Using sports to strengthen resiliency in children. Training heart.

This article describes how sports can cultivate resiliency. Encouraging the development of heart in youth is highlighted. The concept is a simple one. By encouraging children and adolescents to go the extra mile in a sports context, youth practice calling up emotional reserves until they trust that they have a stockpile of conviction. The authors believe building heart in youth is a preventive public health strategy that can inoculate against the potentially negative effects of stress and trauma. It is hoped that heart will become an essential tool in the primary prevention of stress-related disorders in youth and a critical skill that promotes having an optimal life. In addition, the authors believe that heart can be developed after exposure to traumatic stress. Heart is critical to overcoming the sense of devastation and helplessness that develops from traumatic experiences.