Fitness For Life
Mar 30, 2024
5 Important Benefits of Team Sports
Between the hours spent personally playing and coaching sports, and the time spent supporting my own two children playing their sports, I have participated in cheerleading, dance, gymnastics, soccer, basketing, softball, golf, and rowing. There are probably a few sports I'm forgetting.
Each sport my children participated in brought them not just new challenges and exercise, but also a sense of joy and fulfillment. The fun they had and the skills they developed created many positive memories for them and me, reassuring me of the value of team sports in their lives.
When your child decides to play a team sport, they're not just gaining immediate benefits. They're investing in a future filled with valuable life skills that will continue to benefit them as they grow older. Here are just a few of the many benefits that will have a lasting impact!
1. Collaboration
Team sports are perfect for learning not only how to work with others but also the benefits of working together. As a team sport member, you share common goals with your teammates. That may be to win a particular match or score a certain number of points, but whatever the goal, everyone has to work together to accomplish it. Players learn about each other's strengths and weaknesses and how to adapt to ensure optimal success. They also learn to share their emotions and help motivate each other.
2. Critical-Thinking Skills
Team sports help players develop critical-thinking skills such as problem-solving, analyzing, observing, creative thinking, strategizing, and understanding and accepting others. These skills can be learned by learning the rules of a game, analyzing situations in a game to make the best pass or play, outwitting an opponent, or altering their speed of play to accommodate certain fields or weather conditions. Over time, these skills will grow and be helpful in sports, the classroom, and other areas of their lives.
3. Friendships
If you played sports then I am sure you have at least one lifelong friend that you met through sports. Maybe you don't even talk on a regular basis, but if they needed you, you would stop everything and help them. As teams play together and get to know one another, kids begin to build trust and confidence in one another, leading to more meaningful bonds.
4. Communication
Effective communication is important in most, if not all, walks of life. Communication is paramount in ensuring teams are working together effectively. Children will learn to listen to their coaches and teammates and discover the importance of really listening. In addition, they will learn how to articulate their own thoughts and ensure they are heard. They will learn verbal, physical, and even facial cues as they grow and become comfortable with the other players on the team. Sometimes, just a simple nod from a coach speaks volumes to a player. Being able to effectively listen, speak, and make sure they're being heard are all important skills for success in sports and in life.
5. Leadership Skills
Whether they hold an official captain position or lead the warm-up at the beginning of a practice, kids can learn a great deal about leadership through sports. They can learn to take ownership of their decisions, to keep each other on task and pushing toward the common goal, and to listen to input from others effectively.
Observing the coach and how they lead the team can teach kids about different types of leadership. Watching how a coach leads and provides instruction, guidance, and discipline will undoubtedly teach kids about leadership.
How would you Describe this character? She had a name, but none knew it. She was known only as the Apple Sorceress. She had been carved from one of the massive apples that grew on the slopes of Mount Zhor, a foreboding mountain that stood squarely in the middle of the continent, casting its shadow across the plains of Ammonarsik. The trees that bore the apples towered over a thousand feet into the sky, brushing the bottoms of clouds that skirted the summit. No one knew the sculptor, not even the Apple Sorceress, but the people knew that an apple from Zhor bore her into the world. Rumbling with the voice of a hundred thunders, the apple had tumbled onto the plain, unfolding from its more or less spherical shape after coming to rest at the foot of the mountain. The cuts in the apple’s skin were clear for all to see, carved with great skill and care. One moment an apple, the next a towering figure of a woman, standing over eight feet tall. Her skin was pale, but darkened rapidly after being exposed to the light, as apples always do.
Can you share a bit about your journey to becoming a writer/published author? Any interests or early signs as a child that hinted you would later put pen to paper? I actually have a degree in mathematics. When I was a child I attempted to enter a writing contest for a magazine. I think my story I submitted was awful, hahaha! I never much enjoyed English as a student and I did not like writing even through college. In my mid-twenties I became and avid reader and many years later decided to write a book for my husband, The Secrets We Conceal. Several years later I decided to publish that book and I fell in love with the process. What was it that drew you to write fiction? What inspired the Southport Series of which Keeping Janie is the 2nd book? I like the creativity aspect of fiction. Personally, I enjoy reading fiction, it’s an escape from every day life. I enjoy writing books that can provide that same escape for people, maybe have some fun and laughs, and even a good cry or two. What inspired the Southport Series? I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law who live in Southport. I knew that I wanted to write another book, but I wasn’t sure what. I took my laptop to a picnic table on the water and the outline and ideas flooded the page. Originally it was only one book, but halfway through writing Call Her Janie – book 1, I decided to make it a three part series. How does the writing process work for you? Do you schedule a time every day, work madly when inspiration hits or ? I write when I can. Typically I set goals for myself on my outline. Basically, I list a deadline date for each chapter. When I am really in the groove I will write one chapter per day and a few chapters on a weekend which allows me to whip through my first draft pretty quickly. As an author - what do you enjoy most about the writing process or comes easily to you? What feels most like a chore - a struggle? Editing by far is my favorite part. I need to get the book on paper to get the process started, but editing for me is where the magic happens. Taking the suggestions of my editors, adding, or subtracting parts of the book. I love it. My least favorite part is the marketing. I actually enjoy marketing, but I think it is the endless amounts of marketing an author must do to keep their books selling. I found this book dark in many ways, and the ending hard to bear. Dark themes seem to be a standard in your works of fiction. Why do these topics draw you and how do you walk away from the emotional load at the end of a tough writing session? I guess I never really considered my writing dark, but perhaps it is a little dark. I think my main goal is just to get the reader to feel as many emotions as possible. I like to really draw the reader in to the characters lives and feel what the characters feel. I enjoy a little bit of suspense and so I try to sprinkle it in my books as well as romance. I think every book no matter the genre should have a good love story. What's next for you? New books in the works, events you will be at or ? I plan to finish book 3 of the Southport Series, Janie’s Hope. My goal is for Janie’s Hope to be published in late summer/early fall of 2024. However, I have undergone some significant health issues over the past eight months. I have kept my health mostly private because until recently we didn’t know what was wrong. So this Q&A is the first time I have shared the news publicly. I was recently diagnosed with MS (Multiple Sclerosis) and I am extremely passionate about writing a novel about my journey. It would be a fiction based on a true story. I am aiming to have this book published by Spring of 2025. At the moment, I am thinking the title would be Ten Thousand Steps, because in August of 2023 I was barely able to walk to the end of by street and back a total of about eight hundred steps, but I was determined to get to ten thousand steps a day which is approximately five miles. With the help of my husband and a lot of tears I accomplished that goal and now walked ten thousand steps a day is part of my daily routine. I would love to close with a favorite personal quote that you love. One of my favorite personal quote’s is “We rise by lifting others.” ~ Robert Ingersoll Original Interview: Olio by Marilyn - https://www.oliobymarilyn.com/2024/03/interview-author-keepingjanie-romance-suspense-ireadbooktours-srfabrico.html
