make the mistake of missing the opportunity to provide meaningful character-building sports education.

(Dr. George Selleck is a San Francisco-based advisor to SportzVillage, Bangalore)