John Hudome

Team Sports for Girls and a Successful Life



Posted: Thursday, June 29, 2006

by
John B. Hudome Innovative Consulting LLC

The world of youth team sports has become an interesting place over the last couple of decades. Parents seem more involved in how much playing time their child gets, what position they play and what number they’re wearing, among a host of other concerns. What I don’t hear or see is a mechanism to measure how much fun a child is having. And what most parents are completely unaware of, is the long term future life benefits of girls participating in team sports.

Kids learn many things while playing team sports. In fact, I think that they learn nearly everything they’ll ever need to know to be successful in the future. I know that this is a pretty bold statement, but I believe it. Here’s my case. This is a list of some of the less obvious skills that a child has the opportunity to learn while participating on a team:

How to function as a member of a team (In what future field of endeavor does this not apply?).

How to get along with others, even if you don’t particularly like them (Do you like all of your Co-workers?).

How to take direction (from the coach and team captains).

How to lead (when they grow to be a leader or captain).

How to win.

How to lose.

How to play with-in the rules of the game.

That there’s more to life than this game. To give it your all and set it aside when it’s all over.

 The above could serve as a “skill-set" for corporate business success. Could it not?

Here’s the most revealing that I’ve read in my professional literature. Two very important things are evident for women who participated in youth teams sports as girls

They earn more money as adults than their counterparts who didn’t participate.

They are less likely to be victims of domestic violence or be in an abusive relationship.

 These are important. These alone make the case for girls to participate. And the explanation for me is that these girls have higher self-esteem, in part due to what they learned in team sports. If there is any correlation what-so-ever between team sport participation and higher self-esteem, shouldn’t we encourage participation? To me, it’s all about self-esteem. Knowing that you deserve a wonderful life makes all the difference as to whether you get it, or not. This is the common problem that I see for adults in my coaching and hypnotherapy practice. They have given up on the wonderful life that they, once upon a time, knew they deserved and were destined for. If this little bit can help the girls, why not do it?

I haven’t seen any research about boys and team sports, but I’m sure it’s out there. I also suspect that the positive benefits are similar.

And please parents, just watch them play. Cheer both teams. Role-model good sportsmanship for your child. Ask them if they had fun, not if they won. You’ll all have more fun this way.

This Article has been viewed 307 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)
» left by Anonymous 5 years 211 days ago.
Parents of girls need to read this!
» left by Anonymous
 5 years 211 days ago.
Good article. Does ha have any books out?
» left by Anonymous
 5 years 202 days ago.
very good. interesting for the girls.
» left by Anonymous
 5 years 201 days ago.
interesting. i'm in las vegas. i'll look at the site to see how to contact him.
» left by Anonymous
 5 years 175 days ago.
good article
» left by John B Hudome from Wynnewood, PA 2 years 356 days ago.
I wrote this article a few years ago. It still holds up today. My daughter played lacrosse in High School.Today, she is 19 years old and a Freshman at Penn State University. And wow, how confident. She's amazing. I think the sports really helped.
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