OT: Good article on the benefits of football
There is a good piece at the Chicago Tribune about the many benefits for youth of playing football. (LINK: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-x-0912-keilman-column-20120912,0,5928127.story.)
I really liked the article. It addresses the debate on the potential dangers of football which has been discussed here on several occasions. The author, a writer with the Trib whose 9 year old son is playing ball, ends up in a slightly different place. While the danger of serious injury and concussions is real, he ends up seeing significant benefits. These can be summed up in three areas:
- Teamwork. Unlike youth basketball and baseball, which can be dominated by a single great athlete, football demands teamwork. If everyone doesn't contribute, you'll lose. But there is a place for everyone to contribute.
- Confidence. Putting on pads and working with your teammates can do wonders in building confidence in a young boy.
- Toughness.
Modern life can offer kids a pretty soft existence: parents who never pick up a paddle, snacks by the boxful, nonstop entertainment streaming through smartphones. It's easy to float through life untroubled by challenge.
These characteristics build resilience, one of the most important things a child can do.
What really matters, he says, is learning to overcome adversity.
On the football field, adversity comes with every snap. The game teaches kids that when they get knocked down, the only response is to get up.
If you're one of the ones debating whether or not to let your kids play football, I'd strongly encourage you to read the article. I have seen these benefits in my own son, and they outweigh the dangers, from my perspective.
September 13th, 2012 at 4:52 PM ^
September 13th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
Definitely not 90 minutes worth of running in a futbol match, nor is it always all out sprinting (~half the time).
September 13th, 2012 at 8:43 AM ^
My 9 year old plays youth football and its been great for him. He's not the most athletic kid in the world, so they put him on the offensive line. He likes that he gets to contribute on every play, whereas in baseball, soccer, or basketball he would end up standing around watching the more athletically inclined kids do everything. Football has been a great confidence booster for him, and I wouldn't think of taking him out now.
September 13th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ^
Maybe you need to find a better soccer coach for your kid. A good coach will get them working together, playing their spots, trusting their teammates.
September 13th, 2012 at 1:01 PM ^
You're right. Seems like at this level, at lot of the kids' success is more a result of how the coaches deal with them than it is at higher levels.
September 13th, 2012 at 8:49 AM ^
Any way you can read this article without signing up?
September 13th, 2012 at 9:48 AM ^
I subscribe to the Trib, and forget that not everyone can read the articles. I think you are stuck, and I can't reproduce the whole article. Sorry about that oversight.
September 13th, 2012 at 9:48 AM ^
"On the football field, adversity comes with every snap. The game teaches kids that when they get knocked down, the only response is to get up."
More or less this. Driving towards the goal, you start out at a decided disadvantage (with a long way to go), but you develop strategies to overcome that, and although it may take what seems like forever, with persistence, you will eventually get around (or plow through) the last remaining obstacle and get to that goal. You don't have things handed to you generally, but if you work hard to get them, you can earn the reward and gain the respect of those who may have otherwise stood in your way, and indeed, they may even learn from you. I think the author is spot on in this regard - the game does serve as a tool to teach what are some very positive traits.
Good find, and thanks for sharing.
September 13th, 2012 at 10:47 AM ^
My experience is that any sport will teach you teamwork, toughness, discipline, independence and resilience. You can gain confidence with almost any positive experience with any sport with some good parent support and some good coaching.
Three examples:
1. My oldest daughter started playing soccer in second grade. We had just moved to the Chicago area and her best friend played soccer and we signed her up to play AYSO. Her coach was a jerk. All he cared about was winning. His daughter was a super star and she played the whole game. My daughter sat most of the games. Finally my wife said something to the coach. “Look, I know that my daughter is not that good at soccer, you know that she is not good but by not playing her you are communicating to her and now she knows that she is not good." Coaching fail. My daughter went on to success in gymnastics, met her best friends on the team in high school and is now in her late 20’s and successful in life and in business. Another one of my daughters had a similar bad experience with volleyball but a good experience with swimming.
2. Second daughter had the opposite story with soccer. She saw her older sister playing soccer and decided that was her game. She had success, great teammates resulting in state championships at the club and high school team level. Her primary coach for the first five years was Dutch. He knew soccer but more important he knew about being a good leader. He always started the season with a speech to the team (really directed to the parents) about A) Sportsmanship, B) Safety, C) Having fun while learning soccer – together with the attributes of teamwork, etc. This daughter is still friends with most of her teammates (the club team and the high school team are about the same surprisingly). She is a social worker for a large hospital in Chicago and just started grad school.
3. My own experience with football was not good. My football coach was awesome when I was younger before I started playing football. He opened the gym on Saturdays and supervised any and all sports. Great enthusiasm and patients. Many of his players went on to play college football and some played professional football. Unfortunately, he became an alcoholic. By the time I was big enough to play (you had to weigh over 120 pounds for high school football and I didn’t start to grow until I was 16 . . . like Swan Flu, I wrestled until I grew) the coach was out of control. He picked up kids and threw them, etc. His rage overcame his love of the game and his humanity. Being on the team was a character building experience but not in a good way. It soured me on football until Bo became the Michigan coach and I saw that a good leader could be a good football coach.
The sport doesn’t matter. What matters is help your children to learn about their experiences. Teach them about sportsmanship and helping their teammates and pushing themselves. It is not about your ego and how you feel when they win. It is about you teaching them. Any sport provides an excellent opportunity for teaching.
September 13th, 2012 at 11:32 AM ^
ED: Delete this please...I meant to respond elsewhere.
September 13th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
September 13th, 2012 at 2:07 PM ^
Both of my sons started football this year and it is has been great. The article is dead on accurate. My older son, a very athletic quarterback/receiver ('16), has relished the challenge, which is so much greater than baseball. My younger son, who has been a bit soft, has been toughening right up on the offensive line. The big issue is the toughness/overcoming adversity angle, for which there is little like football to turn boys into young men.