Track and Field is one of the most-followed sports in the recent Tokyo Olympics. This just shows that even if more sports are like cycling, swimming, and skateboarding are starting to gain more attention, they just can’t take athletics’ spot just yet.
Even if many bookies on bettingsites24.in don’t offer odds on Athletics just yet, it’s still a prominent sport with a decent following. Millions of people would tune in on track whenever the Olympics is on. But even before going pro, many students are known to participate in this sport. Coaches of different sports like football, cricket, and basketball would even recommend that their athletes should participate in track.
Now, what makes athletics so useful for student-athletes? How can this sport be a good way to nurture athletes or even young students alone? We’re here to cover how athletics can not only make any student-athletes better in whatever sports but also how it could impact their life.
The Importance of Individualism
To be an effective team player, one must understand the importance of individual responsibilities. Athletics is primarily an individual sport. Even if students are being trained by coaches and if they are playing against their friends or people they know, it’s a sport that heavily relies on one person’s performance.
Lack of individualism isn’t a good thing to have even in team sports. If an athlete doesn’t have certain individualistic qualities, they will likely end up relying too much on their teammates. They don’t have enough skills to work with other athletes because they can’t work with themselves in the first place.
However, it is also worth knowing that too much individualism can also be harmful to a team’s success. This is why it’s still great for students who are into athletics to still participate in team sports that could make their development as an athlete more solid. It doesn’t even have to be a team sport. They can join any activity that promotes teamwork to balance things up.
Physiological and Essential Life Skills
Most of the physiological and essential life skills that an athlete can learn from playing track and field are transferrable to other sports. Here are some of the important skills that students can learn when participating in Track and Field:
- Determination
To be determined is to be a goal-oriented person. The preparation that a student-athlete has to go through when competing can be very exhausting. It’s different compared to other sports, especially the ones that involve teams because you get to share efforts for the team’s success. In athletics, the person has to be determined to go through all that.
- Self-Discipline
Track athletes are heavily disciplined when it comes to their schedule, training, and even the food they eat. Add how they should also perform well in academics on top of all that. Coaches can be very strict with their athletes and are quick to point out opportunities. Because of that, athletes will have to stick to a routine and value its importance.
- Time Management
With self-discipline comes proper time management which can come in handy in real life. Juggling training, school, family, and friends is no easy work.
- Confidence
With all the discipline necessary, hard work can pay off. This would then increase a student’s confidence. And since athletics is an individual sport, athletes also get to be proud of their achievements because aside from their coaches, their performance is all up to them.
- Grit and Resilience
Losing in any sport happens and the impact of this on a track and field athlete can be rough. Again, it’s an individual sport and without the right headspace, people into athletics will be stuck in blaming only themselves. However, with a goal in mind, an athlete should be able to persevere and see the positives despite a loss. Both grit and resilience are useful life skills that track and field athletes can have.
Conclusion
Aside from all that, athletics can train an individual in certain skills that are useful in other sports. Athletics involve running, jumping, and throwing. These are skills that you can also see in other sports like football, basketball, and cricket.
This is why some track athletes are usually seen with the potential to do great in other sports too. An example is how people can’t help but wonder how Olympics superstar Rai Benjamin would be a great cricketer too if he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps. Rai’s speed can be very handy if he gets to be a fielder.
Overall, whether a student wants to stay in athletics or choose a different path in the future, this sport can teach so many valuable skills. And this is why we should hope that athletics will be more practiced in schools and universities.