Sports Education

So, what is Sports Education?

Education about Sports? Teaching kids about the various sports and their rules?
or is it really about ensuring that kids stay healthy and fit for life through the magic of sport. The magic that helps kids deal with the challenges of growing up as well as adult life. In case you have forgotten, childhood was not all that rosy as we like to believe. It was tough - dealing with the school bully, peer pressure, exam stress; not to mention the age when girls came into the picture, performance on the sports field, wanting to be part of the "cool" gang in school etc.

Sports helps kids in many ways.

At a very basic, functional level, it helps kids stay healthy & fit.
At a softer skill level, it helps kids learn about how to lose well, how to win well, how to set goals, how to show a vision, how to be part of a team etc - stuff that no classroom teaches. Stuff that really helps when you grow up. Ask a bunch of leaders in society or in business - and you will find out that the stuff that really got them to where they are today was definitely not their degrees.

As adults, we have failed in providing our kids something very simple : A place to play.

Kids need a combination of structured play (that ensures they learn the right skills at the right age) and unstructured play (where kids make their own rules, learn to resolve disputes, work with constraints etc)

Sports Education can help by ensuring that our schools deliver a physical education and sports program that atleast takes care of the structured play bit.