“Practicing a sport must not be based on the idea of ​​success, but on the idea of ​​giving the best of oneself.” (Gabriella Dorio, Italian middle distance runner, gold medal in the 1500 meters flat at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics) WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SPORT FOR CHILDREN

The beauty of sport: this is a good reason for choosing to introduce a sport in the life of our child.

Sport is an extra-curricular activity, which is often overlooked because it is considered too demanding, for the child or for the hectic family life. It is certainly a discipline in which the presence of parents is essential and fundamental: bringing the child to training, being present at matches and competitions, sharing the tiredness and the “races” among the thousands of social commitments . But certainly playing sport is an activity with a strong educational value, because it proves to be a formative discipline for the child, in the development of correct behaviors towards others and in the growth of one’s sense of responsibility.

Deciding to have your child play a sport is a way to make him carry out a physical activity, since he spends most of the day sitting between school and homework, to strengthen the muscles and strengthen the skeletal system .

The choice of a sporting activity must be made together with the child, satisfying his wishes and evaluating the degree of satisfaction or intolerance once the course has begun. You can choose individual sports, such as swimming, dance or martial arts, which favor the harmonious development of the body, improve motor coordination, attention span and the analysis of the consequences of one’s actions. Or you can choose team sports such as rugby, volleyball, football or basketball. In these latter disciplines, not only the strengthening of the body occurs, but the team spirit is created, respect for the assigned roles and the presence of a common goal is made tangible: sharing the joy of victory or the melancholy of a defeat., for a value that helps to grow, being in a group. It is a team effort, where you are not alone on the pitch and where non-verbal language develops, dictated by mutual encouragement, physical contact, sharing of rules, etc.

With the practice of a sport, in addition to physical and social development, the child also acquires a greater sense of responsibility in everyday life : he learns to make the most of the time available to study, organizing the different daily activities according to it. But the role of parents is also very important , because they will have to encourage the child in the face of the first frustration or fatigue, cultivating with him perseverance in carrying out the chosen activity, which turns out to be an important prerequisite for the future intellectual tasks of the child.

So let’s choose, together with our child, a sport for him to do from the earliest years of childhood, to contribute to his formation as an individual and as a “player” in life.