Try Fantasy Sports at A Young Age

Long ago, it was a decision on whether to trade a piece of cardboard bearing one name for another. Baseball trading cards were the tools by which youngsters placed value on players. Today, children are able to use those same techniques in building and running a major league baseball franchise, a professional basketball team or its pro basketball equivalent. The children, acting as owners, attempt to make the same moves a general manager might make in hopes of strengthening a team. With the advent of the Internet, more and more children are finding their way into the virtual front offices of professional sports franchises. And the benefits are many. Here are some:

1. Youngsters develop a plan in building their own team. They choose a team name and in some online leagues can decide on a team uniform color and logos. They must decide how to put the pieces of the team together.

2. Most leagues begin with a player draft. This requires youngsters to again develop a plan, this one involving researching players and those players' chances of achieving success in the next season. This could be based on past performance, a different situation for a player such as a move to a new team, or just a gut feeling.

3. Next, the children will watch how their teams perform early in the season. They'll find out quickly if their plan is working and which, if any, strategies they'll need to change. It's a lesson on problem-solving skills young people will find few other places.

4. Since the fantasy games are based on statistics, children are constantly analyzing numbers, some without even realizing it. It's worth the effort, they soon find out, because the results of those numbers determine where the child stands in comparison with other teams in his league.

5. Even with online leagues where children could compete against total strangers - overseen by an adult, of course - there is a social aspect to fantasy leagues. Most virtual leagues allow team owners to discuss with each other their teams and their strategies. They're likely to talk over possible trades, where they can learn that the best trades are those that benefit both parties. While school is in session, students can form fantasy football leagues and spend some of their idle school time discussing their teams and chances for a league title.

Fantasy sports provide an avenue for those kids who haven't become the sports stars they thought they would already be. It gives a child a chance to compete in a virtual world when his physical means to gain that success doesn't measure up.

Perhaps the best lesson fantasy sports teaches children is that putting together a solid plan and implementing that plan requires critical thinking skills. This allows a child to see a problem, visualize it, then break it down and begin finding solutions to the problem. So what are you waiting for? Try fantasy sports at a young age or let your child do it. It’s definitely a good recreational activity for youngsters.

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