It is a familiar scene—a kid slumped in a plastic chair, staring at a glowing screen, fingers only moving to tap, swipe, or peck. Outside, however, a ball rolls down the street, a soccer ball flies over into the ditch, and a bike rusts in the yard, its chain long dry, and unturned since time immemorial. The tragedy is not that youth are turning away from sports; it’s that they’re missing out on something much greater—something that shapes character, toughens the body, and instructs in life itself in ways no schoolroom or smartphone ever could.
I have never known an athlete who did not know patience. A swimmer knows the torture of waiting for the starting pistol. A runner senses the searing seconds before the race begins. A boxer absorbs the blows, rides out the rounds, and waits for his moment to strike. Sports involve a kind of waiting that is not passive—it is an art form in itself, a sign of how well an individual can keep in check the fire within without it burning out. Children, more than ever before today, need to learn that not everything is immediate, that wins are sometimes decades in the making, and that life’s greatest experiences are earned, not taken.
And what of discipline? Anybody who’s ever trained an athlete knows that discipline is the quiet force behind every triumph. Discipline is getting up with the sun before everyone else, doing a run when nobody else has the self-control to. It is doing the same drill, the same movement, over and over until muscle memory kicks in. It is refusing distractions, refusing sloth, and embracing effort, sweat, and improvement. Sports instill the type of discipline that overflows into all other areas—into schoolwork, work, and personal success. A student who learns to struggle through fatigue on the field can struggle through adversity in life.
Aside from individual values, sport provides something no single activity can—esprit de corps. A basketball team is not a group of players; it is a commitment, a promise to struggle, to win, and to lose together. A relay team makes all their speed irrelevant if they cannot properly pass the baton at the precise moment. Football players know that nothing can replace weak teamwork no matter how great an individual. In a time when young people are more isolated from one another by social networking and virtual lives, sport provides us with an actual, bodily connection with other people—something that cannot be substituted by a “like” or comment online.
And finally, there’s resilience—most likely the greatest lesson of them all. All the players are familiar with defeat, but only those who come back to the game, to the track, to the ring ever win. Losing a game is shameful. Hurting yourself hurts so much. Seeing someone else hold the trophy you have worked so hard for is painful. Sport allows young people to stand up, dust themselves off, and try again. In a world that sometimes teaches them to give up at the very first sign of challenge, sport educates them that failure is not a finale but a stepping stone to achievement.
Even health—so rudimentary, so instinctual—is in jeopardy now. Childhood obesity is increasing, posture is on the decline, and energy is in freefall because children are sitting more and moving less. The body wasn’t designed to be sedentary. It was made to move, to work, to play. Sports, or sports will not happen, and teen bodies pale, and young minds become unsettled. And yet we stand in awe asking why depression, fear, and inattention are more terrible than ever among youth. Movement is therapy, and the best prescription for it is sport.
Others claim that sports are nothing but a distraction, an avoidance of something more “serious.”. But I disagree—sports are some of the most honest teachers out there. They teach patience when life requires waiting. They teach discipline when distractions abound. They promote friendship when loneliness is waiting. They teach perseverance when failure is knocking. They keep healthy when contemporary life is attempting to kill it. To refer to sports as play is to miss the whole point.
So let the children run and jump and play. Let them grunt and sweat, win and lose, fight and fall, and rise again. Let them learn, not merely how to shoot a goal or hit a ball, but how to live—with patience, self-discipline, strength, with heart. Because at the end of the day, sports don’t make athletes; they make people who know how to conquer the world. And that’s a game worth playing.
