Hockey, baseball, basketball and beyond. Athletics have been a mainstay of the high school experience for a very long time. While many students get involved with team sports for the friendly competition and love of the game, there are future benefits from participating in extracurricular activities as well.
As high school football coach Shawn Brown shared, “Sports teach students life skills. We teach them to be committed, reliable and dependable. They must work to get results. It helps get them ready to work hard at their future jobs.”
Here are 5 reasons playing sports is important for building skills for the future.
Collaboration
School sports teach young athletes how to collaborate with others – a key skill for the workplace they will one day serve. The old adage “there’s no I in team” proves that together everyone is stronger.
Resilience
It’s all about resilience and taking each day in stride. From preparing for the big game to getting ready to present a sales pitch to the CEO, coping with high-pressure situations is a regular occurrence in both sports and the workplace.
Though not all careers come with high stress, companies want to know that an individual is capable of persevering when times get tough.
Winning & Losing
In sports, there will be wins; and inevitably, there will be losses. The same can be said for the workplace. Employees will compete with colleagues for promotions, business managers will lose an important client, lawyers will win a court case; the list of reasons goes on and on. Learning how to revel in the wins and accept the losses gracefully are valuable life lessons for the future.
Time Management
Any athlete who has had to juggle academic responsibilities with sports games and practices knows firsthand the importance of maintaining good time management skills. Keeping good grades and striving to be the best teammate acts as essential practice for maintaining a work-life balance in the real world.
Leadership
From team captain to leader of your company, developing leadership skills in sports is crucial to any future employment. Toronto banking executive Sean St. John says he has learned many valuable leadership skills through participating in team sports.
“Making tough decisions about the team or the workforce; knowing how to inspire, motivate and lead your colleagues; these are skills that are always in demand,” explains Sean St. John. St. John continues, “Sports can also teach players how to come up with a game plan and strategy to win, a goal business leaders always have in mind.”
If the above reasons are not enough to convince you that there is a positive correlation between team sports and career skills, research by British Universities & Colleges Sport found that graduates who played sports at university earn on average 18% more than their non-sporting counterparts. In the end, the skills you learned working with your teammates will help you when you work with others.