Benefits of Youth Sports: 6 Benefits of Playing Basketball

May 27, 2020

Participating in youth basketball is a fun way to build friendships, learn teamwork skills and much more. Here’s a few benefits of playing basketball, and why you should allow your kids to be involved in the sport:

1. Exercise & Endurance

Of course, like all youth sports, basketball is a great way for your kids to get a little extra exercise throughout the week. Even if they only practice a couple of times a week, they will be getting a couple of extra hours of exercise than they would without the sport. Basketball is also a sport that requires great endurance. It’s a full-body workout for kids and it’s important for kids to learn to push toward an end goal without giving up.

2. Balance and Hand-Eye Coordination

Many sports require coordination, but basketball especially requires hand-eye coordination. When players are dribbling the ball down the court, they have to be coordinated enough to focus on their dribbling while also being prepared to pass the ball to another player or shoot a goal. The benefits of playing basketball when you’re younger is that you’ll get good at balance and hand-eye coordination early on.

3. Agility

Since basketball is such a fast-paced game, it requires quick reactions. Kids have to be fast on their feet in order to make plays. While they’re on the court, the direction of the play can change any second, so they have to be quick to adapt to the changes also.

4. Strategy

Basketball, like any sport, is a game of strategy. Between the plays, the movements on the court and everything else involved in the sport, kids will learn how to be strategic about the way they play which will lead to problem-solving thinking skills. Kids will start creating strategies to solve problems instead of jumping to immediate conclusions.

5. Social Skills

Like all team sports, it’s pretty easy to form relationships, and it’s a great way to help young children develop their social skills. With interaction with other teams, coaches and the players on their own team, there will be plenty of opportunity for conversation about the one thing they all love – basketball!

6. Easy to Play All Year Round

Of course, the basketball season isn’t year round, but it’s an easy sport to play throughout the year – even after the season has ended. There’s basketball courts in community parks, recreational centers and you can easily have a basketball goal right at your house which make it easy to practice while you’re preparing for the tournament! Plus, basketball is also a sport that can be practiced alone, so you don’t have to wait on other players to join you in the off-season.

Basketball Tournaments at Rocky Top Sports World

At Rocky Top Sports World, we host a variety of sports tournaments and camps throughout the year. We would love for you and your team to join us!

Here’s a few of our upcoming basketball tournaments at Rocky Top Sports World in 2016:

June 3-5: USSSA State and Regional Tournament
June 10-12: Hoopz Showcase Rocky Top Challenge
June 23-26: USSSA Girls National Championship
July 6-8: Change the Game Classic
July 22-24: Hoopz Showcase Summer Championships

To register or learn more about these basketball camps and other sports camps and tournaments we host throughout the year, take a look at all of our Rocky Top Sports World events.

We recommend registering for our basketball camps as early as possible. Once you know your team is interested in attending, go ahead and get registered through the events page.