How to Get a Bookish Child Into Sports

When you see your child develop their own interests, it can be a truly beautiful event to witness. However, the question that you have to ask yourself is whether this interest is balanced out with other ones. For example, if you have a bookish child that is very into reading but has little interest in sports or the outside world, this could have a significant impact on their physical health. Nonetheless, it is not impossible to get your child to enjoy playing sports, if only for half an hour to an hour a week — read this guide to get the complete overview on how to achieve this aim.

Show Them How Fun Sport Can Be

It’s not a good idea to force your child into playing sports by dragging them to lessons. It’s likely that this will only lead them to resent you and hate sports even more. A better idea is by showing them how fun actually playing can be. For example, you can show them a football, soccer, basketball, baseball or ice hockey match on the television and see if they develop an interest. If you have a natural interest in any of these sports, you will be surprised by how infectious that joy will be for your child.

Replace the Glasses with Contact Lenses

If your child is wearing glasses, it can be a major impediment to playing sports. After all, if their glasses break on the field, this can be a huge source of distress and glasses do simply get in the way of lots of movement. They should simply do what many sports people do who have problems with their eyesight – wear contact lenses. Take a look around now for great UV protection contact lenses that can help your child feel more confident on the pitch. You don’t necessarily have to buy a monthly subscription either. They can be single-use lenses that they only wear when they are playing sports.

Don’t Focus on Competitiveness

To be frank, if your child hasn’t been playing much sport in their life, it is unlikely that they will be very good at any sport they choose to pick up. If you decide to criticize their performance at the beginning, this could quickly backfire — especially if you raise your voice — and they might make the decision to just give it up entirely. A much better idea is to create a fun, encouraging environment where the focus is taking part and enjoying yourself instead of seeing who is the best.

Let Them Pick Their Favorite Interest

While you might be a big basketball or hockey fan, this isn’t necessarily going to translate to your child being equally interested in that sport. They might prefer something more niche such as badminton or table tennis instead. The best idea is to take them to a sports club and let them try out all of the different sports on offer. If they try several different ones, they might then find the one sport that they like.