Benefits of Sports in Holistic Education

Education is an ornament in prosperity and refuge in adversity – Aristotle

Education is considered a basic requirement in any individual’s life. Education doesn’t just imply studying and acquiring knowledge, it is just one facet of education as it is related to mental activity. Real education comprises of balance of both mental activity and physical activity. Sports provide the necessary physical activity for the body. Hence, true education always has sport as an integral part of it.

Striking benefits of sports

Sports have numerous benefits. To start with, sports play a crucial role in improving one’s health and in keeping them fit physically. Playing sports unites people from all walks of life and people from various social backgrounds. Playing competitive sports imbibe lot of essential characters into an individual.

Sports enhance academic performance

It has been observed that children who do vigorous activities are able to concentrate and listen better in class because they are healthier and have more energy. It is known that exercise boosts your immune system and strengthens your cells, allowing your bodily systems to work better. As a result, students do not suffer from malnutrition and illnesses. These two conditions are known to be major contributors to frequent absenteeism, and lack of vigour and focus for academic tasks.

Sport teaches us as much as academic studies

Any individual who plays sport the way it is meant to play would end up imbibing essential characters. One would acquire leadership qualities; one would know how important it is to be a team player. Sportsmanship, crisis management, dealing with failure, teamwork, etc. are some qualities which are learned in sports. All these qualities go a long way in helping an individual to lead a better and successful life. Hence sport indirectly helps you in leading a better life.

Disadvantages of life without sports education

There are some people who don’t consider sports important in life and completely ignore their benefits. Ignoring sports completely and relying only on mental education is not advisable. Doing this would put excessive stress on students due to heavy mental pressure. Recreation aspect of life would be missing. Lack of physical activity results in premature health problems. When not played sports, they may not know skills to be successful in real life.

Advantages of life with sports education

Apart from the many benefits mentioned above, there are many other benefits of sports. We develop an ability to apply concepts to real life situations because of sports. Sports obviously act as pretty good stress buster. It has been proven that playing sports for 1-2 hours will make an individual mentally alert for 15 hours. Sports make you look at the world from a different perspective, respecting a person for his performance and not because of his social or economic status. Sports help a person in understanding him/herself in a better way. Hence, sports help in enhancing the overall quality of life.

So, all one can say is education without sports has to be considered incomplete. Many colleges, nowadays, teach knowledge but not applying the knowledge. In sports, you are successful only if you can implement what you know, especially, under pressure and tension. For this reason, someone who is academically good and plays sports well is likely to be more successful in life. However, before applying knowledge it should be organized properly to enable it to be executed. As, sports play a pivotal role in the all-round development of a person one cannot ignore the benefits of including sports in the curriculum of education.