Author: sunny

Introduction

Making friends and being a sociable person isn’t easy in this day and age, and these are the things tons of adults are struggling with. Luckily, kids generally don’t have problems making friends, regardless of their age and interests. Still, some children might need encouragement to become more friendly and sociable, and that’s where you have to step in and help them do that. If this is something you’re thinking about doing as well, here are a few ideas that could help you enhance your children’s social skills and take them to a higher level.

Teach them how to share

It doesn’t matter how old your kids are and what they love doing in their free time – they won’t be able to make friends until they learn how to share. From books and toys to snacks and everything else, sharing is crucial for developing your kids’ social life and helping them make and keep friends in the years to come. However, teaching your kids to share definitely is one of the most challenging things in the world and one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. There are lots of factors you need to pay attention to, but the most important thing is to be calm and remain patient with your loved ones. This is a lengthy process that may take several years, from their early age to their preschool phase, so take a deep breath and start teaching them to share right now.

Organize playdates

Probably the most effective way to help your kids become more sociable is to encourage them to spend as much time with other kids as possible. If your child has no siblings yet, you need to surround them with other children of their age – and then just let them interact and form connections on their own! Playdates are another great way to take things even further and achieve even more in less time. Playing with other kids will teach your children how to share and how to behave in a more natural environment, and it’s certainly going to suit them more than having to spend all their time with you. Moreover, playdates will give you a chance to relax and have some adult conversation yourself, which is why this is a win-win scenario for you all.

Find a great childcare centre

If you’re a working parent, not being able to spend enough time with your kids is the worst thing in the world.  That’s why you need to make sure they’re safe, protected, happy, and taken care of while you’re working. And that’s why finding a great childcare centre is a right thing to do, especially if you’re trying to boost their social skills and do something for their future. Modern childcare centres all over the world, from Australia to Canada, can do great things for the development of your child, especially if they include different activities your loved one will like. That’s why parents in Australia, for instance, might look for a nurturing childcare centre in Waterloo that’s based on the Reggio Emilia approach that helps your pre-schoolers become more independent, caring, and sociable. These childcare centres will do wonders for your child and build a strong foundation for their future life, so don’t be afraid to start exploring them today.

Encourage them to explore different sports

Most parents don’t have enough time and energy to hang out with their kids all day long, but guess who does – other kids! That’s why playing sports is a great group activity that brings children together and helps them make friends. What you need to do, though, is forget all about putting pressure on your children. Instead of forcing them to try out a particular sport, let them make their own choices and find their own way. In other words, encourage them to try out different sports until they find the one they love the most. After that, just take a step back and support them, and they’ll continue making new friends without your help.

Conclusion

Helping your kids become more sociable isn’t easy, but it’s not that hard either – just follow these simple rules and don’t forget to be there for your loved ones every step of the way! Author Name: Emma Joyce Emma Joyce is a mom who likes to write about her life as a parent. Since exploring the difficulties of balancing two active boys and her job, she learned how to multitask.  As well as sharing that experience with other busy mums. Emma also writes about and her interest in sport, children’s sport and sport related activities. Author’s Website URL – http://www.smoothdecorator.com/

Introduction

More and more parents are introducing sports to their children, especially to the new generation that spends most of their time indoors and on their gadgets. There are so many benefits sports can give to your kids, and it is also important that it is introduced at an early age. Even children with special needs should not be deprived of the happiness and enjoyment sports can bring. Sports have been known to help decrease the stigma and discrimination against individuals with special needs, allowing people around them to see their skills and ability instead of their disabilities. It can also improve their self-worth and confidence. However, there are still considerations that you need to keep in mind, like their safety. To ensure that the sports you introduce to your kids are appropriate, here’s a list of sports children with special needs can do.

Adapted Basketball

Basketball is one of the most popular sports worldwide and most children are interested in this sport. Moreover, this is one of the best sports to introduce to children with special needs, such as autism, to improve their social skills and physical health. Adapted basketball assigns activity according to the child’s physical attribute and capability. This type of basketball has several considerations, like adjustable baskets for children who play in a wheelchair. Additionally, certified teachers and coaches who underwent special training will be the ones to help your little champion become successful in this field. See: https://www.sports.org.au/wcbasketball for further information.

Modified Swimming

Inclusive swimming teaches differently-abled children the same style and category taught in conventional swimming lessons. Adapted swimming trainers classify the trainees depending on how their condition affects them when practising a certain swimming style. Modified swimming students are categorized from S1 to S10. S1 is the most affected, and S10 is the least affected. S11 category is only for the visionless, while S12 and S13 are for the visually impaired. Moreover, S14 is for students with psychological impairment. See: https://www.sports.org.au/swimming for further information.

