If your child has shown an interest in sports and activity, whether it be soccer, gymnastics, track or football, if you want to do your very best by them, you should nurture their passion.
Why? Most importantly, because that’s just what good parents do, but also because being involved in sports can help them to maintain high fitness levels, stay active, improve their mental health and intellect and even help them get a scholarship at a great school; it could also mean that you’ll be looking up at them as they with tears in your eyes take gold at the Olympics one day!
Sounds good, but how exactly do you support your child’s passion for sport?
Enrol Them in a Class/Club
If your child has shown an interest in, say hockey, instead of just taking them to games or letting them watch it on the TV, or playing it casually with them, find a local class and enroll them, so that they can learn proper technique and meet other enthusiasts.
Learn About the Sport
If your kid has a passion for baseball, even if it isn’t a particular favorite of yours, take the time to learn more about it. Your kid will love being able to talk to you about it, and you’ll be able to give them the right kind of encouragement to keep them motivated. If you learn how to play, then you can have lots of fun getting fit as a family with them, while helping them to get even more practice in so that their play improves too. Every little helps!
Go to Their Games
In a similar vein, do make the effort to go to as many of their games as possible for the moral support. I know it isn’t always easy what with so many of us living such busy lives these days, but if at least one family member can make it to most games it will really make a difference.
Send Them to a Quality Camp
If your child is serious about pursuing a sport, then there might only be so much you and the local clubs or their school can do to help them along the way. That’s where high quality soccer camps, baseball schools and gymnastic camps, run by professionals, for example, come into the equation. They can really help you to help your kids hone their technique and take their game up a notch.
Don’t Let Them Quit
Okay, so I’m not saying that you should force your kid to do karate from now until the day he leaves for college if he really hates it, but you shouldn’t let your kids give up sports too easily either, especially if you know they really do enjoy it.
You see, a lot of kids will go through a phase of not wanting to do something, or they’ll have a few defeats and want to throw in the towel due to a lack of self-belief. It’s your job to determine why they want to quit and then find a better solution if you know they really do love the sport, or let them try something else if they really are done with it.
Here’s to your future sports superstar!
