Kids, Exercise and Emotional Resilience

At  the White  House  childhood obesity summit  held last April, First  Lady  Michele  Obama  launched  the  Let's Move campaign  to inspire healthier  environments in schools and communities and to teach kids the vital skills of  wellness - exercise and healthy eating. I recently spoke  with  Gregory  Chertock,  sports psychologist,  fitness trainer, and baseball  coach specializing  in  elementary  and  middle  school  youth,  on  how  exercise/sports  impact the  development  of  children."Exercise  training can  teach kids powerful  life  skills  that  go  beyond  excelling in  a  sport,"  says  Chertok. 

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Sports training – either structured exercise or an actual sport can nurture invaluable mental skills: the
ability to self- monitor, relax in response to performance anxiety, or learn how to respond to failure.
Chertok notes that nationally, 50 to 70 percent of kids drop out of  sports by middle school due to not
being able to live up to parent or coach  expectations.  “The best  evaluation  of  success  in  exercise/sports
is the  happiness  scale,  not  the  performance  scale,"  says  Chertok. 
  
In  his  work  with  exercise  programs for  children  struggling  with  obesity,  Chertok  again  notes  the  skill  benefits,  “Yes,  kids  learn  how  to  eat  healthy  and  exercise,  but  they  also  learn  how  to  set
goals,  de-stress  and how  to  gain  support  from  a  group.”  Weight  management  and  health  are  critical
goal  points,  but  at  a  time  of  development  where  kids’  minds  and  bodies  are  changing rapidly, exercise  and  sports  training  can  offer  the intangible  gain  of  emotional  resilience,  a  lasting  benefit  which can  be  transferred  to  social  and  academic  realms  of  life.