Adapted Baseball

Adapted baseball games allow every participant to hit the ball and do a home run, which fulfils each child’s fantasy of being a champ in the game. There is no scorekeeping and no outs, unlike the conventional baseball game that has stringent rules. Adaptive baseball will be all about fun and not competition. The game is open for children with different special conditions from ages 4 to 22 years old. Also, parent’s participation is highly encouraged.  And, they are not allowed to leave the premises while the game is underway. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disabled_sports_in_Australia

Inclusive Gymnastics

Adapted Gymnastics is a way children with autism can improve their motor skills. They can learn how to follow instructions, confidence, and learn an expressive language by integrating conceptual themes. Examples of this are start-stop, apart-together, etc. Adaptive Gymnastics is designed to allow children to safely perform while having fun. Search for a local adaptive gymnastic training to get your kids started.  Also, please see:  https://www.specialolympics.com.au/Stories/partnership-with-gymnastics-australia. You can enrol your children once or twice a week with one-hour-long sessions. Adaptive gymnastics have a safe environment and routines that are appropriate for your child’s condition.

Adapted Soccer

Soccer can provide great benefits for your children, such as improvement of motor skills and cooperation. Aside from these benefits, it is also a fun way to learn how to socialize. As, children with special needs may tend to be antisocial due to self-esteem issues. Adapted soccer can improve the player’s speed and leg coordination. This sport is fast-paced too.

Sporting Event Your Kids Can Look Forward To

If your kids excel in their chosen sports, they can qualify for big sporting events specially made for people like them. You can let your kids watch these events to increase their interest in sports and give them something to look forward to. Here are the sporting events where your kids can get more motivation to participate in sport:

• Paralympics. The IPC authorizes 28 sports in the Paralympics event, divided into two: 22 summer sports and six winter sports. Watching this event will give them confidence that they can also be successful in sports.
• Special Olympics. The Special Olympics is the largest sports organization for children and adults with special needs. The next Special Olympics winter games is in Kazan, Russia, on January 22-28, 2022.
• Unified Sports. Unlike the Paralympics and Special Olympics, individuals with or without special needs can participate in the Unified Sports. This event will encourage young individuals to come out and play no matter their needs. Another goal of the event is to stop the stigma related to disability and autism.

To Sum It Up

Children with special needs can do almost every sport out there. However, it is better to ask the kids what sports they are most confident with before making them sign up for one. Making them decide what sport they want to engage in prevents them from losing interest in the long run. As a parent, all you have to do is support them, make sure they are safe, and watch them grow and improve in their chosen sport. Author Name: Aaron Franks Aaron Franks is a seasoned content writer who works with various sites. He mostly writes about health and fitness, lifestyle, and traveling. He is also an open advocate for the welfare of children with special needs and disabilities and often travels from different states to spread awareness. When not busy working as a wordsmith and chasing good stories, Aaron spends his time at home and reads his favorite comic books.

Introduction

No matter where it is, how big it is, how many people are using it, and what sort of sport it’s for – every sports field in the world requires proper maintenance and care. Moreover, this is the only way for sports fields to stay new and preserve their quality in the decades to come, which is why maintenance is crucial. If you’re still not convinced this is the way to go, here are some of the most important reasons why insisting on maintenance might be the best thing for your sports field as well.

Boosting visual appeal

It doesn’t matter how much you love sports and how altruistic you are, there’s one thing you need to keep in mind: the purpose of owning a sports field is making money. This explanation might seem too simple and plain at first. But, that’s basically all there is when it comes to the reason why people own sports fields and invest in them. And if you’re in this business for the money, you need to make sure your sports field is at the highest level, especially when it comes to visual appeal. Maintaining your field regularly and investing time, money, patience, and energy into it will make it look brand new even if it’s several years or even decades old. The same goes for the area around it – putting more time into these things will make everything look as amazing as it once was, and that’s the only way to continue making money and even increasing revenue. Finally, even if your sports field is equipped with artificial turf, you can still find ideas that will help you maintain it properly and help it look amazing.

Saving money

Just like with all maintenance – from your car to your home – the biggest reason why people do it is to extend the lifespan of their possessions. Sports fields are no different in this aspect, and only by maintaining them regularly will you be able to extend the life of your turf and your field in general. If you fail to do that, though, you’ll soon be facing deterioration, damages, puddles, muddy areas, weeds, and other issues that will continue taking the quality of your field down. And that’s the last thing you want, especially if this is a source of income for you and your associates, so exploring maintenance ideas ASAP is the best idea you could have. In the end, this is always better than having your field completely deteriorate and being forced to start from scratch, because that’s bad for your budget and your reputation as well.

