Importance of Sports in Personality Development of Students

Some of the most successful people globally, well-known not just in their fields, but admired by everyone, are sportspersons. From Sachin Tendulkar to Sania Mirza, India itself has an abundance of sportspersons for people to look up to and feel inspired by. In the last few decades, the nation has placed a considerable emphasis on children taking sports up as professional careers, teaching people about the importance of sports in the personality development of students. Today, sports have become an intrinsic part of our lives – from an academic and a professional perspective. This subject forms a strong focus in schools and colleges, allowing students to compete with and against each other and causing sports and education to go hand in hand.

What is it about sports that bring students together?

Playing sports is a lot more than just technique and scoring – it involves wholesome personality development. Ever wondered how physical activity can contribute towards building soft skills, assist in character development and help build a child’s overall personality? Let’s take a look at all the benefits and importance of sports in respect of a student’s personality development –

Physical and Mental Fitness

Playing a sport regularly can help keep the body active, irrespective of a person’s age. Whether you choose cricket, badminton, tennis, or any other sport, it allows you to engage in physical motion. This has a number of benefits – from helping control weight and building muscles to improving agility and mental reflexes, and coordination. Playing sports allows the body to become more aware and facilitates better psychological and physical balance.

Discipline

Playing a sport and excelling at it requires a good amount of discipline. By teaching children a sport and allowing them to pursue it, you can help a child focus and set their mind to achieve certain goals. If a child is extremely passionate about a sport, they will learn how to commit themselves, exert self-control and learn the art of being determined to accomplish what they set their mind to. These characteristics go a long way in not just helping children excel at sports but setting goals in life.

Teamwork & Camaraderie

When sports are played in teams, it encourages children to work together, solve problems and come up with solutions to achieve goals. Team sports help children understand how important each member’s role in the team is and how a well-working team can holistically contribute to a final win. Most sports, even the ones that are played individually, involve a lot of camaraderies and help children increase their social skills towards one another.

Behavioural Influence

Aside from developing skills and characteristics within children internally, playing sports also has an external behavioural influence on children. When playing with others, children come across all kinds of traits they can pick up – be it a technique, skill, or behavioural trait, children are impressionable. Thus, it is important to have proper mentoring and coaching where such mentors can shape a child’s mind up with positive behavioural influences.

Strength & Skill

Playing sports helps in developing strength, both internally and externally. While constant exercise helps in becoming physically fit, children also become strong mentally as they realize how to tackle victories and defeats with equal sportsmanship. This helps them build life skills such as taking things in their stride, motivating themselves to do even better, as well as not back down before they reach their goal.

Leadership

Playing sports allows children to exhibit leadership skills and qualities. By leading or co-leading a team, they understand how to delegate functions, keep their head in the game, motivate their team members to win, and support playing functions. It teaches children the art of being a leader.

Release Stress

Being physically active allows the mind to be lifted and feel positive, thus helping in destressing. When the body is indulging in physical activity, the mind has an outlet for releasing negative thoughts. Sporting activities enable the body to produce and release endorphins, or happy hormones, which help in combating stress and negativity.

At The Sports School, we truly believe that children learn to benefit a lot from sports and education blended together optimally. Thus, we provide students with focused training and mentoring to help them hone their skills. We understand that excelling at a sport requires a lot more than just technique and skill – it also requires wholesome personality development. We have a host of mentors and coaches that help children train both physically and mentally so that they are fit and ready to take on the world.

At The Sports School, our goal is to have our students develop a holistic personality and become great leaders tomorrow – both on the field and off it.