Molding young athletes
Good day! Last week, I wrote about how best to parent young athletes, and what we should be doing as sports parents. Today, I wanted to write best about the steps, we, as parents, can do to mold young athletes. This article is inspired by feedback from last week’s article and from a conversation I had this week with a valued client.
1 Develop an even-keeled approach to winning and losing.
As parents, we have the emotional maturity to guide our kids, especially with their emotions. As we are (hopefully) more self-aware, it is our duty and responsibility to help our kids up when they lose, and manage egos when they win. In other countries, kids get to experience winning and losing in a single day. Winning and losing are deemed normal. So the kids have to focus on the processes that lead to success, not just the results themselves. As parents, let us be the bigger person by developing in ourselves an even-keeled attitude to winning and losing, and focus on the process.
2 Demand and reward effort.
In this fast-paced, short-cut society, succeeding in sports requires effort applied consistently over a long period of time. When kids learn to put in effort when they don’t feel like it without any prodding, you know you’re doing a great job as a parent leading your children.
3 Focus on the intangibles more than the sport.
Make sure the kids prepare their own gear, water, and ensure that they place soiled clothes in the hamper after training. Ensure they respect their coaches in practice, and their opponents as well. Lead them to respect themselves by ensuring they train to the best of their abilities and not waste their God-given talent and gifts. All these things prepare them for life.
4 Explain that you only get what you give.
Practice well and most of the time you end up well. Practice with poor effort, and well, you get the point. The best coaches and parents in the world run out of patience with athletes who expect to do well by putting in little effort. It just doesn’t work.
5 At the end of the day there are bigger things than sport.
Being involved in sport is a big deal-but family, friends, how we treat other people, how respectful we are to others, those are more important.