Improving safety

Sports fields that are used by dozens of people daily are more prone to deterioration than those less popular ones.  However, there’s another factor you have to take into consideration when thinking about the maintenance – the safety and health of your clients. Regardless of their age, number, and level of skills, everyone deserves to feel safe and secured while enjoying their favourite sport. If you opt for the right maintenance methods, you’ll be able to help all players feel amazing and protected. Luckily, doing that isn’t as hard as you might imagine, and all you have to do is insist on regular checkups, perform professional grooming, and insist on those powerful floodlights on sports fields that will make your sports complex feel like the Rod Laver Arena. Even if you’re not sure this is the right investment, just imagine how protected and safe all players will feel while playing under those floodlights!

Working on your reputation

Working on your reputation and trying to be better than your competition is the most effective way to keep making money on your sports field. However, if you let its level of quality decline and stop maintaining it on time, you won’t be able to do that. What’s even worse is that your reputation will soon be on the line and you’ll lose all the credibility you’ve managed to build in the past. But, if you keep levelling the playing field, mowing the grass, clearing the debris, using the turf covers, preventing the muddy areas, and fertilizing every inch of your grass, that’s not going to happen. On the contrary, your reputation will improve and soon everyone in your area will know about your sports field and what makes it so amazing. And once you do that, you can start taking your business to the next level and looking for ways to make the most of your sports field’s marketing potential that different companies and big brands in your area might be interested in.

Conclusion

Maintaining your sports field is definitely worth your time and energy, especially if you wish to keep everyone safe, from your staff to the players.  So, don’t be afraid to start doing that right now! Author Name: Emma Joyce Emma Joyce is a mom who likes to write about her life as a parent. Since exploring the difficulties of balancing two active boys and her job, she learned how to multitask.  As well as sharing that experience with other busy mums. Emma also writes about and her interest in sport, children’s sport and sport related activities. Author’s Website URL – http://www.smoothdecorator.com/

Introduction

As we grow older, we meet people that come and go into our lives. We develop casual, intimate, platonic, and deep relationships with special individuals who then make an impact on our lives whether we know it or not. However, the most impactful kind of bond we develop is over the people who raised us. Whether they are related to us by blood or by bond, our parents come into our lives to help us become the independent people we are today. In order to grow into responsible, physically fit adults, one of the factors that we need to take into consideration is how we were raised. If there is a healthy parent-child bond, kids are likely to develop better interpersonal skills, discipline, and good communication. The parent-child bond boosts and cultivates the physical, emotional, and social development of the child. Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of the people were restricted from doing a lot of outdoor activities. Since parents are working from home, they’ve either had more time to spend with their kids or they don’t have any time. Also, kids don’t get as much activity as they’re supposed to. In fact, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “less than one-quarter (24%) of children 6 to 17 years of age participate in 60 minutes of physical activity every day.” Parents are encouraged to bond with their children in fun ways such as sports. Encouraging your little one to join sports, whether it be at home or when the COVID-19 situation dies down and things can go back to “normal,” will not only be beneficial for your bond with them as parents but also other factors like your child’s health and wellbeing. In this article we’ll be giving you tips on how to build your bond with your kid as well as igniting their passion in sports.

What are the 6 Tips on How to Create the Parent-Child Bond in Childhood Sports?

1) Introduce fun activities to your child

As a parent, you want to look up different activities that you and your kid both enjoy but will also keep you both active. These activities can range from cooking together, playing basketball together, dancing in the living room, or kicking a soccer ball through the yard. If you’re interested in introducing basketball to your child, why not check out our compilation of the  Best Indoor Basketball Hoops that you can get for you and your kid? These basketball hoops are guaranteed to bring hoops of fun and fitness to your household. It is essential that you hone in on an activity that your child truly enjoys and that he or she does not feel forced to do it with you. Otherwise, that activity will feel like a chore to them and you want to avoid that. Try to think of activities that you enjoyed as a kid or see what kinds of activities your kid likes doing while he or she is alone. With enough luck, your encouragement will give them that spark of interest that will keep them invested in the sport as they grow older.

2) An active parent is an active child

Whether we notice it or not, kids are fond of copying what they see in their parents.  Even if they are just simple tasks. Set an example to your children.  So, they can see that since you, the parent, are doing it, they will also feel encouraged to do the activity with you. This link is crucial in getting your child to feel connected to you. By spending more and more time doing that activity, you will be able to identify if your kid likes that particular sport or not. If not, then you may look for another activity to do. The key here is consistency!

