The Health & Life Benefits Of After-School Sports For Your Australian Kids

Kids having fun playing soccer outdoors on a sunny day in a park.

As a responsible parent here in Australia, you always want to do right by your children. It’s likely, however, that you and your partner are trying to hold down full-time jobs while taking care of your children at the same time. You have many other responsibilities as a parent, and finding the time to enroll your kids in some kind of after-school sports programme seems to be impossible.

The other difficulty is convincing your children that playing on their smartphone, tablet or desktop computer all afternoon is not good for them. Many kids spend an inordinate amount of time on their devices, and it’s your job as the parent to get them away from this. It is a lot easier said than done, but you need to set aside time to sign them up for basketball training kids, which teaches them new skills and allows them to make new friends.

The health and life benefits of after-school sports are many, and we will cover just a few of them here today.

  • Their health & well-being – Many kids nowadays all across Australia are heading in the direction of obesity, and this is sad to see. You do not want your child to be one of these statistics, and this is why after-school sports are perfect for them. It gets them physically fit, but it also gives them an outlet to burn off any frustrations or excess energy that they might have. Children have a lot to contend with nowadays, and there is always pressure on them to do well in school and to make new friends.
  • It’s great for their social skills – Spending time on a smartphone all day won’t provide your child with the social skills that they need when they become adults. If they are engaging in some kind of group activity through a sport, they will have to collaborate with others and communicate. They will learn how to work as a team, to listen to others and to appreciate and learn from different opinions and ideas.
  • They’ll do better in school – This always comes as a surprise to many Australian parents, but it is a fact. It has been found that there is a strong relationship between kids taking part in extracurricular activities and doing better in their studies. They learn about things like discipline and organisation when playing sports, and this crosses over into their homework and doing tests. Their cognitive skills will also improve, as well as their critical thinking, the ability to solve problems, and they will have a passion for learning not just in the field, but in the classroom as well.

It is easy to see why many Australian parents sign their kids up for after-school sports programmes. It ensures that they will have both a healthy mind and a healthy body. This is a win-win situation for parents as well, because someone else gets to take care of the kids, even for only a few short hours.

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