Diane Albanese’s Musings

10-9-09

Parents across the region are taking to the fields to coach and watch as their children play favorite fall sports. When the weather is golden as it has been in the past few weeks, the local fields are full of soccer, baseball, hockey, lacrosse and football. Whether highly organized into leagues or just randomly thrown together, children and adults like to play. Recreation is one of the basics to living a healthy life so when parents encourage and support their children; they increase their chances to develop lifelong fitness skills.

It’s really quite simple. To be a better reader, one must read. To be a better runner, one must run.  To do something better, you must spend time and effort in that arena.

Last Sunday I watched my son play soccer at a field near Baltimore. This was a loosely organized game of adults, mostly graduate students who played because they loved the game and it made them feel great to get out and kick the ball.  That is the essence of keeping fit: to do something you love that involves using energy, burning calories and having fun. The part that keeps them coming back is the fun.

All week they are involved in work and going to classes so they must be able to spend long hours sitting and studying but on Sundays they stretch, they run, they work on foot skills and they play as a team, cooperating to get that goal.  As adults, the play is sometimes rough, and they tease each other for missing a shot or whiffing a kick, but for the most part, they are united against the opposition team and create a bond, a camaraderie that has infinite benefits beyond the field.

This game had an international flair. The graduate students from the University of Maryland hailed from all over the planet and included men and women. They were playing a team of Russian graduate students from a neighboring school. Comments were flying in all languages, perhaps a mix of encouragement, sarcasm and teasing. Who knows what was said, the important part is that they were all on a soccer field being part of the game.

When children learn skills in physical education classes, the hope is that they will carry them for life and that the skills will pay off in terms of health benefits. Not everyone will embrace competitive volleyball, but they may enjoy playing in the sand on the beach for fun. Children may not like doing exercises, but they may like splashing around in a swimming pool, or swimming in the bay. It’s just so much fun!

Recreation for life is the goal that is motivated by enjoyment. PE teachers and coaches alike, start something small that grows into a lifelong skill.  Students are motivated to get out and get going no matter what the event.  So when my son was four, he kicked his first soccer ball and now twenty one years later, he still enjoys the game.

Staying active, staying vital helps to enhance all of life. Parents who support their children at a young age need to feel good about starting something that is wonderfully fundamental.

~ by Diane Albanese on October 6, 2009.