Thirteen-year-old Kristen was worried about looking like a fool at field hockey tryouts. Plus, she figured that even if she made the cut, it would take up too much time. Have concerns like hers kept you from going out for a sport? It’s true that joining a team makes you busier, but it also adds to the quality of your life and teaches you valuable lessons. Here are some of the sneaky benefits of being a team player!
Make New Friends
Deep personal bonds develop by sharing exciting victories and dealing with losses with your teammates. You'll really get to know some great girls in your grade and in upper classes who can help you -- on and off the field.
Get Your Fit on!
By practicing a sport, you'll stay fit. You'll strengthen your cardiovascular system and improve your muscle tone. Translation? You can wear that cool minidress and look great. But even better: You'll feel great too.
Learn Life Skills
Our competitive society consists of winners, losers, lucky shots and bad calls. Sports help you prepare for that. Playing on a team teaches you to work in a group and deal with the ups and downs of life.
Stay Super-smart!
Girls who play sports get better grades in school and are more likely to graduate than girls who do not participate in sports. Sure, college may seem like light-years away, but it’s never too soon to start up some activities that will punch up your applications. Selection committees look for well-rounded, active, involved candidates.
Feel Great About Yourself!
Girls and women who play sports have more confidence and a higher self-esteem -- as well as lower levels of depression. Their body image is more positive too, and they experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports.
Have Future Career Success
Sports is where boys have traditionally learned about teamwork, goal setting, the pursuit of performance excellence and other achievement-oriented behaviors -- all necessary for success in the workplace. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, it is no accident that 80 percent of female executives at big companies identify themselves as former “tomboys” who played sports!
Sport Short
Women’s rugby is one of the fastest-growing team sports in the world. Recently, 14 nations came together on the Gulf of Thailand to compete in the annual Asian Women’s Sevens Championships. China won the final, but it was Iran, Cambodia, Laos and India who perhaps felt the most proud: The countries were all newcomers among the six nations competing at this elevated level in women’s rugby. While India’s team was of the countries that did not win, they certainly weren’t lacking in enthusiasm. Says the vice president of Rugby India: “It was in 1998 that a men’s squad went abroad for the first time. Eleven years later, the women are breaking another barrier.”