3) Explore sports with your child

Speaking of trying out activities, it’s a lot better for you to ask your kid what they are interested in. Normally, children will tell us that they dislike doing a particular activity.  And, will feel as though they are doing it for the sake of doing it.  Or, worse, they’ll only do it because you said so. These are mindsets that we want to avoid for your kids. Encouraging children to do sports at an early age gives them these benefits while they are growing up. That being said, as a parent it’s still not too late for you to try out a sport with your child.  Even though you weren’t particularly physically active before. Especially in this pandemic, we want to make sure that our mental and physical health are at its peak. A pretty good sport to encourage your kids is basketball. Luckily, people in Australian Sports Camps and Make Shots can help jumpstart your basketball experience. Make Shots is a site created for individuals who play and love basketball.  With everything from in-depth product reviews to expert basketball advice.  Australian Sports Camps provide sports coaching tuition every school holidays across Australia.

4) Be the coach

As parents, you know what is best for your child. You know that by being an encouraging parent, you can help them grow into responsible and independent adults. Your kids will rely on you while you teach them something new.  Especially when you introduce them to new activities like sports.

5) Provide constructive criticism

For your child to avoid feeling like doing activities with you is a chore, it’s good to provide constructive criticism whenever they make a mistake or error.  So, that they feel encouraged to continue instead of giving up. Usually, kids tend to think negatively about a certain activity because they think that they are bad at it.

6) Set milestones with your child

Achieving goals that you set with your child when learning a new sport will give your kid the sense of satisfaction.  It will inspire them to keep up their good work. Keep a record of this milestone tracker so your child will be able to see their progress. For new learners of basketball, you can set goals like “Score 15 points”.  Then, gradually add more points as the child develops his or her shooting skills. As the child develops more skills, and as he or she grows older, they will be able to see the milestones that they accomplished when they were younger. As the child keeps hitting those milestones, he or she can look back at them and feel motivated to set more.  To reach more, and achieve more.

Conclusion

With these tips are on your mind, you now know how to encourage your child to be more active and start playing sports at a young age. Remember that when doing these activities, you need your kid’s best interests at heart.  Also, that you want to genuinely bond with them. Being their mentor, friend, and parent will teach them a lot of things.  Furthermore, they will hold you as one of the people that they look up to. Someday, they might even want to encourage their own kids to play sports.  Just like you encouraged them when they were little. Author Name: Aaron Connolly Aaron Connolly is the author behind Make-Shots, which is a free resource offering expert research information on basketball. Here, he writes and publishes basketball news, offers tips, suggests sports gear, and gives advice to individuals who love and actually play basketball.

Parents supporting your child’s sports career is such a great thing to do.  Being a parent is one of the most wonderful things in the world, but it’s also a huge responsibility. Looking after your child, and every aspect of their life, means involving yourself constantly.  As well as trying to help them as much as you can. This is especially true with children who are gifted and eager to try out different things in their young lives. Those who have an interest in sports are among those requiring you to be particularly organized.  So, if you want to show them how supportive you are, here are a few ideas you need to take into consideration.

Encourage them to explore different sports

Most children don’t stick to just one sport.  That’s why they often explore different ones before finding the sport they love the most. Going through all these phases might take a while and it’s going to require quite a lot of your patience and energy.  However,  you need to focus on the bigger picture. Ultimately, if this makes your child happy, just go with it and support your loved one. Picking the right sport won’t be easy for your child.  So, you have to help them do that. Talk to them and learn more about their interests, but don’t be afraid to offer tips of your own. Kids will be happy to try out every sport in the world before they make up their minds, and it’s your responsibility to guide them through this process. Go with them to different sport events and explain to them some basic rules just to make them familiar with different sports.

Don’t push them

When we mention children playing sports, most of us imagine two scenes – one, children who are actually playing sports, and, two, parents who are screaming in the distance. This is a paradigm we have to shift, but the problem is rather obvious: lots of parents are projecting their own wishes and desires on their kids and forcing them to play sports they’d like them to play. This can be a reason why many children opt for a sport they don’t actually like and want to play, but they are pushed into it because of their parents. Instead, you should try not to push your kids and let them make their own choices. This is a much more natural way to go and it won’t create tension between you and them. Furthermore, this will help your children fall more in love with their preferred sport, and they’ll ultimately end up having much more fun playing it.

Drive them around

Practices, camps, and matches – these are just some of the things your children have to incorporate in their busy schedule if they wish to become great athletes. Doing that is neither easy nor simple, especially when they’re spending half of their day in school. So, the only way to make everything work is to have someone drive them around and make sure they arrive on time. And who might that be? Turning into your own child’s personal chauffeur might not sound like the easiest thing you’ll ever do, but it’s not that hard either. You just need to be organized and know your kids’ schedule in advance so that you can get your car ready. In case you don’t have one, though, consider renting it. This means you’ll have to plan these things ahead and find a trustworthy car rental in Sydney that will allow you to pick a vehicle anytime you need it. That will make your life much easier, and your kids will attend all their practices and games – so it’s a win-win solution!

