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 Matter The Most

Success with youth athletics, be it soccer, basketball, or track starts with parents.  Most of the time kids will have fun in spite of us.  There will always be a coach that at least tries to be fair, and tries to learn the game.  But for a youth athlete, a coach, or a parent to have success the parents must know what they want their child to receive from the experience.   That answer will determine the height of your child’s highs and lows; what he or she will take home from practice and from the games themselves, and it will solidify in their minds what’s important in their lives.  Let me give you some examples.

I was coaching a group of girls aged under ten  in Ventura, California under the auspices of AYSO, a  youth soccer organization.  I had a youth athlete of average physical abilities.  Those abilities were  certainly not something to write home about.  She was just an average nine year old girl with a big smile growing new teeth, loving to run around with her friends kicking a ball.  I say average realizing of course that no child is average.  During a game she would play to her abilities, doing the best she could.  But when her dad was there to watch– and he couldn’t be there all of the time because he was in the military–she was totally different.   She played out of her shoes, out of everyone’s shoes, all because her dad showed up.  She became a class “A” athlete because she wanted to please her father, because what he thought mattered to her.  And it mattered to me.  Upon discovering this fact, I made sure he was at every “important” game.  I did this because I knew what she’d do if her father was there and I knew what she’d do if he wasn’t.  She became an all star because Dad showed up.  Well, truthfully, he did more.  Every time there was a break in play, she’d run to her father.  He’d say, “You’re doing great, Julie.”   Then she’d run out there and do great.  Truthfully, he didn’t like soccer but his daughter did and he liked her.

The point I want to make is that what you, as a parent, think, makes all of the difference in the world.   I would have liked to have thought that it was what  I, as the coach, thought, but no, the parents won and lost more games than anything I could do or have ever done.  You matter.  What you think, what you say, matters immensely.  The attitude you bring to the event carries the event for your child.

Another example: I was photographing a wrestling match at a USA Wrestling meet in Worland, Wyoming.  The youth athlete was ten years old.  His father, a high school jock who had had some major  success at that level, was his coach.  All during the lad’s match the Dad was telling him what to do and how to do it.  In between the periods of the match he was telling his son that he was a loser if he didn’t….   Well you get the picture.  The kid was a basket case.  He left crying, followed by his father telling him he was a disgrace, a real loser.  The man actually used those words.   The boy was ten years old.  He was trying his best.  He was a winner.  If his dad had only been watching.  But he went home a loser because his dad said so.  I can’t imagine that boy liking wrestling, or his dad after that.  It must have been terrible going to practices.   The point?  His dad wanted his son to be him.  He wanted to see him perform as he had as a senior in high school.  What could that kid have possible done to match up to that?  He did what he could.  He went home crying.

If you want  a positive experience for your child , an opportunity to excel, to run, to laugh and to play and eat treats after a game, you will be successful,  especially if your son or daughter knows that’s what you want.  Here are the buzz words for success:  “Do your best;”  “Have fun;”  “After the game, we’ll go to McDonald’s;”   “Boy, you sure played hard;”   “I like the way you kicked that ball;”  and  “No I didn’t see the gopher in center field.  Was it big?”