Dear Brother and Sisters,
Today I am going to talk about the benefits of playing rugby. I would like to encourage all of you to join this sport. Let me tell you the many benefits of it. Definitely outdoor sports are better than playing video games and ipad.
Playing rugby makes one fitter and stronger. As social skills is important, we develop this team-based activities. Communication and listening is crucial. WE communicate about the strategy on the field. Being selected to be a caption is an opportunity as a leadership role.
During games, we get to learn over a bad outcome, such as losing and failure. Failing means accepting loses, to move on and recover quickly before the next game. We also learn to take constructive criticism from coaches and work harder to improve. The joy of winning is the reward of doing the hard work and the effort we have put in.
Time management is just as important. We have to use our time wisely because time is limited, especially when we have games over the weekend, you have to find time to do homework. We have to find time to do solat in between games. We usually solat by the field because there is no surau nearby.
In rugby we learn development of personal self-esteem and confidence by getting compliments from coaches and parents of the success we achieve. It took me awhile to understand the game but I didn’t give up.
We instill discipline by listening to instruction from our coaches. We have to be on the field on time. We have to eat healthy food and have enough hours of sleep. We have to prepare our gears. This is discipline character is being proactive in all walk of our life. In school and at home.
It is an amazing leaning experience. We get to understand the importance of hard work to success. We also learn that it is okay to lose. It is also great to make new friends from various background.
Above is Harith’s write up. He did it for his Public Speaking Holiday Programme. As I read through his write up, reminds me of my friend who once asked me:
“You send your kids to all these sports tuk apa, nak diorang be athlete, sportsman ke camane? ” (you send your kids to all these sports with intention for them to be professional athelete / sportsman?)
Nope, I don’t aim for that but I believe there are so much benefit to sports. And seeing Harith wrote the above, Im glad he sees all that through his own eyes. Mashaa Allah.
The part where he wrote “During games, we get to learn over a bad outcome, such as losing and failure. Failing means accepting loses, to move on and recover quickly before the next game” , reminds me of my kids preschool sports day, where everyone is a winner. I did ponder over this…I believe kids should also experience loses. I know in the name of ‘fun’, all the children were given a prize for taking part and somehow I felt that the emphasis has been taken away from winning and losing. Well,of coz it’s a debatable argument. To some, losing lowers these young children’s self esteem, especially young kids. However, my personal opinion, it is okay to have winner and looser, this is where parents n teachers plays important role in handling this. Teaching the kids on sportsmanship, despite winning or losing. And also to teach the winner not to boast. And when kids are prepared in advance, they might handle the situation better. Daily life example we can see among siblings nowadays, where it’s the brother’s birthday…but the mom ended up buying the younger sister present too…”just because she might cry and throw tantrum”. Thus, I feel that when they experience losing…kids learnt not everything goes their way.
Perhaps it is okay for the spirit of fun for the school Sports Day every children gets present, however I believe the present for winner should be different, a lil more than the rest.
In our own household, I used to have 2 kids who somehow tend to avoid joining any activitiy if they knew they had slim chance of winning. It was quite an obvious character when they were young, Harith n Uwais. Even during birthday parties, a simple game as musical chair…they tend to skip out the moment they see they have competitor. This was actually among the major reason I put them in various sports.To overcome the “fear of loosing” . The minute I saw Harith wrote “get to learn over bad outcome”, I smiled. I guess I successfully achieved what I wanted to from sending them for sports.
My youngest tend to have low self-esteem too if he is unsure whether he can perform or not. It took me almost a year to get him to settle in his rugby team. And also a year into his soccer team. There were days he decides to sit at the corner and just watch. There were days, I had to bribe him extra ice-cream if he played. Now, we entering his 3rd year soon…he gets ready all his gear for practice on his own and enjoying every minute on the field. For his soccer, he was selected for the intensive training of Under-8, he was the only 6 years old in the team. And now he has no problem trying something new.
my youngest
So yes, back to my friend’s question. I don’t do this aiming for them to be professional sportsman (but if they happen to be, why not…;)) but there are more to it, the character building they gain from doing sports is what im looking forward the most.
And the kids, they are blessed with such dedicated coaches, mashaa Allah. Despite all the screaming and shouting on the field….at the end of every session, they are given reminder of good behavior, respect parents, say thanks to your parents for the meal they cooked etc. Oh, do your bed every morning as that is a form of morning stretching, haha.
Oh by the way, between rugby and soccer ( my kids play both) I find that the values from rugby are more than soccer – nope im not being bias…just a personal opinion..dont bash me! hihi
It is common to have friendly matches with your “rival” team, isn’t it? But what is uncommon is seeing the “rival” team coach come over during our team training session to help out, in the name of “Rugby Development”. How cool is that? Despite the maximum body contact they have during the games, they shook hand at the end of the game. And off the pitch, they became friends with other teams. They be heading for hotdogs n icecream stall together while waiting for the next game.
