How Sports Affect Your Child

Welcome back!

As we have consistently said through our site, we are dedicated to helping young athletes get back to having fun playing whatever sport they are involved in. We wanted to discuss what you as a parent are doing (and can do) that influences the amount of fun your child is having!

First and foremost… Ask your self the question,”Is my child choosing to play sports, or am I choosing for them?”

• This is such an important question that all parents need to sit and think about as their young athlete grows up. Being apart of a team can be fun and exhilarating. However, being forced into something is neither of these.
• If you find your self considering that maybe you are are forcing the sport on your child, take some time alone with him/her and discuss the plus’ and minus’ of playing the sport. Take this lightly with your child as this can be a very intimidating conversation for a young person. Children are often afraid to speak their minds to peers and elders for they are still learning social habits and norms from them. Having a teammate or two with them (with approval from the other parents) might be a good way to ease the nerves in this young athletes.
• More positives than negatives? Good! While this may indicate that your child is fully involved in their sport, still be cautious as they may not have been as truthful as you believe.
• How about the negatives? Well… After seeing that you have more negatives than positives, let your child get back to living. Don’t sit there and lecture them on what is bothering them. Adults don’t like to hear the bad things about their performance, so why would your child? Instead, take some of your own time to sit down with your significant other and talk about ways that you can both help to move some of these negatives to positives.
• Be on the look out for specific words used by your child that could signify that they really aren’t interested at all in their sport.
  • Any negative thought towards their team.
  • Negative thoughts towards the coach or their parents. (This could be situational, so make sure to be aware of what is happening at the time of the meeting.)
  • Comments about being left out or feeling neglected when choosing teams during practice.
  • Expressing their disapproval in their skill set. (YOUNG ATHLETES ARE NOT PROFESSIONALS. If your child is really upset about how they are under-performing, then more often than not, the situation is not within the child. This could be the coach, team or even you yourself as a parent.)

Paying close attention to the conversation will work wonders for you as a parent. It might be one of the hardest conversations you will ever have, but in the end, you and your young athlete will grow from it.

Secondly…

If you are fully convinced that your child is not having ANY fun at all or is feeling degraded or depressed from playing sports, take a personal vacation with them to focus on fun. A trip to the park doing whatever it is that they want to do with no strings attached. And if your child expresses that they simply have no interest whatsoever in playing sports, then accept that. Pushing sports onto young people has been shown to decrease motivation to play at all. Offer up suggestions from time to time, but be aware of how often. Adolescents are learning still, but they are far smarter than we make them out to be.

A few psychologists from colleges around the nation including Ball State University, came together and considered that there was no model for sport psychologists to use when it came to assessing young athletes. After much collaboration and multiple studies, they combined their findings and ideas into a model that is used by sport psychologists to this day. While this research article is mainly directed toward psychologists, coaches and parents like your selves can find useful information about what your child is experiencing at different points in their life, and how you can do your best to approach and handle each experience along the way. Click here for the article. (May be restricted to Texas State staff and student access only)

Once a week, to once a month sit downs are a good way to find out just where your child’s head is at and can help you to understand just what motivates them.

We hope that you and your young athlete are enjoying this time of the year! Team Effort wants to be here for you at any time, so feel free to message us with any questions or concerns and we will reply as quick as possible!

We wish the best of luck to all of the teams and athletes out there this season!

– Team Effort