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Fueling Your Sports With A Healthy Diet

December 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Sports require your body to consume fuel much in the way a car uses gasoline. Your diet is essentially that fuel. Without adequate fuel, your body can turn on itself and make it impossible to sustain any type of physical activity for a long period of time. Likewise, too much fuel can needlessly burden your system with extra weight making it harder to do the physical aspects of sports. While a body needs more fuel to play sports, you have to make the healthy choices that sustain your physically activity.

Sugar has a very short term affect on physical energy. The problem with too much sugar is that it cannot sustain any type of energy level for very long. This means after a short burst, the sugar is used up and your energy level drops off dramatically. This dramatic change in energy level can slow you down when it comes to sports or sustaining any type of physical activity for a long period of time.

Fat is essentially stored energy that the body has pushed aside for later use. The problem with too much fat is that it accumulates in the areas. Even if some of it is used up in physical activity, eating too much of it will still put on the weight. It is then harder to move physically and it is easier to obtain an injury when playing. Although, the benefits of exercise negate some of this effect, it does not eliminate totally.

A healthy diet is necessary to keeping your body fueled for those important games. It is not necessary to eliminate all the fat or sugar from your diet. But you need to understand the effects of having too much. Finally, it is very important to talk to a nutritionist if you have any questions regarding your body’s fuel.

Filed Under: College Sports, Expenses, Team Sports Tagged With: , , ,

“Good Shot!”: How to Encourage your Child to Play in a Team

December 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Sports are an effective way for your child to stay active and reduce his chances of diseases later in life. With childhood obesity rates on the rise, team sports are a good alternative to sitting down to play video games. You may have noticed that your child is a natural athlete early on, by his strength, coordination, and stability. In other cases, children need more encouragement, especially if they are not confident that they can succeed in any one sport.

You must realize is the big picture of the impact of team sports on your child. Aside from the health impacts, your child will learn team skills and how to deal with losses gracefully. In some cases, your child might love a sport so much that she wishes to pursue it into college and beyond as a professional athlete. It is vital that you encourage your child every step of the way, but take avoid becoming overbearing. The choice is ultimately your child’s. If he does not want to pursue professional athleticism, do not push it, lest you ruin the experience entirely. Making a child play sports will make him turn from them and not want to play at all.

So how can you encourage sports without seeming too pushy? Check your exercise habits. Children look up to their parents for everything, including workouts. If you do not regularly exercise, then you cannot expect your child to. Exercise from an early age. It can stem from playing in the park and tossing a ball to each other.

Your child might be interested in watching sports at a young age, but she might not get the concept of team work until she is about seven or eight years old. Until then, you can still encourage her to play games with other schoolmates. Hold off on enrolling her into a team sport until she can grasp the concept of working as a team to win the game.

Filed Under: Team Sports Tagged With: , , ,

Out-of-School Training: How to Keep Up with the Team In-Between Sessions

December 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The majority of school team sports training takes place during the school year. When you reach the high school level, the training becomes more arduous. In such cases, you will likely spend some of your summer break training. This is especially true for fall sports such as football.

Still, you are not required to dedicate every day of the year to sports training. Plus, you do deserve a break. If your goal is to excel at your sport and to one day play professionally, however, your commitment level to training must exceed the bare minimum. You will likely want to train during other times when it is not expected of you.

First, it is important that you keep in good physical shape during the off-season. Get some form of exercise everyday, whether it be walking, running or swimming. Take care to not overwork your muscles during strength training exercises or else you might injure yourself. The same goes for performing multiple drills on consecutive days.

Consider getting some of your teammates together to exercise. Or you can even practice your sport for fun. If you are a football player, you can play flag football without having a coach pressure you and your teammates for making false moves. You will likely become better with practice, and the less pressure will make you realize that you are playing for the love of the sport.

Don’t be afraid to ask your coach for suggestions on how to keep your game prime in-between school training sessions. He might give you a list of specific exercises and drills to help keep you in shape.

Keep in mind that it is important to take a break. It is important physically and psychologically to take a day off from training. Do something else you enjoy such as music, shopping, or hanging out with friends. This will also help give you a new perspective on your passion for sports.

Filed Under: High School Sports, Team Sports Tagged With: , ,

Why School Districts Need Sports And Physical Education

December 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
JJS Karate Kids during the playground demonstr...
Image via Wikipedia

Children and young people today lead a more sedentary lifestyle than ever before. The electronic age we live in discourages physical activity in more ways than one. Digital entertainment such as computer games, internet surfing and television keeps kids in their chairs. Not only that, but the convenience of electronic appliances and gadgets results in very little physical work in the course of a day.

Because kids spend a majority of their time in school, educational institutions have the best opportunity to incorporate physical activity into children’s lives. School districts can easily counter this shortage through physical education programs.

Gym classes and competitive sports are not all about helping kids lose weight. Staying active is part of a healthy lifestyle, and one that can be instilled while kids are young. Burning calories is important, but exercise also helps build bone strength, improves cardiovascular health, and keeps kid’s metabolism high. There is also evidence that exercise helps mental performance by improving energy and concentration.

Physical education involves measurable data such as heart rate, body mass index, and cardiovascular capability. It also teaches children anatomy, nutrition, dietetics and sports theory. These are all important aspects of a well-rounded education. Providing this knowledge helps develop fully educated students who have a deeper understanding of the human body and the competitive world.

It’s not just about teaching fitness and nutrition, but also developing other life skills such as strategy and teamwork. Rope courses, rock walls and orienteering help develop patience, critical thinking, self-reliance and confidence.

Physical education and sports provide a foundation for a healthy life. Removing these programs from schools can deprive children not only of the opportunity for regular physical activity, but also the associated skills and benefits. While modern society does less to foster these important lessons, school may be the only chance for kids to have any of these experiences at all.

Filed Under: High School Sports, Team Sports Tagged With: , , ,

Are Children Getting Enough Physical Activity?

December 4, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Experts recommend that children get an hour of physical activity every day. Unfortunately, this is becoming harder to accomplish. Due to diminishing budgets, many schools have had to cut back on “extras”  like sports and physical education. In many districts, even recess has been eliminated as schools try to cut costs. Are kids getting enough physical activity anymore?

Recess used to be a time when kids ran around the schoolyard, or on rainy days, the basement. It wasn’t formal or organized, and there were no lesson plans or grades, but kids found ways to keep moving.

These days, fewer children are able to walk or ride their bikes to school than in past generations. For many, there is neither a safe route nor a safe environment. Some neighborhoods lack sidewalks to let them walk safely from house to house, or places to ride bikes or skateboards. Kids get rides to their friends- houses, to the store and everywhere else they need to go.

With hours of homework and internet usage there is very little time or opportunity for the old-fashioned physical playing that kids used to do. Many can’t even fit sports into their packed schedules. It would almost appear that they aren’t interested any more Yet it seems that kids will be physical when given the opportunity. Place kids in a large empty room and in no time they will be running, chasing each other and inventing games with no equipment whatsoever.

Maybe they knew something in the good old days when recess followed lunch and schools encouraged children to run around freely and be active. School administrators knew it was important for kids to be physical and to blow off steam. Perhaps they also understood long ago that exercise helped improve sleep and mood, and reduced the risks of disease. It’s probably no coincidence that today, childhood obesity, diabetes, arthritis and other weight-related conditions are more prevalent than ever.

Filed Under: Team Sports Tagged With: , , ,