The Importance Of Fun In Sports

By Brittany Lewis

Think back to when you began playing a sport. Did you begin as a young kid with the aspirations of going pro? Did your parents put you on a team to gain social skills and stay healthy? No matter the reason, we often see sports as a fun source when we are children. You get to burn off energy while also bonding with new friends. As athletes get older, the competition gets stronger and the stakes are higher, the fun aspect of sports can begin to disappear.

For athletes who continue playing sports because they want to get into the best colleges or make it pro, fun can be replaced with anxiety about performance, difficulty adjusting to the change in competition or a lack of motivation. There are multiple reasons sports are missing the fun factor that we remember experiencing as children but there are ways we can continue to nurture the inner athletic child.

If you listen to professional athletes’ press conferences, many stress the importance of fun when asked how they are successful. It is essential to love what you do with the amount of physical stress the body goes through and the mental and emotional capacity needed to move through athletics. How do we keep athletics fun while building on skills to take athletes to the next level?

For Athletes:

1. Make sure you are building social connections with your teammates. The community of a team is important to keeping a positive lockerroom, but it is also great to enjoy the people you are working around.

2. Build a healthy connection with your coaches. They are your teachers, but they are also a part of that community that makes your team.

3. Take care of the physical, mental, and emotional parts of yourself. Make your workouts fun by setting new and attainable goals. Do not be afraid to reach out to others for help when you feel like you need someone to talk to about your mental and emotional help. Building healthy coping skills is not only helpful to your mental health but can also improve your physical health. When we feel great on the inside, we are more motivated to do things like workouts and improving or learning new skills.

For Coaches:

1. Remember that you have a role in keeping sports fun for the athletes on your team. Reflect on how you are teaching skills, how you are dealing with disappointing losses and providing leadership to your teams. For children especially, remember you are their first impression of the sports world. Building those positive relationships with your team of athletes will create a healthy dynamic and influence the rest of the team and your coaching staff to foster healthy relationships.

2. Make practices fun. Of course practice is to build skills and work on weaknesses. Maybe at the end of practice do a fun, competitive activity that enforces team building and fun. Laughing is a natural endorphin and dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that helps with motivation and reward.

3. Team building is essential to team success. Conducting team building activities outside of practices and games builds team camaraderie and a healthy lockerroom. For younger athletes, it gives them a chance to build on important social skills that they will need as they advance in athletics.

4. Most importantly, remember to take care of yourself too, Coach. Being a coach can be rewarding, but also difficult with the time you spend away from your own personal lives. Coaching should be fun for you so make sure you are staying in tune with your own physical, mental and emotional well-being. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your support system or a mental health professional for help.