Just be there for them

In addition to letting your child choose a sport on their own, there’s one more thing you need to do – be there for them as much as possible and show up whenever you can. This doesn’t mean every single practice.  However, they’ll surely be happy to see you at their games, as long as you’re not screaming in the middle of the crowd. You’ll be surprised how your child will react once they win a game and you were there to see that. Also, they will interact more just to show you their skills. Showing up and being there might not sound like a big deal to you, but it’s going to show your loved ones that you support them and cheer for them. That could encourage them to try harder and push their limits, eventually growing into better athletes.

In Summary

Becoming a great sports parent isn’t something you can do overnight – it takes a lot of practice, sacrifice, and patience. But, at the end of the day, this is your duty as a parent.  So, just support your kids and do whatever you can to make them happy!

About the Author

Emma Joyce is a mom who likes to write about her life as a parent. Since exploring the difficulties of balancing two active boys and her job, she learned how to multitask and likes to share that experience with other busy mums. Author’s Website URL – http://www.smoothdecorator.com/

Parents and kids can exercise at home, without even knowing it!  For parents, it would be a great thing to go to a gym three or more days a week, lift weights, and get in some serious calorie burning HIIT workouts to stay fit.  After all, who wouldn’t want to look and feel great, right? But the truth is most parents have neither time nor (let’s all be honest) desire to actually go to the gym.  Especially now, when we are all still encouraged to stay at home due to Covid.

Playing with your kids

Having to stay at home during quarantine has given parents a lot of free time with their kids. And playing with your children actually burns a lot of calories.  Think of it as a fun way to get your daily exercise.  Roughhousing and carrying your younger children on your back burns about 230 calories per hour.  If you have a big enough yard for a bit of outdoor bonding, playing Frisbee for half an hour a day burns about 205 calories. And, your kids benefit from play time too.  Apart from being able to bond with mum and dad, they also get to exercise.  Being cooped up at home for several months now and not able to see their friends and go to football practices – playing tag, or throwing Frisbee’s or organising mini sports competitions at home is a fun way to keep them physically and mentally healthy.  Lastly, it saves you from having to decide which sports camp to send them to  :-).

Cleaning your house

Another way for parents and kids to exercise at home; vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the windows, changing the bed sheets, doing laundry – all these can help you burn around 150 calories.  And it can be a fun activity too – one that your kids can participate in. With a few adjustments to your movements, you can increase the intensity and burn more calories while tidying up your home. Take for example vacuuming or mopping the floors. You can do a full lunge when you move the mop forward or reach for the vacuum. This engages your abdominal muscles and uses the big muscles on your lower body. Also, you can stand on your toes when you scrub or dust shelves or surfaces over your head. You can try standing on one leg (and then switch to your other leg after a minute) while you wipe down kitchen or bathroom counters. Standing on one leg or on your toes shapes your lower leg by engaging your calf muscles. It also tightens your core because you’re keeping your balance.

Gardening is great exercise for parents & children alike. Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Gardening

Everybody knows that gardening and yard work is a good way to get some exercise.  But, not everyone knows that you actually can burn as much as 400 calories per hour when tending to your garden.  This is because you do a lot of movements that burn calories and can actually help tone muscles.  Depending on the type of yard work you do, you are most likely squatting – which is a form of isometric exercise, digging, lifting and walking around your garden.  So, family gardening is actually a great way for parents and kids to exercise at home. Of course the total calories burned will be different for everyone. Factors like metabolism, weight, age, gender and what kind of work you will do affects how many calories in total you burn. However, the best part of gardening is that if you really enjoy it, you are not watching the clock and before you know it, you have spent half a day getting a full body workout without the mental stress of going through an actual workout.  Plus, your garden will look great.

Washing the car

Yes – that unavoidable chore burns serious calories.  You need to pre-rinse, soap, scrub, rinse and wipe down the car which can burn a total of 234 calories per hour.  You can add to that by vacuuming the interior, scrubbing the tires, waxing and buffing.  The cleaner and shinier your car gets, the more calories you burn. So, the next time you are thinking of going for an automatic car wash service, think of the exercise opportunity you are missing out on.  Get your kids involved in washing the car – on a sunny day, hosing down the car and having fun is a great way to cool off and bond with the family.

Getting a massage

At the end of the day, after all the playing with your kids and washing the car and cleaning your house has been done – you are likely to feel achy and sore.  And, with that amount of ‘workout’ done, getting a massage is a great way to relax.  Problem is, you can’t exactly book a spa appointment right now. With the current social distancing protocols in place, the second best option is to DIY your massage sessions. This is where percussive massage devices like the massage gun are extremely useful.  While there is no solid proof that getting massages helps burn calories, what it definitely does is improve blood flow to your muscles, easing soreness and helps you recover from body aches quickly.  In addition, the muscle relaxing effect eases anxiety and helps you sleep better. Massage guns are portable, easy to use and practical.  You do not have to book a spa appointment and pay for expensive massage sessions.  You can use it anywhere and anytime you need a pick-me-up during a long day.  Massage guns are fairly new in the sports recovery industry.  So, it’s best that you check out reviews first before you decide if this is something that would work for you too.

