As much as exercising and going to the gym is great, it can often become routine and mundane especially for a working adult. While this may sound discouraging, it doesn’t have to be if you choose to mix things up whether that is your routines or actual exercises or even by trying out something completely new like a sport you have never competed in before! Not only can being involved in a new sport be great for your physical and part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, the activity of studying and learning the new sport can have a positive impact on your mental capacity as well as a positive effect on your social health. The key is to just get started and from there making a commitment and really, to be involved in most sports you do not have to be in excellent physical shape especially when getting started. The true characteristic that matters when learning or trying a new sport is your desire to learn and grow which then coupled with determination to improve should equate to a better understanding of that sport and the acumen needed to exceed. No matter how many times you get discouraged, it’s all about how you tackle the next event in your own personal learning curve and over time by overcoming the mental and physical boundaries you face, just like you did in your youth when playing sports, you should excel over time and hopefully feel good about yourself. Listed below are additional reasons why I think you may want to try new sports as an adult.
A new challenge:
As we tend to experience life more, we often become comfortable with where we are at and don’t like to venture out of that comfort zone. However, there are many more exciting things that may scare you off at first thought but once you learn and become comfortable with them, they may change your life for the better. One of these exciting things happens to be sports. And you even have the opportunity as an adult to revisit a sport you were lousy at previously or even never got the chance to play. Now as an adult, you are able to enjoy that sport and have fun without the pressure of being the best athlete amongst your peer group like you may have experienced in your youth. I believe that one of the most rewarding things we can do for ourselves as adults is to challenge ourselves to learn and grow and I have found that learning a new sport I’ve never played previously has been a beneficial way to accomplish this.
Improved Brain Health:
Brain health is crucial as an adult not only for daily performance, but also for preventing diseases like Dementia and Alzheimer’s. There is no denying when you’re physically active in a sport, it will temporarily drain you of your energy, but in the long term, it will actually provide you more energy. For me, I find that when I’m working out and competing with sport, I eat better, sleep better and really function better overall and even though I get tired, while I am awake I find that I actually have more energy! And, who doesn’t want more energy nowadays? Furthermore, participating in sports also decreases the decline of certain conditions associated with age including hand-eye coordination and basic motor skills. Come on, you have seen the memes, “this is what I think I look like and this is what I actually look like”.
Make meaningful connections:
When you begin a new sport and get more involved with others whether the sport is more of an individual based sport like golf or a team game like basketball, you naturally spend more time with new people. And in the right situations, these coaches or teammates can become close to you more so than an old friend who you have known for a much longer stretch of time and often enough these new contacts become sort of like an extended family and all of this is based on a common bond around that sport. I’ve found some of these relationships to be the most fruitful of my adult life where bonds were formed that spanned beyond the sporting activity.. Between training sessions and actually playing the sport, it is natural to bond with your coaches and teammates whether that is general banter about the sport or life, it doesn’t really matter because the common ground has been established by the connection created over the sport. I have found that this is a nice bonus to have in my adult life which has expanded my social circle and enriched my life beyond what I originally thought when I set out to learn new sports.