Encouraging kids in sports: A guide for coaches and parents

Sports play a crucial role in a child's development. They teach them valuable life skills like teamwork, disciple, conflict resolution, perseverance, and many more.

However, getting kids interested into sports is not always easy. Kids like to be free and explore. Having to be in a certain place at a certain time to perform tasks which are sometimes difficult or unknown isn't fun at first. Even the sensation of tired legs and arms can be hard for some kids to cope with.

If we are not careful on how to approach them when they are very young, we risk them associating all kinds of negative emotions towards sport.

Here are a few tips and strategies to help coaches and parents encourage children to participate in sports.

Praise everything!

Praise is a powerful motivator for children. It boosts their self-esteem and encourages them to try harder. We don't praise just for the end result, we praise them for their effort first and foremost.

Of course you will praise a kid for scoring a goal, performing a nice kick, or executing a routine. But it's even more important to praise hard work, improvement, the courage to try something new, and even some soft skills like focus on a task. This way, kids will start associating sports with positive feelings and experiences and will keep enjoying practice.

Reward on every training session

Just like praise, rewards can be an effective way to motivate kids. We, again, don't tie the rewards to winning but to effort. Rewards don't have to be big. Let the kids choose a game for the last 5 minutes of practice, have them come up with the final drill or routine (you will be amazed by how much they love this).

As a parent you can take them to the local park for small play session or let them watch their favorite cartoon 5 minutes longer. This will make every training session something to look forward to.

Play. Play. Play!

Finally, it's important to encourage kids to play. Turn every activity into a game. If they are performing a specific drill for a certain number of times, have them count how many times they executed it correctly. This will keep them focused and engaged.

Break down a particular drill, move, or routine into smaller pieces and pick one segment and turn it into a game. How quickly can you run from here to there while keeping the ball close? Can you jump on one leg 10 while keeping your other knee above your hips? Who can hit the target the most from this line? All of these things don't sound like drills anymore but are games that keep kids focused and engaged.

The key part is to remember that, at the end of the day, sports is about having fun. If you kid is enjoying what they are doing, they'll want to do it more.

Let them play and fall in love with the sport so they keep coming back with a smile on their face.

Until next time,
Stay awesome!