Sports are undoubtedly great for your well-being. As someone that always enjoyed sports and having it come naturally to me, I want to help explain (in simple concepts) why it’s a great idea to take on at least one sport.

A lot of times, people start using statistics to try convincing you to do something. Something along the lines of, “Studies show students involved in sports have higher average GPAs than their counterparts”. While statistics are a great tool to look at, it isn’t too great with persuading me to do anything (at least in my case).

The reason for this is that while it is informational to know the hard facts, it doesn’t emotionally influence me to take part in it. It’s just cold facts. So, instead, I’ll give more practical examples that you most likely can relate to and will, hopefully, inspire you to engage in a sport or sports yourself.

1) You Gotta Start Somewhere

Everyone starts as a beginner. There is always a beginner phase. There may be people that progress faster than others, but they still had to make it through Stage 1.

In the summer of 2019, I started consistently going to the gym for the first time in my life. I remember going basically five days a weeks for ten weeks, and it was well worth it.

Prior to working out, I always assumed that the “gym people” would judge me. It was quite intimidating thinking of people with big muscles possibly laughing at me or talking trash behind my back.

Although there are always those people, for the most part, people are willing to help. Most will help guide you if you need help, and they can show you the ropes because they have been in your position before.

Just think that every regular gym member has already worked their ways through that initial newbie phase. They are reaping the benefits of the long-term determination and hard work. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

2) Flexibility of Approach

You can use sports to meet your daily exercise goal. You can have it as a hobby that you use to relieve your stress. You can pursue it at a semi-competitive level. You can look to become a professional.

There are so many ways you can approach sports, and because of this, there are so many options available for you even within the same sport. And there are a seemingly infinite amount of sports to choose from.

No matter your approach, you will be improving your physical and mental health while increasing your potential for making friends and connecting with others on an emotional level.

The category of sports is so broad that almost everyone you meet will be somewhat associated with one. As a result, when you embark on your sport journey, you will slowly start to appreciate sports in general; and therefore, you will have a talking topic with almost everyone you encounter in the future. 

3) Receiving Immediate Feedback

In sports, you get immediate feedback for your actions. The result unravels right before your eyes.

Tangibility is at its all-time high. You do something, and you see the outcome right away.

Because of this, you can quickly refine your weaknesses and try them out again. Of course, you won’t be able to develop a certain skill on the spot, but you can attempt it or look at others that have already perfected it.

If something consistently works, it probably works. If something consistently fails try something different.

Sports is all about adaptation and evolving with time. If you ever settle, you will start lagging behind.

As my 8th Grade Physical Science teacher always said, “Just keep swimming“.

4) Compare You to Yourself

There will always be people better than you. There will also always be people worse than you. When you participate in sports, you will realize that the most important thing to do is to focus on yourself.

When thinking about the long-term, it is totally fine to pinpoint an ultimate goal; but in the here and now, you have to take steps to improve upon yourself daily.

Use yourself as a reference point. “Okay, today I will work on this. Tomorrow, I will work on this.”

Each day you are bettering yourself; and after a month, you’ll look back at your prior self and think, “Wow, how far I have come!”

Sports can show you how important the journey is. You will realize that the accomplishment is important, but at the same time, it was the steps you took to reach it that matters more. What makes you special is not what you accomplished, but what you did to accomplish it. That’s you shouldn’t worry about not getting an award because you still have the journey under your belt, and that’s something no one can take away from you!

5) Friends

Sports are my main “friend-making” source. I feel so much more comfortable when I am in my sport, and I am much more open compared to my usual uptight self that is scared to even approach anyone.

Sports give me a whole new identity and characteristic that allows me to more easily connect with others. It no longer feels like I’m venturing into the unknown, but rather speaking to someone on the same level.

You could also influence your friends to participate with you in a certain activity. When you want to try something new, you can turn to a friend that is familiar with it. On the other hand, you can introduce your friends to something you believe would be beneficial to them and provide them with a leg in.

Having like-minded friends makes doing things so much easier. Developing a network of encouraging people that motivate each other is an eternal boost of energy.

6) Stay Focused

Ignore the fluff. You can’t listen to everyone. You have to focus on what is worth listening to.

There will always be the haters. It’s just how it is. Accept that fact and move on.

