Exercise provides a range of benefits

I am not the kind of person who usually gets on well with children. I have never been confident dealing with them because I don’t know what they like or dislike.

However, I recently found myself revising that opinion at my best friend’s home after an enjoyable time playing a game with her 7-year-old cousin.

That inspired two thoughts: first, children tend to have good relationships with adults who play games with them; second, they need more sports training.

The boy and I played with a balloon as if it were a volleyball. Since the “ball” was light and floated easily, it was easy for the little boy to hit.

We both enjoyed the game, but I was not as persistent as him. For nearly an hour, he performed beyond my expectations because I had thought that children were unable to focus their attention easily.

When I left, he waved goodbye to me. I could tell from his eyes that he wanted me to stay longer and continue our game. It was one of the few times a child had shown me such obvious friendship.

Sports are not only about physical benefits but also mental ones. Games create relaxing atmospheres for families, improve people’s reactions and enhance concentration.

However, packed academic schedules mean children in China rarely have time for sports. Moreover, there is a lack of sports fields and guidance from busy parents and schools.

Last year, the Ministry of Education said students in primary, middle and high schools should exercise for at least one hour a day.

It also strictly forbade schools from replacing physical education classes with other subjects. That’s a big temptation because universities use exam scores as major criteria for admission.

In rural China, schools are short of sporting facilities, so students have fewer chances to play games such as soccer, ping-pong and badminton.

In urban areas, schools are better equipped with exercise facilities but students have more distractions, including electronic devices, family activities and extracurricular classes.

Busy parents, common in both rural and urban areas, have little extra energy to accompany their children to outdoor activities.

Soccer pitches in the rural areas in the southwestern provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou are part of attempts to expand awareness of sports nationwide.

Some of the residents of Yangwei, a village in Guizhou that was once classified as poverty-stricken, had never heard of soccer and didn’t know the rules.

That didn’t stop them from eagerly trying the game on their new pitch, though.

Beginning to play sports does not necessarily require formal training or knowledge, but interest is paramount.

Likewise, establishing games fields does not require comprehensive planning that takes every factor into consideration, including local people’s level of education and financial situations.

Any sports field, no matter how simple, can pique people’s interest in exercise.

When sports fields are used well, families are united, people’s productivity and creativity are strengthened and children’s talent is tapped.

To ensure that every county, village or community has a games field goes some way to ensuring that every child has a chance to become a sports fan.

Of course, very few will become athletes or win gold medals, but they will have more options to spend time with their family instead of staring at their phones in separate rooms.