Student Athletes Succeed in the Classroom

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As a student athlete, I have never experienced a major drop in my academic success. I have learned to manage my time playing competitive tennis, completing school work, and leisure time in order to live a happy and less stressful life. For the most part, my teammates and tennis friends have received good grades in school. Competitive sports help students be more successful with school work.

Sam Snead, a professional golfer, talks about how studies show that students that play sports are more successful than students that don’t in his article “Playing Sport Leads to Improved Academic Performance.” “Research has shown that physical movement can affect the brain’s physiology by increasing cerebral capillary growth, blood flow, oxygenation, production of neurotrophins, growth of nerve cells in the hippocampus, neurotransmitter levels, development of nerve connections, density of neural network, and brain tissue volume” (Snead). Physical movement has shown positive results in the way our brain function leading to an advantage in the classroom. Competitive athletes become more engaged in class, more understanding, better at storing and retrieving information, and better with coping with stress. Active students are more likely to do better in school because of these benefits. “Participation in sport also has been associated with completing more years of education and consistently higher grades in school” (Snead). It has also been proven that student athletes go to school more and receive higher grades due to their brain benefits as well as time management skills. Overall, student athletes get many benefits from their physical activity which is apparent in the classroom. Statistics also show that they are more likely to become successful in school.

In the future I plan on researching the mental consequences of playing a competitive sport.