Conclusion

And there you have it parents, the five ways you’re actually getting a full-body workout without you realizing it.  And, that is not even the best part.  The best part of it is these are activities that you do almost every day, and you can do it with your kids. So what do you think? Did we miss out on some other ways you get a workout without “working out?” Please e-mail and let us know!

About the Author

When Jai Tadeo isn’t at work writing full time for HYDRAGUN, she’s usually at home, running on her treadmill. When the weather’s great, she runs 5 kilometers outdoors after a day of writing. She’s also been unsuccessful at beating her husband at badminton every weekend for the past ten years.

When thinking about both team and individual sport, many factors contribute to performance.  However, what you might not know is that Maths and Data Analysis plays a major role in modern Sport.

The Hidden Side of Coaching

Athletes train as hard as they can to perform at their best on game day. However, when they leave the training ground and go home, the job is often just beginning for the coaching team. Data from on field and training sessions is constantly monitored to help assess player performance. Heart rate,  distance travelled, top speeds, involvement in play, and the outcomes of involvements, are among many other inputs, are all tracked and recorded.

Maths is Important in Sport

Coaches can spend hours poring over the data taken from these sessions. A strong grounding in mathematics from both players and coaches can significantly help in understanding how best to apply the findings. Interestingly, this data is useful from school sport right through to the professional level. Particularly in making sure players and teams don’t get burnt out and perform at their best when it really matters. Mathematics and data analysis are playing a major role in modern sports. So, children wishing to pursue a career in sport can’t ignore maths.

An Expert Opinion

ORIGO Education Founder and Executive Chairperson James Burnett said coaches and training staff who study the data and then implement the findings, could give their team or athlete a better chance of winning.

• “For example, coaches of team sports can reflect on amassed data and then put their players in positions and roles that best utilise their skills,” he said.
• “A greater understanding of mathematics and data analysis within coaching teams could lead to an increase in on-field performance and improved results.
• “In fact, when looking at the future of sports, I am of the opinion that a strong grounding in mathematics could be the key to winning.”

Numbers Don’t Lie

With sports data and tracking technology rapidly improving, the data flowing to coaching groups is extremely accurate and entirely unbiased, which is critical in making key decisions in a timely manner. For example, sometimes, media reports on the overuse of a particular player in a particular position, yet it is likely that this decision can easily be justified by applying mathematics. Coaching groups are continually studying data in order to get the best out of individuals and teams on game day. While it may be intuition on the field, it is up to the coaching teams to best determine a player’s position.

Mathematicians in Sport

Many teams around the world have mathematicians working for them full time. At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, both New Zealand and Australian teams had a group of full-time mathematicians. This team helped prepare, strategise and debrief all of the athletes involved. Many professional teams now look to hire top-level graduates straight from university and embed them into their performance analysis departments. This has come as a result of teams looking to gain an edge wherever they can over their opposition. Often times data analysis is providing the difference.

A Final Word

So, by now I’m sure we’ve convinced you that Maths and Data Analysis plays a key role in modern Sport.  With a greater focus on understanding mathematics principles from an early age, and implementing them whenever possible, increasing performance possibilities are endless. So, whether you are sitting on the bench or the couch this weekend watching your favourite game, think carefully about how mathematics is improving the performance of all the athlete’s and players. Maybe then you can figure out how mathematics can improve your performance. MEDIA NOTE – For further information contact Wings Public Relations Director Deanna Nott on 0422 504540 or email deanna@wingspr.com.au

About the Author

ORIGO Education Click Here was established in 1995 by co-founders James Burnett and Dr Calvin Irons. They focus on creating a love of mathematics. ORIGO publishes and covers all facets of primary mathematics education.  Ranging from traditional printed products to digital interactive resources and professional learning throughout the world.  As well as supporting primary teachers across 14 countries, including Australia, the US, Canada, Singapore and Thailand. To find more information about ORIGO Education, visit www.origoeducation.com.au.

What life skills would you like your child to gain? A life skill is a set of skills someone needs to deal with the challenges of life. For each person, their set of life skills is different. How someone acquires life skills is dependant upon their experiences and activities he or she engaged in throughout life. One activity that teaches many essential life skills is sports activities. Having your child participate in sports, may make teaching life skills to your child easier to prepare them for adulthood.

