When my brother and I were 7 years old, we were not very active kids. Most of our days would consist of playing with toys, video games, watching tv and sometimes going to skate city with students from elementary school. My parents did not want to make this a habit, so they signed us up for rec hockey at skate city. We cried, screamed, kicked, but none of it seemed to stop them; so the very next week we were playing hockey. 

Even though from my 7-year-old perspective it sounds like my life was ruined, but it was quite the opposite. My brother and I have been playing roller, and later ice hockey, for the last 10 years. 

But this is not a story about my hockey career, this is about how playing a sport when I was young changed my life for the best. 

Some people go to high school expecting to make a ton of friends and being popular; well this was not the case for me. To this day I do not hang out with anyone who goes to my school once I go home, and that doesn’t bother me for a second. Every weekend I spend it at my house with 3-4 people on my current team or past teams. Some friends dating back to my first couple of years playing the sport. 

Like most inactive kids at my age, I was a little chubby. Surprisingly watching tv and playing video games did not burn many calories. Playing sports has brought me to a body size that I am proud to have. 

Playing sports can improve your body's health in many different ways. Improving cardiovascular health, managing your weight, reducing stress and getting more sleep are some of the many things kids strive for today, and playing sports is a great way to achieve them. 

These days kids are getting into many different substances, and the majority is vaping/nicotine. A study done by Harvard Medical shows how even though people can use a variety of different substances weekly exercise will distract them from this craving or even get them to quit it. This is a healthy distraction that can even prevent kids from thinking about experimenting with substances.

Playing sports can even help with leadership skills for future careers. Studies shown in the 1999 publication of adolescence, prove that kids who participated in sports in high school had much higher leadership scores than kids who didn’t participate in sports at all. Learning how to work together with a team for a common goal is a valuable trait needed for most jobs.

In a poll by NPR and Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, more than half of the people who answered said that sports had lowered their stress, improved their physical health and their mental health. 

In many studies, it clearly shows that playing physical sports can decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety. A study by Harvard T.C. Chan showed that running for only 15 minutes a day can decrease your risk of depression by 26% and lower symptoms. Winning a game or having fun playing a game releases dopamine in your brain. Dopamine will improve your mood instantly and get them to love doing sports. 

By focusing on the sport and the physical things you are doing, you will stop worrying about things in your life and instead focus on the game. 

Lastly, playing sports is a lot of fun! Yes losing is not fun, but even when you lose a game you know you can just get up and keep on trying. Working harder with your teammates to try to beat the team you lost to is one of the best things to bond over. When you win games you get to celebrate with the team and get the feeling of accomplishment from working as hard as you can and come out victorious. A poll taken by NPR showed that more kids cared about playing well and getting better rather than just winning. 

Every kid should be playing sports at a young age. There a list of health benefits to participating in a sport at least once or twice a week, you can make lifelong friends, improve skills needed for the future, and most of all, it will be some of the best times of your life. We need to get kids out there playing sports so that they can make the most of their lives!