Basketball is one of the team sports that kids love. In fact, there are not a few children who aspire to enter the children’s team of the Spanish Basketball Federation, an organization that already has vast experience training children and young people in this category. However, beyond the professional future that any child can aspire to, the truth is that it is a very dynamic and entertaining sport that can be practiced even as a simple hobby. In fact, it is has shown that regular basketball practice is an excellent physical exercise that stimulates different skills, while helping to develop social skills.

Five advantages of playing basketball for children

1. Improves metabolic resistance

Basketball, like any high-intensity sport, demands a great energy and metabolic expenditure. The attacks, the runs, the jumps and the constant movement require a physical overexertion from children that contributes to improving their resistance. As a result, this interval training boosts your aerobic capacity, strengthens your lungs, and increases your energy level and metabolic endurance. It’s also an excellent practice for building cardiovascular endurance and regulating blood circulation and blood pressure. in children.

2. Develops muscle control

The ability to control the muscles and each part of the body develops naturally as the child grows and gains self-control. However, different studies have shown that playing basketball helps children gain muscle control, strengthen their muscles and improve the planning of movement sequences. In fact, it is an ideal sport to improve balance in children and stimulate their agility, especially due to blocking, passing, jumping and running responses.

3. Sharpens coordination and body balance

Like most team sports, basketball requires great coordination of the upper torso, as well as between all parts of the body and between the eyes and hands. Passing, sacking, running around opponents, and shooting baskets are all skills that require a good deal of planning, precision, and quick reaction time. In addition, walking backwards paying attention to other players and running while dribbling the ball are complex exercises that are very useful for promoting body awareness and coordination between the different parts of the body.

4 . It stimulates functional, physical and cognitive agility

Basketball is a sport that requires great agility to move your feet and respond quickly to changes in direction and momentum. That’s why kids who play basketball develop physical and cognitive skills that allow them to dodge opponents, plan aggressive plays, and move skillfully around the court. In addition, they tend to have a great ability to respond quickly, an advantage that stimulates their creativity, abstract and concrete thinking, while allowing them to solve problems faster than their peers.

5. Promotes social skills

Basketball is a group sport in which discipline and verbal and non-verbal communication with the rest of the players are crucial. In fact, practicing basketball from an early age teaches children to work as a team, create bonds with others, be attentive to others and respond accordingly. In this way, they learn to work together with other children for a common goal, develop empathy, their ability to deal with frustration, improve emotional self-control and increase their communication skills.