Playing Sports Essay

Ever since I started playing tennis, I noticed that I have been less aggravated and also a feeling of â€Å"calm† after each game. Whatever was bothering me that day becomes a faint memory. Have you been looking for a way to relieve stress, get some exercise, and make some new friends? Then try playing a sport. It does not matter if you are a child or an adult. Becoming involved in sports is an excellent way to stay fit and relieve stress. You can get out and have some fun while getting healthy. It also can be a way to bring your family together. Playing sports together and being health together. Playing sports can be beneficial for your mental and physical health. Playing some sports can be fun and help support your physical and mental health. Participating in most sports can help reduce stress, promote physical and mental health, and encourages social skills. Involving yourself in a sport strengthens your heart and all your other muscles while having lots of fun. First, let’s talk about how a person can reduce stress by playing a sport. No one has to tell you how stressful day to day life is. Stress is a major health concern to everyone. Every day people in the world battle with stress and look for ways to relieve it. Being active in a sport is one of the ways to reduce stress. According to the Mayo Clinic, â€Å"one way to take control of the stress in your life is through physical activity. Being active can boost your feel-good endorphins and distract you from daily worries. † While playing sports, a person can focus on the game being played and not on their worries. Getting into the game and taking out your frustrations on the game can also manage stress. I personally know from experience that stress can be relieved through exercise. I exercise 4 to 5 times a week. I feel great before and after the workout. Exercising just makes you feel good about yourself! Playing sports sometimes changes your mood and puts the focus on the game. Physical activity helps to bump up the production of your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins. (Mayo Clinic)The physical activity of sports can reduce tension and help the player relax and get in a better mood. Playing a simple game like ping pong can get your mind off of what’s stressing you. Next, physical and mental health can be maintained through playing sports. Playing sports can provide a form of exercise. Depending on the exercise what kind of benefit your body receives. Exercise through sports can improve your heart health. When playing sports, your body receives exercise needed to build endurance and strength. (Isports2012) Staying active helps keep health problems away from your body. Playing sports can also help maintain weight, strength, and increase stamina. (Manali Oak2012)Sports like soccer are good for your heart and improve body tone. When playing a game like basketball, dribbling, changing direction quickly and passing are performed at different rates of speed which can improve some one’s body coordination, agility and balance. Kicking the ball and receiving the pass from someone improves your hand to eye coordination. According to the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace states that young people can benefit from physical activity as it contributes to developing healthy bones, efficient heart and lung function as well as improved motor skills and cognitive function. Mental health can also be helped through playing sports. It encourages you to be your best, help with concentration, build confidence, and build leadership skills. Playing sports can help a person deal with loss and disappointment. Sports also help boost self –esteem. (Rachel Nelson2011) Also playing a sport can produce many opportunities to increase your confidence and self-esteem, and help to reduce anxiety. Playing sports can also reduce depression. When becoming active in sports, a person has to focus on the game and does not have time to think or worry about outside issues. All of the person’s energy is focused on the game. According to Vanderbelt, â€Å"In a study by DiLorenzo, Bargman, Stucky-Ropp, Brassington, Frensch, and LaFontaine (1999), the conclusions showed that exercise helped with depression both short-term and long-term. The experiment took 111 adults randomly assigned them to two groups. One group was to use bicycle ergometry twenty-four minutes a session, four times a week for twelve weeks. The other group was to do the same exercise but forty-eight minutes a session, four times a week for twelve weeks. By the end of the twelve weeks, DiLorenzo et al. were able to conclude that not only were physiological benefits occurred, such as a stronger heart, but also psychological improvements were made, specifically with depression. The long-term effects of this experiment showed an overall improvement both physically and mentally which was still present a year after the experiment had occurred. It is important to note that in most experiments the findings suggest that exercise helps minimize one’s depressions but there is little scientific evidence stating that exercise can prevent depression. † Sports also play a positive role in emotional health, and helps build social connections, often having opportunities for fun and self-expression. Sports teach you to interact with people, communicate with them and work together as a team. Playing sports can be beneficial to learning social skills. When participating in a sport, working as a team, helping each other out, having good times and the bad times are ways people learn how to support and help others through sports. It helps maintain focus on team goals, instead of personal goals. Building a great team and having fun at the same time is a great reason to play a sport. Sports can improve social skills in adults through leadership and making and keeping new friends. Being a captain on a team or the coach can help with leadership skills. Team mates can become friends. Improving social skills in children can be a task. With sports, it can become a little easier. Playing sports improve teamwork, which can help children learn to work better with one another. While playing sports, people learn what is best for the group instead of just for themselves, and they learn to be friends with people from other backgrounds. When participating in a sport, teammates can be from different races, have different personalities, religions, and sometime genders. Interaction with different teammates can result in lasting bonds. Eventually, a person can move forward and accept a person who may not look or act the same as themselves and treat other teammates as equals. Participating in sports helps adults and youth with the excitement of winning and the bittersweet feeling of defeat. When a team loses a game, a player can have some ill feelings, including disappointment, frustration and anger. Sports allow adults and youth to better handle non positive feelings. After learning how to manage some of these emotions, players can use the same skills learned in sports in apply them to other situations in their life. Also confidence can be improved in adults and children through playing sports. Winning a game is an example of how sports can increase confidence. Playing a sport helps a person feel like they are a part of something. That alone can help motivate and help boost some ones confidence. Being a part of something or a team can boost the confidence in anyone. As you have read, playing sports can increase your overall physical and mental health. Playing sports increases your health, while having fun, being active, and making new friends. Just a few hours a week can be beneficial to your health. There are many types of sports to play that will offer health benefits. People, who have not been active in a while, should contact their doctor first, before participating in high impact sports. You can hurt your body when you just jump right into a high pact exercise. It does not matter if it is tennis, football, or soccer. Being active in sports helps your body. Playing sports affect your health long term when you stay active. Sports help keep your heart and mind healthy. Overall, sports help personal abilities, general health and self-knowledge. Getting out at least 3 days out of the week to play a sport is a reasonable way to stay active through sports. You can contact your local sports club, recreational center, or YMCA for information on playing sports, joining a team, and the benefits that they offer. Everyone needs to relieve some type of stress or be in better shape. Why not pick up a sport and have fun doing both! References 1. http://www. sportanddev. org/en/learnmore/sport_and_health/the_health_benefits_of_sport_and_physical_activity/ 2. http://www. onlymyhealth. com/health-benefits-playing-sports-1290074521 3. http://www. acefitness. org/blog/412/americans-coping-with-stress-anxiety-find-relief, Americans Coping with Stress & Anxiety Find Relief with Exercise, Posted September 12, 12:00AM in ACE Press Releases 4. KOLATA,G. ( 2008, March 27). Personal Best, Yes, Running Can Make You High, The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www. nytimes. com 5. DiLorenzo, T. M. , Bargman, E. P. , Stucky-Ropp, R. , Brassington, G. S. , Frensch, P. A. ,& LaFontaine, T. (1999). Long term effects of aerobic exercise on psychological outcomes. Prev Med, 28 (1), 75-85. 6. http://www. un. org/wcm/content/site/sport/home/unplayers/coordinationmechanisms/interagencytaskforce 7. http://www. djlah. net 8. http://healthpsych. psy. vanderbilt. edu.