Skateboarding Is Safer Than You May Think
The preconceived idea associated with skateboarding is that it is so much more dangerous than other contact sports. According to a sports injury study, out of over 200,000 participants and 20,000 injuries recorded, skateboarding only accounted for 399 of the 20,000 injuries (2%). Sports included in the study were basketball, soccer, football, baseball, ice hockey, archery, and fourteen others. Comparatively, skateboarding is not nearly as dangerous as it is perceived.
Health Benefits of Skateboarding
Similar to other sports, health benefits are obviously correlated with participating in a physical activity. Skateboarding health benefits are slightly different than those of common youth sports like football, soccer, and basketball. Skateboarding offers an array of advantages including coordination, pain tolerance, stress relief, precision, reflexes and patience.
- Coordination – Skateboarding improves hand, eye, leg, and foott coordination. When skateboarding, you need to alter your movements so you skate smoothly and accurately.
- Pain Tolerance – Other sports improve your pain tolerance, but learning how to skateboard includes constantly falling, tripping, cutting your knees and elbows, etc. Believe it or not, this helps to improve your tolerance and build up resilience.
- Stress Relief – Stresses consume people, even kids, all the time. Skateboarding is an avenue to relieve some of those stresses or frustrations.
- Precision – Skateboarding takes a lot to pick up on. You are constantly adjusting weight from one direction to another, switching your speed, and, when good enough, perfecting tricks.
- Reflexes – This one ties in with coordination. When falling or stopping quickly, you need to have quick reflexes to brace yourself or prevent a collision from happening. You learn quickly that running into a railing is not ideal.
- Patience – Skateboarding, like other sports, requires an immense amount of patience. You will not be the next Tony Hawk after your first time on the board. Falling countless times, missing that tricky bend, and hitting that awesome trick will test your patience time after time.
Skateboarding Can Prevent Youth Crime & Increase Sense of Community
Historically, studies and statistics have shown that youth sports have a positive impact on growth and character. Sports also keep kids out of trouble in their community and in school. A 2015 study has shown that at-risk teenagers from urban areas have virtually the same chances of being involved in criminal activities as they are to graduate high school. Statistics prove that sports can prevent this. Many kids turn to basketball, football, baseball, or other related sports. A sport that people tend to forget about is skateboarding. Just like the above sports, skateboarding offers physical benefits and keeps you out of trouble.
Free skate lessons included with all access membership.