by Simon Wright

Created on: March 28, 2008   Last Updated: September 24, 2010

In an age when doctors are warning about the increasingly scary levels of child obesity, it is vital that parents and teachers encourage this generation and future generations of kids to throw down their games consoles and participate in physical exercise. Of course, exercising purely for the sake of exercising isn’t much fun but that’s where sport comes in and soccer is a particularly good sport for kids of all ages to adopt.

Let’s look then at the reasons why soccer is so good for kids:

1. It provides active and vigorous exercise:

Soccer is a sport of constant motion. Whether it’s charging forward in an attempt to score a goal or sprinting back to stop a goal, soccer is about movement and this makes it an excellent cardiovascular workout.  

Indeed, when you watch small kids playing soccer it's very noticeable (and quite funny) that they all chase after the ball. In adult soccer, players take up positions and stick to them but kids just want to chase the ball and as a result get loads of exercise!

2. It’s relatively safe to play:

Soccer is a contact sport and injuries do occur. However, the physical contact is not as heavy as in some other sports such as rugby or American Football, and the injuries picked up in kid’s soccer are typically confined to fairly minor bumps and bruises.

3. It teaches them about being in a team:

Being in a team is about being part of a group. It teaches them how sometimes you need to work with other people to achieve things. You might like to think that you can dribble the ball around all the opposition players and score a goal but the reality is that you need to pass the ball and then get the ball passed back to you. That way, you stand a much better chance of scoring and winning. Being part of a team creates a sense of unity and teaches the importance of values such as loyalty and co-operation; skills that will be useful throughout the child’s life.

4. It’s a great way to make new friends:

Playing soccer will help kids to make new friends and be accepted by their peers. Most of my best friends at primary school were the guys that I played soccer with during lunch time. We then ended up representing the school team, which strengthened those bonds still further. Some kids find it easy to make friends but for the shy ones it's great to have a mechanism to make friends.

5. It keeps them off the streets:

You hear many sportsmen (and women) talking about how their dedication to their

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