Want your child to be a top athlete? Arjuna Awardee Hina Sidhu shares 6 sports they must try before specialising

In an era of hyper-competitive parenting, where early sports specialisation is often viewed as the fast track to success, Heena Sidhu, former World No. 1 pistol shooter and Arjuna Awardee, is urging parents to take a step back and rewrite the playbook.

Sidhu challenged the rush to specialise young athletes with a direct appeal on social media —“Parents! Hear up! Want your child to be the next top athlete of India? Then you definitely need to watch this!”

The champion shooter outlined why committing to a single sporting discipline too early can be a developmental trap and advocated building a robust “movement vocabulary” rather than narrowing focus to just one game.

Before committing to a specific athletic path, she recommended that children experience a mix of six foundational sports designed to build a complete and resilient physical baseline:

1. Gymnastics: Masterclass in body control

Long before a child picks a sport to specialise in, it is important to understand how their own body moves through space. Sidhu highlighted that gymnastics is necessary “for mobility, body control, and improving proprioception (the awareness of body position)”.

It teaches the absolute fundamentals of movement that translate into every other physical activity.

2. Swimming: Ultimate life skill

Swimming is the only sport on this list that doubles as a critical survival skill. Beyond water safety and building confidence, swimming develops cardiovascular endurance, breath control, and bilateral coordination, Sidhu said.

She said it teaches children how to move confidently in a completely different medium.

3. Athletics (Track and Field): Human basics

Every complex sport is ultimately a combination of basic human movements.

Sidhu noted that athletics strips sports down to their absolute core: running, jumping, and throwing. Mastering these raw biomechanical foundations creates a physiological baseline that will enhance a child's performance in any future sport they choose to pursue.

“These movement foundations are the basis of every other sport,” she said.

4. Team Ball Sports: Spatial awareness and strategy

Whether it is football, basketball, or hockey, team sports involving a ball introduce complex, dynamic environments.

Sidhu said team ball sports teach children how to read open space, communicate effectively under pressure, pass, and react instantly to both teammates and opponents—all while moving and strategising simultaneously.

“This will teach them how to read space, communicate, pass, react to teammates and opponents, all while moving and strategising,” she said.

5. Racket Sports: Tracking and timing

Tennis, badminton, and squash are exceptional for fine-tuning the nervous system.

Sidhu said racket sports force children to develop acute hand-eye coordination, precise timing, and visual tracking. Learning to anticipate the trajectory of a fast-moving object wires the brain for rapid reaction times.

6. Contact Sports: Resilience and leverage

While some parents may hesitate at the idea of contact sports, Sidhu specifically recommended disciplines like judo and wrestling—noting that they will not make a child aggressive.

Instead, these sports, she said, teach leverage, physical control, and spatial boundaries. Most importantly, they teach children how to fall safely, absorb impact, and push themselves back up.

The strongest athletes aren't those who can do only one thing; they are the ones with the most versatile physical foundations.

“The goal is to give them a broad movement vocabulary, including water, speed, gravity, a ball, a team, and an opponent,” Sidhu concluded.

About the Author

Arshdeep Kaur is a Senior Content Producer at Mint, where she reports and edits across national and international politics, business and culture‑adjacent trending stories for digital audience. With five years in the newsroom, she strives to balance the speed and rigor of fast‑moving news cycles and longer, context‑rich explainers. <br><br> Before joining LiveMint, Arshdeep served as a Senior Sub‑Editor at Business Standard and earlier as a Sub‑Editor at Asian News International (ANI). Her experience spans live news flows, enterprise features, and multi‑platform packaging. <br><br> At Mint, she regularly writes explainers, quick takes, and visuals‑led stories that are optimized for search and social, while maintaining the publication’s standards for accuracy and clarity. She collaborates closely with editors and the audience team to frame angles that resonate with readers in India and abroad, and to translate complex developments into accessible, high‑impact journalism. <br><br> Arshdeep's academic training underpins her interest towards policy and markets. She earned an MA in Economics from Panjab University and holds a Post‑Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from the India Today Media Institute (ITMI). This blend of economics and broadcast storytelling informs her coverage of public policy, elections, macro themes, and the consumer‑internet zeitgeist. <br><br> Arshdeep is based in New Delhi, where she tracks breaking developments and longer‑horizon storylines that shape public discourse.

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