The perfect way to prevent obesity in children

“Golf improves psychomotor coordination and spatial perception, and increases flexibility, muscle power, balance…

Source: Diario ABC

Doctor Pilar Sánchez Burón is a paediatrician at the Rivas Vaciamadrid health centre and a fervent golfer. She came into contact with the sport twelve years ago, when she went to the Mataleñas course in Santander to accompany some friends and she got the “bug”. “Maybe it was the enthusiasm with which my partner and I began going to lessons when we returned to Madrid; we haven’t stopped since”, she admits. And they have transmitted that interest to their eight-year-old daughter, who now plays with them too.

“For us, it is important to play golf as a family, as it is an important part of our recreation and takes up four to five hours of our time. Also, she has accepted it as something natural, as I played throughout pregnancy, right up until the eighth month. She has always come with us and has been attending group classes for two years, and goes to golf came in summer. And now she is starting to play par 3s”.

As a doctor who specialises in children, Sánchez Burón believes physical activity is indispensable for healthy development and to achieve this, she talks about golf for beginners as a perfect ally for children; “It improves psychomotor coordination and spatial perception and increases muscle power, balance…,” she points out, “and above all it minimises the risk of obesity, a very prevalent pathology in our society. To cover 18 holes, you can walk 6 or 7 kilometres and it is described as one of the sports children who suffer from exercise-induced asthma tolerate the best. It is not physically aggressive, and since you are out in nature, you breathe in pure air. In the long term, it has been proven that it reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and high blood pressure”.

Whilst it is vital to monitor children’s physical growth, their maturation development is no less important. “Golf involves significant mental exercise: it strengthens concentration and helps discipline (learning to wait your turn or keep quiet when the circumstances require).

It also stimulates the capacity for analysis, toleration of frustration when scores are not good and they develop decision-making skills, as for every stroke, you have to choose the right option to attain your objective. It also strengthens the imagination, as you have to make strokes and get out of complicated situations. Few sports are as complete as golf”.

We know that the common aches and pains associated to golf, such as joint pains or lower back pain due to strain, hardly occur at all in players who started practising the sport at an early age. “Children internalise the swing technique natural, without trying the imprint that excess force and tension we use as adults, minimising injuries a great deal. They assimilate the movements and modalities of golf globally and it stays in their memory almost unaltered.”

keyword: golf para niños

Keyword en inglés: about golf