I love watching sports, but what I love even more is playing them. I enjoy swimming, water polo, basketball, golf, ping-pong, snowboarding, foosball, pool, and the list goes on. I’m sure a lot of you are saying “wow, super,” but I truly believe that sports are very important aspect of life. The earlier you get started, the better. I’ll tell you why. With so many obese people in America, I don’t see why the participation in sports is not advocated more. I think it should be a law that says you must participate in at least one sport for x amount of hours per week. One of the benefits of playing sports is definitely health. You grow stronger muscles and muscles that you never knew you had. You lower your chances of so many health risks: heart disease, high cholesterol, breast cancer, diabetes, etc. I’m sure the list is quite long. Being healthy leads to longevity. Another bonus of doing sports is physique. It’s always nice to look good, in shape, and tone. So if you start your involvement in sports at a young age, you won’t be teased as the fat kid. We know how that would feel. It’s pretty detrimental to one’s childhood years. In general, I believe in the notion of balance. It’s applicable to almost anything. Eat too much meat and lose out on essential vitamins. Study too much and you’ll be socially inept. Party too much and lose track of your priorities in your life. I believe sports are vital in bringing balance to your life. You develop a strong sense of time management by playing sports. You don’t just go home after school and study, do homework, or mess around. Instead you go to practice. After you come home you have to eat dinner, shower, and then you can do your homework or study. This takes some planning and time management to balance your day. What if you have a midterm or test to study for and you need extra time? Well you manage your time to fit it in. This will help with your work and study habits in the long run. This is just another reason to start early because we all know how increasingly important time management is as you progress through school. I think too many people in society lack the sense of hard work, dedication, commitment, and a sense of mental toughness. I believe sports builds these characteristics. In most sports, in order to do well you have to train. You can’t just go to a competition one day and expect to win or even do well. Training is hard work without a doubt. You can’t get anywhere without hard work. Yes there are those people who are naturally talented in some sports, but there is a threshold to that. After the talent reaches this threshold, the rest is training. With sports, you develop goals. I want to run this time in x months. I want to lift this much in x months. Once you set goals for yourself, you commit to them. You know where you want to be and how much work it is going to take. You know that you have to be dedicated in order to reach these goals. When training, there are times when you doubt yourself or you want to quit. But you want to reach your goal and you stick with it. This is mental toughness. All these characteristics are pertinent to be a well-rounded person and be successful in life, so the sooner you start the better. I am thankful my parents got me involved with sports at a young age. I probably would not be who I am today because of sports. I think I would be a chubby Vietnamese guy that is always online and stealing computers. Hehe, not much difference now I guess. But even if you didn’t start at an early age or you aren’t really active at all, it’s not too late to start. So get off your ass once in a while and do something. But always work hard and play hard. Life IS short. Got any feedback on your mind? A forum is already set up at www.jamesfong.com in his guestbook section
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