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Sports Builds Brains

Future of Youth Sports Team
Youth Sports Team / Apr 18, 2022
Youth Sports
Why Sports Are Key to the Future of Child Development

The human brain, the most complicated object in the known universe, has only one output to the world: muscles. That’s it. For this reason, over two-thirds of a brain’s neurons—more than 40 billion of them—are involved exclusively in motor feedback and learning. A brain spends almost all of its energy per day planning how to move. It needs to move. It wants to move. It evolved to move. So why don’t we let it?

If they act up in class, they aren’t given time-outs but time-ins—10 minutes of activity on a stationary bike or an elliptical trainer.

Exercise and the ADHD Brain:

The Neuroscience of Movement ADHD Editorial Board, Feb. 21, 2020

Exercise Is Medicine

Regular exercise is essential for longterm health and short-term wellness. A short run per day is far better than an apple at keeping the doctor away because the heart is constantly feeding the brain all the energy it needs to keep going. Heart health is brain health. Exercise is thought to be so important that it is being prescribed—no longer just “suggested”—by more and more doctors to help with a wide range of mental health ailments in youths, including for ADHD, anxiety and depression. The recent scientific findings are so strong that an organization, Exercise Is Medicine, was founded by the American Medical Association, with support from the US Surgeon General, to promote physical activity’s essential benefits. The World Health Organization has linked exercise in youths around the world to both higher academic performance and an increase in healthy lifestyle choices, like avoiding tobacco, alcohol or drug use.

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Forces of Change

We’ve identified over 200 technological and social currents we see shaping the future. Forces of Change are significant drivers in the food, sports, and healthcare industries.

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Mixed reality

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Pandemic Threat

COVID-19 won’t be the last globe-hopping pathogen to bring the world to its knees — unless we radically redesign our supply chains and travel protocols.

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