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Growing up in the United States, children have access to a plethora of sports. Some take place on a field, court, or track, while others take place on a boat or mountain. Some sports use balls, pucks and gloves, while others use arrows, helmets and goggles.
Regardless of their differences, there are various similarities between sports that offer its participants both immediate and long-term benefits.
Take basketball and kenpo for example. At their most basic elements, basketball is a game where a ball is thrown through a hoop and kenpo is simply regulated kicking and punching.
If you’re not familiar with athletics, you’re probably wondering how activities like these can benefit a child.
For starters, both activities require patience. On one hand, being able to consistently make a three pointer or hook shot takes time. There will undoubtedly be days when the shots aren’t falling, yet with a little patience, practice and perseverance the skills will come. Even stars like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, both of whom are around 6’6’’ with near 40 inch vertical leaps, had to employ a great deal of patience with their basketball skills to make it to the NBA.
Similarly, being able to successfully learn and execute the 700 distinct self-defense techniques of kenpo karate, as taught in by institutions like the American Kenpo Senior Council, makes patience a necessity.
Another, lesser known, benefit of these activities are their worldliness. As many children mature into young adults, they begin to travel, usually outside of the United States. In most regions of Asia, kenpo or a similar form of martial arts is generally a part of the local culture. Thus knowing kenpo adds to the American child’s worldliness.
Furthermore, if an 18 year old American boy, one who hasn’t received any kenpo training, travels with his classmates to Shanghai for two weeks, he probably won’t be having fluid conversations in Mandarin. However, if he sees some Chinese students shooting hoops, all he has to do is step on the court, take a shot, and let basketball be the translator.