Your ability to concentrate on your vision and effectively and efficiently take steps toward it with little to no distractions will determine if you and how fast you can reach your goal(s).

7) Rid Yourself of Jealousy

When you are not actually involved in something and are looking in from the outside, it is very easy to judge and feel jealousy towards more successful people. For example, if someone was amazing at swimming or dancing or football or anything else, you may think that they are lucky or they were born with that talent.

But once you dive into something yourself, you will see what it really took for them to get to where they are.

I know that it took years for me to get to where I am today in terms of my basketball skills. And because I took the untraditional route of practicing on my own with little to no coaching, my development was probably much slower. Regardless, I am well aware of the behind-the-scenes hard work it took to get to where I am.

So whenever I see someone that has reached greatness or had any type of success, I can only congratulate them on their achievements, wish them the best, and use their story to inspire myself to move forward.

8) Gain Respect

One thing I really pride myself on is sportmanship. It’s great to be competitive, but at the same time, you have to stay ethically sound. When playing sports, my number 1 goal is to win. But even then, I won’t break my ethical boundaries to achieve that. I’m not going to verbally bash or intentionally hurt opposing players.

When I am playing against others, I know that we are playing within the confines of the game. I am in my game mode. After the game is over, that intensity dies down and it’s normal life again.

Instead of thinking of my opponents as my enemy, I recognize that I would not be able to play without them. During the game, I am looking to destroy them, but I still respect them.

“Sportmanship moments” in sports are one of my personal favorites to watch. It shows a human side to athletes, when they show compassion for their fellow competitors.

9) Understand Emotions

Once you understand there is a physical aspect to the game, you will start to realize something that is much more important – the mental.

If you look at professional sports, you will see value in the champions, the winners. These are the athlete(s) that achieved the #1 goal for all players. Yet every year, the champion(s) vary.

There are many emotions that people experience before, during, and after a game.

How do you prepare? – How will you approach the impending battle? Are you looking to analyze your opponent(s) beforehand or are you jumping in and improvising? Are you going to dedicate hours to preparation or are you thinking, “What’s practice?”

How do you execute? – Are you legit or are you a fraud? This is when you show your true colors. How well you execute is a very good indicator of how much work you put in prior. Will you be able to block out the noise from the fans or are they going to distract you? Are you going to zone in or zone out?

What now? – Win or lose, what now? Is this it? If you win, are you celebrating and then resting? If you lose, are you quitting? What you do after the fact will determine how successful you are in the future.

What differentiates certain players from others is their [insert sport] IQ. Do they know when to do what? Are they able to block out the outside noice and focus on what is really important? Do they buckle down under pressure or do they use that doubt as an opportunity to prove the haters wrong?

Understand and take control of your emotions!

10) There Are Multiple Layers to a Game

When pursuing a sport, you are always looking to improve.

In the case of lifting weights, it would be increasing the number of sets/reps or increasing your weight limit or improving your form.

For basketball, you can improve your offense and/or defense. Offensively, you can work on your shooting consistency, shooting form, shooting release time, rotation on the ball, ball-handling, right-hand dribbling, left-hand dribbling, foot pivots, off-the-ball movement, etc. Defensively, there’s your lateral movements, defensive awareness, court vision, jump timing, timing a steal, timing a block, and so much more.

When selecting any particular sport, you will be able to see your weaknesses. Whether it be from asking others, watching video recordings of yourself, or your own feel, you can identify your flaws and work on it.

The more advanced you get, the more you will realize that you need to learn. It’s a never-ending loop of self-improvement. Once you think you’ve seen it all, a new thing emerges that blows you away.

If you reread my above ways of improving in terms of lifting weights and basketball, you could probably tell I am not very knowledgeable on lifting weights (I only provided some very basic suggestions); whereas when I was describing the adjustments you can make in basketball, I was more comfortable – more in my zone – and specific when it came to difference techniques or fundamentals.

In the beginning you may think, “That is all there is to it”, but as you dig deeper, you will realize, “I will never know everything about this particular sport/subject.” But that is why you can always get better, never settle.

There you have it!

So many reasons to start involving yourself with a sport, and so many I did not mention. Really, the purpose here is to find something you will love: something that will make you lose track of time.