The Abridged version:
- Daily activity is good for kids’ physical and mental health, but families have different factors to consider when deciding whether their kids should play team or individual sports.
- For some kids, solo sports can foster independence, reduce pressure and anxiety and provide a more relaxing experience for the athlete.
- Sacramento teenagers offer their perspective on playing and practicing athletic activities that do not involve being on a team.
Sacramento teenager Jacen Diaz considers himself a confident 14-year-old. That was not true, he said, even just a couple of years ago. According to Jacen’s family, his courage and tenacity are credited to taekwondo.
“When I was younger, I wasn’t a very confident person. During family gatherings, I’d be in my room most of the time,” Jacen said. “Even around people I was comfortable with, it was hard talking to (them).”
His stepmom, Carly Swank, wholeheartedly agrees. “The kid three years ago and the kid you see now — he’s just so different with how he speaks to adults and how he interacts in day-to-day life,” she said. “Taekwondo has really taught him a lot … being more sure of himself and more self-esteem.”
Competition without anxiety?
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art, focusing on mental discipline and agility — a practice that can still be competitive without the pressure or potential for performance anxiety that often comes with traditional team sports like soccer, baseball or basketball.
For parents choosing between enrolling their kids in a team sport or an individual sport, there are a number of considerations to contemplate.
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For Jacen, who splits his time between two households in two different counties, he knew signing up to be on a team would be hard. Plus, he said, he never really thought of himself as athletic until he found Velez Martial Arts in Sacramento, where he practices taekwondo multiple evenings a week.
Change was immediate
His stepmom saw the change in Jacen when he started taking classes two years ago. “Really, taekwondo was the first thing where he was like, ‘I really want to do that,’” Swank said. In addition to practicing taekwondo, Jacen also goes to Velez on Friday nights for a leadership class.
“They teach me to be able to assist, or even teach my own classes in taekwondo and be able to show examples like integrity, compassion and confidence,” Jacen explained, highlighting the values taekwondo promotes for young people.
Independence emphasized
Individual sports can also stimulate a sense of independence. That’s one of the reasons why 14-year-old Howard Williams, who played Little League baseball when he was younger, now prefers playing golf.
“I like golf more because when you’re playing, you don’t have a lot of people watching you,” he said. “You don’t have people relying on you to play well as much. I think that makes it a lot more fun.”
Team sports count on cooperation among teammates as players share responsibility for wins and losses. In a solo sport like golf or taekwondo, young athletes can prioritize personal effort.
“It’s all about getting better than you were before,” Howard said. “It’s a lot less pressure, and that makes it a lot more relaxing. Baseball is definitely more energetic and intense.”
Howard plays golf on his school team. He’s an eighth grader at Holy Spirit and hopes to make the high school team at Christian Brothers next year.
Another consideration for their family, said Howard’s dad, Tyler Williams, is the mental game. “There’s more play time,” he pointed out. “They’re not sitting and waiting for their turn. That level of anxiety is slightly removed because you don’t have time to sit there and dwell on the mistake you just made. You get out of your head because you have to; you’ve just got to keep moving.”
Researcher: Solo sports can also carry pressure
Solo sports, however, may bring a stronger sense of self-pressure, according to Dr. Eric Storch, psychology professor and researcher, who shared his expertise in a Baylor College of Medicine blog.
“The hard part about individual sports is that if something doesn’t go well, it’s on your shoulders,” Storch wrote. “You can learn from it and reframe it, but it’s still on you. In team sports, the whole team had a role in contributing to the outcome.”
Whether kids play an individual sport or a team sport is a family decision. Either way, the Centers for Disease Control recommends kids ages 6-17 engage in an hour or more of at least moderate activity every day. That schedule boosts physical and mental health, improves attention and memory as well as reducing the risk for depression.
Individual sports still have teams
And individual sports don’t always have to be solo sports.
“You can still play with friends; you’re not completely by yourself,” Howard said. “When I’m playing (golf) with my friends, we just hang out and have a good time.”
Added Jacen: “That’s a big reason why I decided to get up and do taekwondo … was to, you know, get away from screens.”
His stepmom agreed. “We really just wanted him to pick something,” Swank said. “We never cared what it was — just get him to do something other than homework and video games.”
Howard has some advice for other teens. “If you’re willing to put a little more effort into how good you are at the sport, and you’re more social with a lot more people, I’d take baseball or soccer or football or one of those,” he suggested. “But if you’re more into relaxing games and it’s OK if you have a bad day and it’s not as much of an issue, then you’re probably going to want to do golf or another one-person sport.”
Tyler Williams said he also likes that he and his son can play golf together. “Some days he’s out there kicking my butt, which I love,” he chuckled. “So, that’s fun too.”
Carolyn Becker is a regular contributor covering youth sports for Abridged in her feature Beyond the Bleachers. She’s lived in Northern California most of her life and worked in journalism and communications in Sacramento for more than 25 years. She and her husband are raising two boys, both of whom play competitive baseball.