Raising children comes with a whole lot of responsibilities. One of the biggest challenges is motivating your child to live a healthy lifestyle. As parents, we want to motivate our child to play sports, but we also shouldn’t be too pushy.
Athletics offers great benefits for kids, including cardiovascular health, teaching stamina, discipline, team spirit and activates the mind. It’s tough to sometimes remember as kids grow up, a forceful approach to sports may have the opposite effect. It’s imperative for parents to figure out ways to encourage your child to play sports without overdoing it.
Start by offering positive communication and feedback with your child after their games. Don’t inquire about too many of the fine details from the game, and listen to what they took away from it . This will help show your interest in their sport, without pressuring them to perform better in the future.
Next offer opportunities for your child to play more often without being demanding. Casually ask them about joining other sporting activities around their school, gym or community. If the idea of playing in other spots doesn’t go over well, we recommend bringing up the subject at another time.
Always remember that your presence, and the presence of important role models in your child's life is very valuable in communicating support. Although it’s tough to be at every single event, always make the effort to show up at games to help motivate your child.
Finally, offering casual praise for your child’s hard work can bring about positive results. It may help motivate your child to stay with the sport even if they don’t like it. This will work especially well for teens. Your praise should show your support and interest with a game well played, rather than being too overenthusiastic.
The main purpose in all of these points is encouragement, interest, and praise will help your student-athlete work harder, reduce stress while in action and motivate your child to continue on with sports they are good at or passionate about.
Warren Academy, powered by DREAM, has been helping student athletes increase their performance, mentally and physically, since 2008. With over 10 years of service, Warren Academy has helped guide hundreds of athletes to college. Interested in learning more about Warren Academy’s youth sports training Omaha programs? Contact us today!
