Being enrolled in a sport throughout childhood teaches kids their most valuable life lessons. I have always believed this to be true; especially considering that I was enrolled in club gymnastics from ages three to thirteen. Needless to say, I was a toddler with a full-time job. While I was growing up, though, I never thought of my sport as a job. It was just fun for me. Now that I’m an adult, however, I am beginning to notice exactly how much the sport taught me, other than how to be a gymnast.

There’s a certain set of personality traits that any child has the chance of learning while being involved in a regular practicing sport. Some may say that children that are athletic may not have the same chances at making friends or getting a proper (traditional) education. While practices may result in children becoming homeschooled, this does not discourage any sort of friend making in the process. I believe this is mainly because when the kids arrive at practice every day, they’re hanging out with their friends in the process. Their friends are just at practice instead of in the classroom.

On top of this, young athletes also get used to time management early on in life. They have practices almost every day after their school day, and they are then forced to finish any homework before sleeping and doing it all over again the next day. Children are put into a routine of discipline and constant work ethic. For most student athletes, they are also forced to keep their GPA up or they will not be allowed to play the sport at all, whether this is their parent’s choice or their school’s.

Another reason it is beneficial for children to be involved in sports early on is because it keeps children in shape. No matter the sport, the child is moving and staying active for a certain period of time every day. Most children in today’s world are stuck inside playing an Xbox or PlayStation, but the student athletes are out staying in shape and having fun at the same time.

Many may argue that participating in athletics while growing up can rob children of a proper childhood, by forcing him/her to grow up faster than the children that are not involved in athletics; that children that grow up in sports may “fall off the deep end” when they are older and no longer consuming all of their time with sports. While some unfortunate cases may have proven this statement to be true, most of the time this does not happen. I feel that sports doesn’t really have much to do with the fact that when a kid grows up, he/she may still make some poor life choices. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that because our imperfections are what makes us human. So the next time you try and blame sports for any negative choice or event in a kid’s life, think again, because for every negative there are a handful of positives.