Life Skills Learned Through Sports Activities

Commitment

All sports activities take a certain amount of dedication to stay involved in. Commitment is something that comes from within. While you can drive your child to practices, ultimately it is your child who will strive to not only participate in the sport but also get better at it. This life skill is essential for all aspects of adult life including relationships, college, and work.

Communication

What sports activities lack in written communication, they make up for in verbal communication. Communication as a whole is a multifaceted life skill. It involves communication of verbal and nonverbal cues between one or more people. For children who participate in sports activities like soccer, football, and more with multiple players on a field, children will experience multiple forms of communication like: 

• A soccer player shouting a name to pass a ball to another player 
• A coach shouting encouraging words from the bench to give players positive reinforcement 
• Players and coaches coming together in a huddle to explain a game plan or strategy

These are all examples of common verbal communication. Nonverbal communication is displayed when a player on the field nods his/her head, points, or gives a thumbs up to a player or coach to signal a ball handoff or convey understanding. Play, games and sports have many benefits and teach kids important life skills.

Decision making

Decision making is a regular part of daily life. According to Psychology Today, the average number of decisions an adult makes daily is an astounding 35,000! Making that many decisions as an adult takes practice starting at a young age. Thankfully, sports activities can help your child develop this life skill to be able to make thousands of decisions a day. In a sport, children have to make quick decisions. A batter in the MLB has just 150 milliseconds to react to a 95-mile-an-hour fastball. While your child won’t be batting against 95-mile-an-hour fastballs, those quick reactions as an adult start first in youth sports activities. 

Teamwork

Any sport involves a certain degree of teamwork. Sports like swimming, bowling, track, and more rely heavily on individual performance. But an individual’s performance still contributes to a team’s overall performance against other teams. For a team to come together and perform well, a great amount of camaraderie needs to exist between teammates.  This life skill learned through sports activities can help children in childhood to interact with their peers at school and siblings at home. But teamwork also becomes essential when entering the workforce because teamwork helps increase business efficiency while equally distributing the workload among employees.

Handling Criticism

No one goes through life doing everything perfectly. We’re all human and humans make mistakes. Therefore, there’s always room for improvement in every area of life. Children in sports will experience both failures and successes when it comes to both their skills and their team’s performance.  Constructive criticism occurs frequently in sports. This type of criticism tells a child what improvements they need to make to be better at his/her sport of choice while still giving the child positive reinforcement through praise. Being able to handle constructive criticism shows a child’s emotional maturity which can better prepare them for more criticism later in life.

Resilience

Resilience is the ability for someone to face tragedy, adversity, or loss and be able to come back emotionally strong again. In sports, there’s a winner and there’s a loser. It’s part of the game. But depending on how well your child bounces back from that loss says a lot about their resilience. This life skill is one that becomes better with time. Your child may take the first few losses hard. There may even be a few tears shed. But over time, your child will most likely develop resilience. After a loss, some children feel like quitting. However, if your child continues to return to practices and perfect his/her skill set, your child is building resilience. Sports activities provide a child with a healthy emotional and physical outlet. But sports also help a child develop many life skills they will need to face the world when they enter adulthood. While we as parents would all like to see our children win in sports all the time, sometimes the learning begins once a loss is experienced. The more your child participates in sports activities the more he/she will gain life skills to prepare him/her for adulthood.

About the Author

Liz Talton is the contributing author for the Speech Blubs blog. After her son received an Autism Spectrum Disorder evaluation, she decided to do all she can to help her little one. She is a full-time blogger, and a creator of Pitter Patter of Baby Feet, a website dedicated to trying to conceive; fertility; pregnancy; mental health and anything related to motherhood. Before starting a family, she received a master’s degree in forensic psychology and mental health.

Learning correct sporting conduct at a children’s sports camp can have great benefits for participants.  Positive attitudes and correct sporting conduct make sport more enjoyable for everyone.  As well as creating the best environment for learning and development.  However, some players can ruin the experience with poor behaviour. Examples of poor behaviours could include harassing others, poor sportsmanship, foul language, bullying, taunting, victimisation, undue pressure and more. Bad conduct in sport is generally the result of the limited reinforcement of strong sporting values from a young age. This lack of direction manifests throughout adolescence and can create a ‘grey area’ for what is acceptable on & off the sporting field or court. Encouraging your child to play sports, especially team sports, is a great way to teach them many important values that will help them in all areas of life! In addition, to allowing them grow into well balanced, respectful and productive adults. So, what can you do to help teach your kids good sporting conduct and sportsmanship? The first thing to do is to reinforce that sport is not all about winning! Of course, we always want to win at everything we do. However, most importantly, we want our kids to have fun, make friends, and stay fit and healthy! And, constantly reinforcing this ideology, by always praising their sporting efforts, rather than their sporting victories, will only create a positive association and love for sport.  This will assist your child in enjoying a lifetime of enthusiasm towards playing sport. So, in today’s article we’ll discuss further examples of correct sporting conduct in junior sports, and how these values are taught and reinforced at our ASC Sports Camps.

