While sports are a great way for kids to remain fit, not all children enjoy sports. it is not easy getting appropriate outdoor activities for these kinds of children and most parents worry about the long-term effects of their kids not exercising adequately as well as the adverse effects of not engaging in group activities. You won’t get an easy solution that suits to all sorts of scenarios. The specific child in question will determine the best way of encouraging them in a sport to get enough outside exercise.
One of the primary mistakes that many parents make in encouraging their children to exercise more is picking a sport almost randomly and assuming that they will enjoy it. This can put undue pressure on the kids since they may believe that they need to remain in a game that they don’t love to make their parents happy. Instead of encouraging the child to exercise longer, forcing the child to participate in this sport will have the opposite effect as the sport will put them off and they won’t take up other activities in the future. It can also have an adverse impact on their mood which is against the desired effect of inviting them to take part in the game, to begin with.
The link between mental health and exercise has been established well in both children and adults. It is crucial that we exercise adequately to maintain great mental and physical health. In case your child is shy about taking part in sports due to problems related to self-esteem, then you can try easing them into it. Below, we look at some of the best sports for encouraging kids who are unconfident or nervous to exercise more either alone or in a team.
Walking and hiking are one of the easiest and most accessible types of exercise which most people do not appreciate. Your child will be encouraged to spend more time outside by this exercise. Scaling walking to suit all abilities is one of the best benefits of walking.
Although walking does not have a competitive edge, you can incorporate in case you believe that it will help kids who feel nervous or stressed by competing with peers.
Another sport you can scale easily is golf as you can provide a suitable level of challenge based on the participant’s experience. If you take your kid to play, you could test out miniature golf because the courses are created with barriers and shorter greens. You can progress to the full course gradually, and this will require you to invest in game improvement irons which ensure that the game is accessible to players who are more inexperienced.