Once you make the leap from regular to competitive sports there is a greater obligation for both you and your child.
Your child could go from one or two practices a week to three or four. There are more games/competitions, more travel is involved, and overall there is a greater commitment to the team and/or club. The pressure on your child to do well may also be greater but ultimately your goal is to help your child have fun and continue to love what he or she started.
Since we’ve already covered How To NOT Raise An Olympic Athlete here’s how you can support your child who is a competitive sport or activity.
And I don’t mean volunteer just so you can focus even more on your child and ignore the rest of the kids. In fact, don't even volunteer for your child's team/group. Volunteer for a younger age group than the one your child is in because coaching young kids is like trying to herd cats and the more hands the better. Plus you have the added bonus of being a small part of teaching kids (hopefully) to love physical activity. In a day and age when more and more kids are obese and health problems are rising, why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that?
It’s easy to be an arm chair coach when you’ve never tried a sport. When my son started speed skating I would always tell him to try and get lower because short track speed skaters have to skate in bent over and in a squatting position which is really awkward but also gives them these ridiculously amazing legs. Oh, and also speed. Then I tried speed skating. Know what I learned? It’s really, really f*cking hard to get lower. I believe the words my coach said to me were, “You’re really not as low as you seem to think you are.”
Guess who never told her son to get lower again? That would be this gal right here. *points thumb at chest*
Want to know why athletes make everything look so easy? Because they’ve worked really hard at it. Athletes are all sneaky like that. They leave you feeling that yes, you too can do a floor exercise routine and the next thing you know you're icing an inner thigh muscle from doing a cartwheel.
Or, I mean, I would imagine.
Yes, there are kids who are going to start out with natural talent/ability. But whether you have a natural ability or not, it’s hard work that is going to get you where you want to go.
Suffice it to say, feeding your kids arena foods on the day of the big game or stopping off for a burger and fries before a dance recital isn’t the best choice you can make. I’ll leave this one to the experts. You can read more about how to fuel your athlete here.
Dear Parents: This is important. Make sure to spend time with your kid(s) outside of the sport/activity they love. This is especially true if they are involved in a sport or activity that you also love or played as a child. If you are only bonding over this one thing and your child decides he doesn’t want to do it anymore, it puts a lot of pressure on him to continue just to please you.
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