Sport Thought: Important life lessons kids learn as part of a team

The feeling of a team performance is hugely satisfying. Photo / Getty Images

Dust off the gummies and raincoats parents, it's time to get out there and support our young people in their sporting choices as we head into another winter sport season.

The main winter sporting codes of netball, hockey, rugby, rugby league and football are all under way at venues throughout the district. And key indoor codes like basketball and volleyball are also in full swing.

Team sport in NZ is certainly a time-honoured tradition. You would be able to travel anywhere in the country and see the same thing – kids running around in all types of weather, learning the art of our main codes and being cheered on by coaches, managers, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents and other whanau and friends.

So many of the life skills we are taught in organised sport are learned in the team environment. Individual sports certainly have their place as well (and teach kids another set of life skills), but my belief is that even if kids play and excel at an individual sport, they can benefit immensely from what team sports can teach them.

Consider some of the basic learning blocks taught in a team environment:

· It doesn't matter how well you play yourself, the team's performance still relies on how the rest of the team plays (whereas in an individual sport it is all up to you)

· It doesn't matter if you are the best player in the team, you should still get time on the side line

· Having a team attitude encourages sportsmanship and co-operation

· That feeling of the complete (or near complete) team performance is hugely satisfying

· Winning is most definitely not everything – and winning graciously as a team is as important as losing graciously

· Learning how to have respect for teammates, your opposition, coaches, referees/umpires and supporters

· Life is not always fair – injuries happen, referee calls go against your team and you get benched when you think you do not deserve to

There are many more, but I think the great thing about the majority of these is that they apply to so many other areas of our lives – the family, the workplace and other community groups you might belong to. Even though as kids we don't realise it at the time, team sport teaches us those valuable lessons that we take through into other facets of our lives.

Parents can help facilitate these lessons by simply talking about them – have a post-game review and discuss why, for example, your child views the coach as unfair or showing favouritism. Praise them if they did not openly object in front of the rest of the team.

Above all, point out how all of these things relate to real life and get them to see how being part of a group requires similar restraint and sound judgement.

Take the time to encourage your young ones to experience a variety of sports while they are young, for there is time enough for specialisation when they get to their early-to-mid-teenage years. They will benefit from learning new skills which they will take through to adulthood, greatly increasing their chances of maintaining a lifelong love of being active.

See you on the side line.