5 SIMPLE REASONS TO PLAY SPORTS

1. HEALTHY ACTIVITY IS A BIG PLUS. Laying the foundation for a physically active life is one of the great benefits of early participation in sports.  Young children are primed for movement.  Running, jumping, skipping, hopping, whirling in circles, standing on their heads, doing cartwheels, chasing, and wrestling, it seems they never stand or sit still.  Discovering just what they like doing best will help you determine what sports will be fun for them.  It sounds funny to me now, but I had a two-year-old who loved to stand on her head, and sit in a chair upside down, even while watching TV.  When she was 3 years old I enrolled her in a community gymnastics class that met once a week.  Ten years later she was a gymnast with a big smile, and ten years after that a professional dancer in a modern dance company.  Just last week, in a lull in our holiday activities, I watched her do a handstand in the living room.  No one paid any attention.  It’s just part of who she is.
2. PARTICIPATION IN A SPORT DEVELOPS SKILLS. Learning how to chase a ball, swing a bat, take a shot, ride a skate board, swing a racket, or walk a balance beam takes a good amount of specific skills.  The coordination alone that is developed in pursuing a sport will be a big plus.  Physical and mental skills are formed as young athletes learn drills, and strategies for their sport.
3. BEING ON A TEAM TEACHES A GROUP DYNAMIC. Learning to be part of a team requires thinking outside of oneself.  This is a very important and necessary lesson that has far reaching affects off the playing field.  The description “team player” is one that is often considered in assessing successful work attributes.  Commitment and dependability are necessary to a winning team, whether you are 10 or 35.
4. ATHLETES LEARN SELF-DISCIPLINE. Self-discipline is inherent in the “team player” concept.  It is also learned as an athlete practices his or her sport.  Accountability for that practice can be taught.  We did something that may seem very weird.  We paid our kids to practice.  Before you jump out of your skin at that thought, let me assure you that it wasn’t very much.  They each had a small notebook and they logged in the time they spent practicing their skills.  My husband grew up on a farm and had daily family chores; hard work beyond the cleaning your room and making your bed stuff.  It was outdoor physical labor.  The closest we could get to creating that kind of daily physical effort was through practicing their sport on their own each day, whether it was practicing free throws, or throwing a ball.
5. SPORTS PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUN. Let’s not forget fun!  There has to be fun involved, whether it’s the thrill of kicking a ball, or a nice hit.  Part of the fun is the family’s attendance, and cheering.  Sometimes the fun involves celebrating a double play or a goal made.  The satisfaction of winning the race or executing an excellent cartwheel is also a part of the fun.  We remember the fun a long, long time.

Parents and Youth Athletic Equipment

Painful as it may be, given the fact that you’ve already spent $75.00 just for your son and/or daughter to play, proper equipment is also important.  It ranks right up there with the fee to play.  Some have questioned this statement.  Let me explain.  If your youth is running track and you forgo buying her track spikes, she will most assuredly be three or four steps behind an athlete with similar talent who uses spikes.  In track, spikes make a huge difference.  Remember you are hoping and praying and wishing that your son or daughter will experience success, be the best that they can be, and have loads of fun.  For these reasons proper  equipment is very, very important.

The first rule is: Talk to the coach before you purchase.  He should know, and I would expect him to know, what equipment is required for his particular sport.

Rule number two: Don’t make do.  Here’s an example of making do.  I refereed  a soccer match.  Preliminarily, the referee checks every player’s equipment to see that it is proper and to make sure shoe laces are tied.  I insisted that the players use soccer  cleats.  This caused a stir that amazed me.  One parent insisted that his boy “make do” by wearing  baseball cleats.  The rules prohibit this.  There are several reasons, but here are three:   First, it’s against the rules.  Baseball cleats have a front cleat that hangs on the front edge of the sole.   Soccer cleats do not.  This makes the use of baseball cleats in a soccer match particularly dangerous.  Players are always falling down near the ball and the ball is always being kicked.   Baseball cleats cause gouges, cuts, bruises and injuries because the front cleat hooks and grabs flesh.   Do not even ask to use baseball cleats in a soccer game.  The second  reason for not using baseball cleats in a soccer match is based on the design of the shoe itself.   Baseball cleats are designed to run in a straightforward line. i.e., from 1st to 2nd base.   Soccer cleats are designed to run laterally as well as forward.  They are designed to run in whatever direction the ball is bouncing, which invariably isn’t a straight line.

