What Are The Benefits Of Watching Sports?

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Playing sports has a lot of obvious benefits, including meeting like-minded people and being fit, healthy, and active. Watching sport can also have a few benefits, which often get overlooked. 

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Whether you follow your local football team or look out for Lions tour news, what are the benefits of watching sports?

Improved Relationships

Following a sport can bring people together from all walks of life, and can be a great way to meet new people. You can strike up conversations in the stand, knowing you already have something in common. If you already have friends who enjoy the same sport as you, you can attend games together as a bonding activity. 

The social side of watching sport is a real bonus, and watching a game together is a lot of fun. You can go to see live games, go to the pub to watch a game on TV, or take it in turns to host a viewing night in your homes. 

More Confidence

Being a sports fan can actually build your confidence. If you’re chatting to people in the stands or in the pub about your sport and engaging in debate about the sport, such as potential starting line-ups or strategies, you can build your confidence. Whether or not people agree with you, it’s good practice to talk to strangers, justify your opinions, and express yourself. 

By practising these skills like this, you can build your social skills for your everyday life or for at work, and become a more confident person. 

Makes You Smarter

Sports fans might not seem like the smartest people while they’re shouting at the TV, but in fact, watching a sport can make you smarter. Everyone knows a sports fan who can recite every statistic about their sport, team, or player of choice, or who can predict the outcome of a game. This isn’t always down to luck. 

Watching sports activates parts of your brain that enhance memory and language abilities. This comes from analyzing gameplay and studying the sport, without even realizing that you’re doing it. If you’re watching sports on a regular basis, you are watching all the details of the game, including things like referee choices, the crowd response, and how the manager is reacting. All these elements add up to a bigger picture, and doing this can make you smarter. 

Prevents Low Mood

Sports can be an escape, which improves your mood. When you feel as though you’re part of a team and have a network around you, you’ll feel happier. Noone’s team can always win, and even if this makes you feel sad for a short time, you can soon put it into perspective. Losses are a part of life, and having a supportive group of people makes you feel as though you’re in it together, which can lift your mood again. 

Of course, when your team are winning you’ll feel even better. The feeling you get when your team wins is amazing. When this happens, your brain releases endorphins that improve your mood.

Sarah x