1. Team Building
Traveling together has an immense impact on a group of young athletes. The bonds created through teens who have traveled abroad and participated in a ropes course in the jungle, mixed cement for a water tank in a local village or hosted a sports clinic for younger students can benefit teams throughout the season. Watching a child play their sport with kids from different countries on your next trip overseas is an amazing experience to get fun time spent outside your comfort zone.
The opportunity to spend time with players away from the pressures of school and life back home can help coaches get to know their players on an individual level, and allow space for teammates to bond while sharing a unique and life-changing experience. Youth travel sports can create memories in different countries, which serve as the launching point for improved team dynamics.
2. Cross-Cultural Connections
Athletes don’t need to speak a common language or learn a new language to communicate their love for the game. Playing with and against teams from other cultures can highlight what a particular sport means to a community, and how that relates to playing back in your own home.
Travel teams connect with students from different cultures to play organized sports and learn new skills and a different perspective at the same time. Coaches and players might even pick up some new friends, and language skills, along the way.
3. New Competition
Playing sports in another country means new cultures and new competition and a chance to gain new skills. Whether it’s a game of baseball in the Dominican Republic, rugby in Fiji, volleyball in Cambodia, or soccer in Costa Rica, there’s a unique opportunity to share strategies from athletes around the world who’ve grown up playing the sport and learn moves that most people can eventually use on their home court.
4. Break from Routine
Many student-athletes want to go on international trips organized by their schools, but tournaments, practices, and weekend games keep them from participating in these amazing opportunities. Organizing a travel team trip allows players and coaches to combine travel, sports, and community service during times of the year that are most convenient for the team.
Between classes, homework, sports, family time, recreational leagues, free time and a social life, athletes live a regimented lifestyle. Travel sport team offers an extremely valuable ability for them to have the same kinds of new experiences to discover themselves in new locations that other classmates have.
5. Growth in Other Areas
Playing sports in high school has been proven to build character, but why not take it a step further? Rustic Pathways programs are designed with specific Student Learning Outcomes in mind, like grit, independence, and openness to new ideas and experiences.
By traveling on a program that combines immersive service learning with sports clinics and games, students will be challenged to gain skills on and off the field.
Contact Rustic Pathways Group Travel to learn more about traveling with your team to South Korea, Costa Rica or new cities and new locations in between. Our travel experts can answer your questions and help you identify the right program experience for your athletes.
