1. Make sure your children know that win or lose,
scared or heroic, you love them, appreciate their efforts and are not
disappointed in them. This
will allow them to do their best without a fear of failure.
Be the person in their life they can look to for constant
positive enforcement.
2.
Try your best to be completely honest about your children's athletic
capability, their competitive attitude, sportsmanship and actual skill
level.
3.
Be helpful but don't coach them on the way to the rink, pool or track or
on the way back or at breakfast and so on.
It's tough not to, but it's a lot tougher for children to be
inundated with advice, pep talks and often critical instruction.
4.
Teach them to enjoy the thrill of competition, to be "out there trying",
to be working to improve their skills and attitudes.
Help them to develop the feel for competing, for trying hard, for
having fun.
5.
Try not to re-live your athletic life through your children in a way
that creates pressure; you fumbled, too, you lost as well as won.
You were frightened, you backed off at times, and you were not
always heroic. Don't
pressure them because of your lost pride.
6. Don't compete with the coach.
If the coach becomes an authority figure, it will run from
enchantment to disenchantment, etc., with your athlete.
7. Don't compare the skill, courage or attitudes
of your children with other members of the team, at least within their
hearing.
8.
Get to know the coach so that you can be assured that the philosophy,
attitudes, ethics and knowledge are such that you are happy to have your
child under this leadership.
9.
Always remember that children tend to exaggerate, both when praised and
when criticized. Temper you
reaction and investigate before overreacting.
10.
Make a point of understanding courage and the fact that it is relative.
Some of us can climb mountains and are afraid to fight.
Some of us will fight but turn to jelly if a bee approaches.
Everyone is frightened in certain areas.
Explain that courage is not the absence of fear but a means of
doing something in spite of fear or discomfort.
The job of the parents of athletic children is a tough one and it
takes a lot of effort to do it well.
It is worth all the effort when you hear your youngster say, "My
parents really helped, I was lucky in this."