Balancing Sports and Learning

There is no be no doubt that sports, physical exercise or games as it is referred to in school parlance, is a higly recognized co-curricular activity in schools.

Educators and health experts agree that physical exercise aids learning, confirming the saying, that all work but no play makes Jack a dull boy. On the other hand, Sports as a respectable profession and an important industry in the world, is a career option that cannot be ignored.

Indeed to underscore its importance, there are a growing number of schools known specifically to offer athletics, or certain sports as part of their curriculum. The choice, therefore, will lie with the pupils or their parents whether their goal in life is to become professional sports-people.

However, there are those who feel that too much sport has an adverse effect on academic performance. Too much physical exertion often leads to drowsiness, or tiredness which is not a good state to be in when faced with assignments in Mathematics or Essays.
So, the argument goes, you can only be good in one but not in both.

But this is not evidently true from the available data. St. Patrick's High School, Iten (a top academic school) in Kenya, is the alma mater of top world marathon and long-distance runners. Brother Colm O’Connell (a former St. Patrick's Head-teacher and Coach) says that there is nothing like discipline and balance to bring out the best in each person. Further to this is the growing evidence that pupil's use of self-regulatory processes to systematize their learning, and performance, may play a greater role in developing their expertise than innate talent or ability.

High quality practice efforts over time have been used by top chess players, for instance, to achieve success. That is to say that sport can be used to help academic work, and mental discipline also aids success in sporting activity. Thus, the best approach is train our young people to lead a balanced and disciplined school life that incorporates academic, and sporting (or co-curricular) activities. If they give it their best efforts, it is likely that they would be able to identify their talents early.

This way, talent in athletics, for example, would be nurtured early on than wasting their time on short-term but unsuccessful academic pursuits.

Bibliography:
Michel, F. (2002), The Pursuit of Excellence Through Education; London; New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Association.