A recent article at Forbes said that kids are being pushed into organized sports too early for their age, at a time when they should be enjoying their time to play.

“There is too much focus on doing sports and not enough focus on moving”, Dr. Teri McCambridge, chairman of the Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said. According to McCambridge, fitness should be a time of fun for kids.

Organized activities should be limited to once a week, Pete McCall of the American Council on Exercise said, it should not be the main activity for kids. He also said that pushing kids to excel on sports at an early age puts kids at risk of skipping crucial developmental steps. “Kids aren’t being taught how to move,” he says. “They are being taught a position — goalie, outfielder.”

What parents should do, of course, is to teach their kids the value of fitness rather than sports. Teaching them to live a healthy lifestyle is more important than enrolling them in sports like basketball or badminton where they will only learn the values of team positions.