As a parent, you might be weary about letting your kids play contact sports. There are various sports that are encouraged in school, and that can actually be quite dangerous. American Football is perhaps the classic example here. American Football games often result in a lot of head-on collisions which is why kids must wear helmets, similar to the pros.
The problem is that the collisions still happen and a helmet may not prevent a concussion or another similar head injury. Indeed, it’s quite possible that regardless of what type of padding your kid wears when playing a game like this, they could still get hurt.
It’s not the only contact sport encouraged in school either. There are also things like wrestling. Parents can take solace in knowing that wrestling in sports isn’t like the wrestling that kids love to watch on TV. But it still can be dangerous, and while using moves that result in pain can mean that team members lose points, it doesn’t disqualify them completing suggesting there is some form of tolerance here.
Now some parents might say come on, we’re talking high school or even middle school level sports games here. Are you seriously telling me kids can get seriously injured? That’s exactly the issue here, and you definitely need to be aware of it.
So, instead of encouraging or even letting your kids compete in contact sports, you might decide to go a different route. You might choose to instead encourage them to get involved with sports that don’t involve any contact and are still a great deal of fun. There are a few sports to choose from here, and you’ll find that these don’t include the same level of danger as other sports your kid might be able to choose in school.
Basketball
Basketball is a great sport if you’re looking for something that is fun, hard work, fast-paced and completely safe. The greatest danger playing basketball is that you get elbowed in the face by someone blocking your way. This will always be an accident as a contact in basketball is strictly prohibited. That means you can’t pull on another player's shirt or drag them down like in other sports. Instead, winning at basketball is all about perfecting your speed, stamina and of course your jump.
As such, the most common danger playing basketball is going to be pulling or overstretching a muscle. To avoid this, you just need to make sure that kids are stretching regularly before tournaments or even a friendly game. As kids get older, you might find that they start weightlifting to improve their jumps and their throw. This is really the only way a kid will ever be able to accomplish the highly sought after slam dunk. If your child does start weight training, make sure that they are doing it properly. Weight training without proper supervision can be dangerous.
Soccer
Interestingly, soccer in America is determined as a full-contact sport. However, in Britain, ‘football’ is generally considered to be a limited contactless sport. The reason for this is simple. Limited contact sports involve games where contact between players is restricted or generally avoided. In soccer, players can tackle other players to get the ball. However, if you ever watch a match on TV, you’ll see that contact tackles are quite rare. If one does crop up, it usually results in a free kick or a penalty, depending on whether the tackle is clean or not. If the tackle is clean, then the chances of an injury are dramatically limited.
That all said, injuries can happen during soccer games with players tearing their ligaments and in rare cases breaking their legs. As such, you’ll need to decide whether you want your child playing this game that while typically harmless can get quite rough. Particularly when the competition is fierce.
Baseball
Baseball is definitely a limited contact. The only chance of direct contact with another player is when two players jump to catch the same ball or an over aggressive leap to get a home run. Anything like this can result in an injury as can a ball hitting a player on the head. But again, this type of danger is rare and don’t forget, players up at bat are wearing full safety gear. As such, there’s no harm in getting kids interested in baseball, and a great place to start would be buying your kid their first bat. You can see these BBCOR reviews to get a good feel of the type of bat that you are looking for. With the right bat, your kid could hit a fantastic home run and run right to home plate.
Field Hockey
You might find that your kid really wants to play ice hockey. However, do be aware that like American football, ice hockey exceeds the limitations of a contact sport and is actually classified in America as a collision sport. This is the name given to sports where contact isn’t just a possibility, it’s actively encouraged.
Ice hockey can be a very dangerous game with many people noting that there seems to be a lot of emphasis on the fights compared with actually scoring. In fact, some people have called it ‘boxing on ice’ which is a fairly apt description.
Instead, you should encourage them to take up field hockey. Considered a limited contact sport, there’s far less possibility of an injury here, and it also doesn't hurt as much if you fall over.
Swimming
Of course, if you want to cut out the possibility of any contact, you can try something like swimming. Swimming will never result in an intentional or accidental injury because, assuming the kid can swim, there’s no risk here. There’s no reason a child will ever come in contact with a competitor swimming because they are typically in separate lanes. There are lots of other sports like this too from running to bowling and of course golf. These are referred to as non-contact sport and let parents breathe a sigh of relief when kids head off to a sports tournament to compete.
