Huge positive difference in mental health when participating in sport

The London Lions – the UK’s premier basketball club – has released a landmark study highlighting the vital importance of a sporting environment for young people to discuss their mental health. The study from the Lions emphasises the undeniable bond between sporting teammates as 31% of Brits say that when growing up they were more likely to discuss problems with their teammates rather than their family. Sport England’s Active Lives survey showed that more children and young people are getting active to help with their mental wellbeing, with many of the activities taking place in group settings – including a 3.3% increase in numbers playing basketball from the year before.

The Lions data further highlights young people participating in team sports having more of an opportunity to create a unique bond with their teammates, allowing them to discuss their mental wellbeing in a safe space. The importance of these connections cannot be understated as statistics from the Priory Group show that as many as 40% of men in the UK say they won’t discuss their mental health with close friends, family, or a medical professional.

The study also calls attention to the positive impact that sport can have, particularly on young children with over half (53%) of parents saying they see a huge positive difference in their child's mental health when participating in sport. Sport England cites reduced stress, improved mood and increase self-esteem as the main benefits of physical activity whilst researchers from the University of Georgia sharing that regular moderate to intense physical activity between the ages of 11 and 13 was directly linked with better mental health. Participating in grassroots sports also gives children the opportunity to develop with the Lions’ study showing that 35% of Brits say that participating in a grassroots team when growing up enabled them to develop some of their most important life skills.
  
Realising the transformative power of sport for young people across the UK, the Lions recently partnered with Serpentine Galleries to create a unique community basketball court in Tower Hamlets – London’s worst-hit borough in terms of child poverty. The court aims to provide a vibrant and free space for kids to play and to make strong relationships through sport as the London team will host a series of coaching sessions at the Weavers Adventure Playground site. Alongside this, the Lions have teamed with University of East London (UEL) and New City College (NCC) to deliver basketball programmes and aim to inspire the next generation by reaching out to schools and inviting them to their men’s and women’s fixtures. 

The team have also partnered under the ONE TEAM umbrella with Safe Haven to deliver numerous clinics as well as offering their coaching staff to support in their weekly sessions. Additionally, the London team have launched a coaching programme which aims to address the UK basketball scene becoming an isolated environment due to current legislation which means that obtaining a visa to coach basketball is a major obstacle for elite coaches around Europe. As part of the initiative, young British coaches can spend time abroad with a partner club in Europe to learn new coaching techniques and bring these back to the UK to help develop the sport in Britain. 

General Manager of the London Lions women’s team, Vanja Cernivec comments:
 
“When participating in sports, a child can learn and develop life skills that can be transferred into their adult life – hard work, teamwork, decision making, abiding by rules and that’s all taught through a coach. I do think the coaches that are working with the youth right now are so underfunded and under invested in. We should invest in our kids and would need to have the best people, best trained professionals and most experienced working with those kids.”