You always hear it is important for their development that a child plays a teams sport and that it’s better than doing a sport like gymnastics where you have to perform alone. But why exactly is that? Since volleyball is a teams sport, I thought it would be good to explain why the sport is not only a very fun, but why it is also important for the development of your child and why people who play or played a teams sport can have a different attitude to problems later in their life than people who didn’t. I will explain all of the reasons below.

One of the most important reasons is that children learn to have communication skills by playing team sports. When you play a team sport, you obviously have to work together to achieve your common goal. First of all, this teaches the kids the value of doing so and how to work together with other people. Teamwork is also a great way to teach kids about empathy and having to keep other people in mind. When working together, you have to communicate to others what it is that you want or need from other people. This is a skill you also need later in life and a sport is a great way to start learning this. Asking for things might be hard for some kids, and when you start learning this by the way of sports, it can definitely be easier for them later in life.

Another great reason of why teams sport is important, is that it can give a sense of belonging for kids. Something simple as all wearing the same jersey might feel good to a kid that normally feels left out or different than their peers. When you’re in a club you’re in that for a reason. Especially a sports club. You all share the same sport together and it is something you can bond over with the other people from the club. For this reason it is also easier to make friends, in your team or in the whole club. You already have something in common with everyone so it can be easier to strike up a conversation. What I noticed is that these friendships can last a long time, especially when you grow up together playing the sport. With volleyball, the teams for the younger kids are mostly based on age, since they are still developing their skills. Most teams train two times a week and also have a game, so you see these people three times a week for about two hours every time. Most of the teams grow and develop their skills together and the teams don’t change a lot the first couple of years. Personally, I also still play with people that I played with when I was 10. I also have a friendship group with some of the people that I started playing with when I was young. Right now, four of the six people are still playing volleyball with two of the four playing with a different club, but we still meet up regularly and are planning a vacation together! We all lead very different lives, but stayed together because of volleyball.

Lastly, sports are a great way of relieving stress. Having another support system in your teammates and coaches can be very important for kids who might not experience that at home. It can also boost the self-esteem. But staying active is already important for kids, according to Project Play by the Aspen Institute active kids score up to 40% higher on their test scores. Sports is also a great way in general to learn and navigate through the hard times in life that might come. It can teach kids about how life is sometimes not fair through a referee making a decision that they might not like, but have to deal with. It can teach them about disappointment when they lose a game, but at the same time it also teaches them about how they should not give up and give everything they have the next game. And being in a team means that they lose and win together, so they can’t blame themselves for losing, or pat themselves on the back for winning, since everyone did it together. So lastly, it teaches kids that they don’t need to do everything alone and that you can achieve a lot by simply working together.