Sporting Parents: Advice for the Parents of Young Athletes
Sport is an opportunity for kids to learn skills for life – it should be enjoyed.
There are sporting kids.
There are sporting coaches.
But the critical people in the sporting equation are sporting parents.
Sporting parents – i.e. parents of children who play sport are a critically important part of the sports experience.
A supportive sporting parent, who understands their roles and responsibilities in the sporting life of their child can be an asset – to the child and the child’s coach.
A sporting parent who is over bearing, overly judgmental and who places unnecessary pressures and unrealistic expectations on their child can be a destructive and damaging influence on their child’s life.
Sport can be a wonderful, stimulating, challenging and rewarding experience. Getting fit, having fun, learning new skills, making new friends, mastering movement….sport is a fantastic environment for children and adults.
It can also be a mine-field of emotions, disappointments and conflicts as parents try to help their kids become all they can be and realize their sporting potential.
Parents can be important pieces of the sporting performance puzzle and the support, nurturing and unconditional love of a parent is as valuable to a young athlete as is coaching, the right equipment and hard training.
Athletes should do their job to the best of their ability, Coaches should do their job to the best of their ability, and Parents should do their job to the best of their ability. It’s a Performance Partnership and anything is possible when all “performance partners” do their respective jobs with passion, determination, commitment, dedication and integrity.
As a sporting parent, do your “job” to the best of your ability, that is:
- Love them, teach values, create confidence, encourage independence and develop the human being;
- Support the coach;
- Be patient;
- Let them be kids…then help them be athletes.
And don’t forget to contact us and ask about our Sporting Parents seminars…..a must for every parent.
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