Around 100 children are learning a variety of sports skills at Al Etihad Sports Academy in Abu Dhabi.

Shamila Jamaluddin, Staff Reporter

The spring holiday season for the youngsters just got over and the children are back in school. How do you think some capital children coped their off school season?

An inescapable reality of today is the excessive screen time spent both by adults and children.

However, a few parents who spoke with Gulf Today said in order to divert their wards away from the mobile phones and online games they escorted them to the playgrounds instead.

Sports are fun be it cricket, football, basket ball, tennis, giving children fitness, health including a shapely body structure. Parents at Al Ethihad Sports Academy (AESA), Abu Dhabi, said they preferred the outdoor sports skills for their sons and daughters, during the spring vacation, than time spent at home with an indoor play station.

Vincent Mathews from Goa, India, whose young son aged nine and daughter aged eleven are sports’ students at AESA said “not only during Spring, Summer or Winter vacation camps, I would rather my children spent outdoors regularly all year round.”

Apart from the enjoyment of the game Vincent wants his wards to learn to focus and learn to work in a group. Majority of parents spoken to told Gulf Today that they believe that Sports Academies help a lot with this.

Mathews whose son plays football and daughter engages in cricket at AESA said, “My children love the sports they do, they are confident and enjoy the games. The coaches are exceptional and I enjoy the training as much as my children do.  Friday and Saturday have become their favourite days of the week.”

There are millions of sports parents found today, but how many of them could actually be described as great sports parents?

The majority of parents at AESA said not only do they prefer to send their wards during the different seasons like the Spring, Summer or Winter camps but right round the year they would want to keep their children occupied physically.

A few parents quipped that they too enjoy the outing with their wards on weekends,“Socializing with other parents and to watch our wards being trained at sports academies also do take away our time spent on iPads, smartphones and televisions,” they joked.

Around 100 children are learning a variety of sports skills at AESA. Eighty five percent of the students are Indian nationals, five per cent Pakistanis including other nationalities too.