Chances are pretty good that even if competitive sports were a part of your childhood, you aren’t playing now. We are all familiar with the emphasis that America places on college and professional sports. Most of us, however, don’t play competitive sports past the high school or, if we were lucky, the college years. We have fond memories of playing and we would have a blast if we participated in a friendly game with our friends or co-workers, but we don’t. I’m here to tell you that we should.
Competitive sports get us moving. Face it; most of us really need to get moving. We may not be as fast as we once were. In fact, most of us are sure to have been slowed down a bit by age. Fortunately, the same applies to most of our friends and family as well. On top of that, our friends and family could all benefit by getting outside and playing a nice rousing game of the sport of our choosing. We’ll all breath deeper, laugh harder, and, in the end, rest better after a bit of friendly competition.
Competitive sports also help us to stay in touch. We often get so wrapped up in the necessities and mundane tasks of daily life that we forget to socialize. Humans are social creatures and we are healthier when we get a chance to interact meaningfully with friends, family or friendly co-workers.
Though we may want to play, actually getting out and playing can be a challenge. We have to battle schedule conflicts for ourselves and our potential team mates and we always have so many other things on our endless “to do” lists. Getting set up with a local league in the sport of your choice may help you get out and play. Sometimes we need to make a commitment to ourselves and others in order to ensure that we will follow through with our plans to play.
Many cities offer competitive sports leagues through their parks systems. These offer locations for practices and games and game schedules. Though some just offer the basics like baseball, basketball and football, some cities also have soccer, volleyball, or even tennis. Leagues vary from competitive to casual and teams can even be set up as a family, friend or work group who wants to play together.
If you are more interested in a casual game setting, then getting a smaller group together regularly for a game of three on three basketball using the basketball hoops in your driveway or at the park. Or maybe a game of touch football might be the perfect thing for you. You get all of the benefits of revisiting your glory days with a group of friends without the long-term commitment to a team schedule.
Playing sports made you happy in your younger years. It might be just the thing now. There are so many benefits to getting moving and competitive sports are a great way to do it.
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