Ways to encourage your Athlete

Athletics can sometimes be a tough learning experience for kids. Not every child is a great athlete. But kids can learn so many great life lessons through sports. Most kids can learn or learn the following:

• How to share
• How to interact with others
• How to encourage each other
• How to win with good sportsmanship
• How to lose with good sportsmanship
• How to participate with people with different backgrounds (ethnicities, home life, cultures, etc)

How to participate with people with different backgrounds (ethnicities, home life, cultures, etc)

It is up to you as a parent to encourage your child as they improve. It’s important for the sport to be fun or at least exciting for your child for them to want to continue to participate. One thing you can help do is teach them a little more. You can expect the coach or teacher to be the only one to teach your child how to play the game. You need to take the time to play in the driveway or take them to the park and rebound for them, help them dribble and even work on passing. This creates a great time for bonding in addition to improving your child’s perspective for the sport.

It’s great at any level to have players to look up to. If they are young, it may be middle school or the junior high team. For those, it may be the high school players. At the college level there may still be some opportunities to interact with the local heroes. We all need people to look up to. Summer camps provide good opportunities for kids to learn more about the game, have older kids or even young adults teaching them and displaying their talents for your athlete.

Basketball can be a lot of fun, it can be nearly priceless if you consider opportunities for college scholarships, teamwork opportunities or even responsibilities as a special team manager or to assist the coach.