“Fair Play: Fair Go”

Our philosophy at ASC is that all kids & parents should participate in “Fair play, Fair go” when playing any sports. ASC’s Fair Play ideology is simply, “winning isn’t everything”.  If you must cheat to win, then it will be a shallow win. When playing sport, you should always play by the rules of the game and do everything you can to be the best player, within the rules of the game.  Also, this can apply to grey areas of the game where there may not be a specific rule.  However, comes back to being fair and honest. Cheating or bending the rules in any way should never be encouraged in kids’ sports. The ‘Fair Go’ premise means always giving everyone the chance for involvement in sport! In junior sports, there will always be players of different abilities and size playing in the same teams.  Therefore, it’s important that every child gets a fair go with participation, having fun and developing their skills. Coaches, parents and teammates all have a role to ensure that everybody gets to join in and feel like they are contributing to the team.   We reinforce, the “Fair play, Fair go” initiative amongst participants at every single ASC sports camp. Our amazing & qualified coaches and staff help to strengthen this understanding.  By, always promoting positive sporting conduct during drills & games! Also, by getting everyone participating and encouraging all players to support each other. In addition to possessing a zero tolerance approach towards any bullying and harassing type behaviour. Bullying in sports can be very harmful. To learn more about ASC’s behaviour policies, please click here.  

Winning & Losing in Sports

Earlier in this article we’ve touched on the importance of enjoying sport.  It’s about fun and health. And, not solely based around winning and losing. However, winning and losing is obviously an integral aspect of competitive sports. So, the importance of learning how to win with humility, and lose gracefully is essential to building a strong positive sporting conduct philosophy. In sport, it’s important to try your hardest and we always want to strive to be the best we can be. However, it is inevitable that sometimes we’ll lose. When this happens don’t get angry or look to blame your teammates, the referee or coaches. Accept it with pride, congratulate the winners and look at areas that you can improve upon next time! The below quote is from 5-time NBA champion, Kobe Bryant, in 2018 about losing in sport.  It helps to demonstrate the importance of learning from defeat, rather than getting upset about it. “It’s exciting, (losing) because it means you have different ways to get better. There are certain things you can figure out, that you can take advantage of, certain weaknesses that were exposed that you need to shore up. So, it’s exciting. It sucks to lose but at the same time, there are answers there if you just look at them.” – Kobe Bryant A similar approach of humility should be taken when we win sporting contests too. To put it simply, no one likes a gloater. When you win it’s fine to celebrate with your teammates and family, but don’t rub the other teams nose in their defeat. Be respectful, always shake hands and congratulate them on a good game. Ultimately, we should treat others the way we’d also like to be treated. Whether it be on the side of a win or loss.  

Encouraging Teammates

Team sports work best when everyone supports the team. Encouraging your teammates to play their best and to get back up when they fall is what being a great teammate is all about!  So, it’s best to avoid criticism and unkind actions when a teammate makes a mistake. As this behaviour won’t help anyone. Instead, by praising what they do well and encouraging their efforts, you can boost your teammates self-esteem and confidence when they make mistakes! Also, we need to remember that nobody is perfect. And, that we’re not above making the occasional mistake ourselves either. Especially in junior sports, where feelings of embarrassment and shame can be heightened by negative behaviour after a mistake is made. So, it’s important to go over and encourage your teammate with a friendly pat on the back when they make a mistake. So, they can regain their confidence and focus on the next play! We encourage this behaviour at ASC camps through our coaches’ leadership during drills. So, participants are welcome to cheer and support each player during games and competitive drills. Usually with an incentive that the goals or points in a game won’t count unless the players are encouraging each other.  Which usually lays the groundwork for creating a fun atmosphere.  Where, the participants are naturally encouraging each other by the end of the 3-day camp. This is always so rewarding and fun to see amongst camp participants! And helps kids to create & strengthen friendships within groups.  Plus, it also helps them perform at their best, and provide an overall fun and rewarding experience for all partakers!  

We do hope that you enjoyed this article!

Strong sportsmanship and promoting positive sporting conduct in sports are philosophies that we take very seriously at all ASC camp programs. Our camps are designed to provide structured skill-improvement camps where participants have fun whilst developing a deeper love and enthusiasm for their chosen sport! So, if your child has a passion for sport and wants to participate in more advanced and structured drills, sign them up for one of Australian Sports Camps 3-day school holiday camps!  Additionally, you may have questions regarding our camps. Also, for all other enquiries, please contact us on 1300 914 368! We look forward to seeing you at an ASC camp this coming school holidays!