Another example of making do: Some parents want to substitute regular tennis shoes for a particular set of cleats.  Don’t do it.  They have no grab on the base paths, no grab on a track and they slip like crazy on grass.  It leads to embarrassment and failure.  In baseball, use baseball cleats.  In track, use spikes.  In tennis, use tennis shoes.  Each particular shoe is specifically designed for the particular demands of a particular sport.  Give your youth the advantage of the right equipment for the right sport.

As an aside and a hint about a legitimate “making do.”  Generally cleats of all varieties are not comfortable and do not offer much foot support.  This is especially traumatic where your athlete has flat feet or a high instep.  A parent can buy Dr. Scholl’s or some other variation of insoles which work very well, or a parent can take the insoles out of their child’s tennis shoes and slip them into their cleats.  Suddenly the foot is well supported without a great deal of cost.

Rule 3: When purchasing equipment, get what your youth needs and what the particular sport requires.  This isn’t necessarily what looks good although looks are important.  For example, I had a young baseball player come to the first practice with a new bat.  This was an eight-year-old kid with a bat that Babe Ruth would have been comfortable with.  Instead of the nineteen-ounce bat he should have been packing he was dragging around a beautiful thirty-four ounce bat that even his father would have had difficulty using.  Rule of thumb: If the athlete can hold the bat straight out from his/her body, arm extended, without it waving like a leaf in the wind, for thirty seconds, it is probably a good bat for him/her.  Another example: I was coaching a U8 soccer team.  The parents and athlete showed up at the first practice with a size 5 soccer ball.  That’s what professionals use in the MLS.  She needed a size three.  It is what the league used.  It was what she should use.  A five is simply too big for an under eight player.   A small foot and a large ball mean no control.

In conclusion, ask the coach what is needed before you spend your money.   Only buy the equipment that success in a particular sport demands, and never cut corners or make do when the real item is required.  If you follow these simple guidelines, your child’s success in youth athletics will be enhanced.

FAQ #1

The question we asked ourselves, and were most frequently asked was, what is the best age to sign our child up for sports.

While it is true that you can sign your child up from a very young age, we always advise against it.  We started out with AYSO soccer, one of the most child-friendly organizations we know.  Anxious to begin we signed up our 5 year son and a year later our 5 year old daughter to play on soccer teams.  They were eager at first.  But generally, a 5 year old, on his own, doesn’t have the required self-discipline, social interaction skills, or the attention span to be successful in organized sports.   That means that you will have to supply these elements–often an uphill task.

We found that one practice a week might fly, provided something more interesting wasn’t claiming their attention.  But 2 and 3 practices were just too many.  Incentives needed to be provided to improve social interactions.  Lots of feedback about how to behave, or how to work together as a team is necessary.  If you have attended games with very young players, you have either been one of the parents, or have watched parents, who could barely keep themselves from running out onto the field to help their child follow, kick, or block a ball. The shouts of encouragement, though deafening, are certainly necessary.  And you still will have young athletes sitting down in the goal as they wait for action to return to their part of the field, or engaged in studying their shoes, or the gopher holes in the ground.  The best part of the games for these young athletes might just be the intermission oranges, and the after game treats.  Those are very important aspects.

Once we discovered that our goal of a positive and successful sports experience had gone awry, we reassessed our participation approach.  We learned that 7 was the magic age.  By the age of 7 the youth athlete has two very significant things going for her.  One is two years of experience in a very structured organization–school.  The other is  improved coordination.  Now he has the beginnings of appropriate social behavior and improved physical abilities.  He or she has a greater chance of success, and, with your support, will have the confidence to learn and develop their skills. Going to practices and playing the game will be activities they enjoy and can anticipate with zest.