Which Sports Best Help Manage ADHD?

Attention Deficit Hyper-Activity Disorder, or, ADHD, is a common neuro-developmental disorder with a wide variety of symptoms, including difficulty paying attention, appearing not to listen, impulsivity, and excessive activity. If your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, it is likely that their impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and lack of focus has caused significant stress in day to day life. Providing your child with a physically intensive outlet, such as a sport, has been shown to help. Yet, not all sports are created equally.  This article will discuss which sports provide more benefit for those with ADHD. 

First, let’s take a look at team sports. According to Pediatrician Leonard Pollack, children with ADHD are likely to gain more benefits from team sports which have “very little idle time” in comparison to those which have more idle time. More time spent moving and concentrating is the first step in creating benefits for a child. In the case of team sports, games such as Soccer, Basketball or Hockey are recommended as they all require a great deal of movement the entire time playing, as well as intense concentration in order to master skills such as shooting the rock, passing the puck, or juggling the ball with your feet. While other team sports, like Baseball, do not prevent idleness as much as the other games, and therefore may not help release energy and improve concentration to the same degree. 

Aside from team sports, there are also a variety of individual sports which can be beneficial for children diagnosed with ADHD. For example, Track/Cross Country, Wrestling, Martial Arts, Gymnastics, and Swimming all require high degrees of activities when performing, while also teaching concentration and focus on the required skills. Additionally, individual sports provide greater opportunity to a have a more “one-on-one” coaching dynamic, which is much more suitable for those with ADHD. Having a one-on-one dynamic allows for better attention and focus as to what the coach is explaining, whereas in a team sport, such as soccer, coaching the team as a whole can lead to children with ADHD trailing off, and therefore not deriving as significant a benefit. That being said, athletes who practice these sports are still on teams and still do gain the benefits of teamwork and camaraderie during practice and in competition. While individual sports do seem to generally have very little downtime during the activity, it should be noted that some individual sports, such as Golf and Bowling, do have a lot of idleness. 

There are many sport options for your child. Naturally, their interests and abilities should be given a great deal of consideration, but all other things being equal, consider a sport with little idle time.  Swimming, Soccer, and Martial Arts are all good options. Swimming offers a relatively safe option as it is non-contact and low impact, while also providing an intensive, high energy full body workout. Swimming also heavily focuses on personal development, as breaking personal bests is a huge aspect of the sport. Of the team sports, Soccer is a good option. There is constant movement, a lot of teamwork, and it builds both the competitive and cooperative spirit. Martial Arts works to develop a very deep sense of routine and respect.  

Whatever sport that you choose, the goal here is to give the child a chance to have an outlet for their energy and to establish a healthy lifestyle, while also providing the opportunity to develop critical skills such as focus, listening, maintaining a routine, respect for others, teamwork, and personal development.