When your child comes home and informs you that he or she wants to play a sport like soccer, it can be great. Certainly, it may mean some extra work on your part, driving the child to and from practice, going to games and all of that, but also it means that your son or daughter is about to embark on a very significant experience that will greatly affect the rest of their life. Team sports can create an excellent foundation for basic concepts that are needed throughout the rest of their life, like working together in a team, organization, strategy and bonding with your teammates.
Of course you will want your kid to have fun and be encouraged to keep going with the sport and there are a few things you can do to help with that. The first is to be involved without being overly obsessive. Pay attention to how they are acting; be ready to step back and allow them to attend practices without you if you notice that your presence is distracting them. Be aware of how they are acting, because it just might be that they’d appreciate some space to concentrate on what they are doing and be themselves with their teammates rather than worrying about impressing or disappointing you with their athletic abilities.
Also, be sure to keep a level head about the game as well as their performance in it. Letting your child or their friends see you yelling and swearing at a ref or at the team in general for a bad play will not help anybody.
Most importantly, the goal of children’s sporting events should always be fun. A parent, coach or other involved adult should not ever be allowed to yell at or demean the children for mistakes that they make during the course of the game, nor should they ever insult or otherwise embarrass them. If they don’t seem to be doing a move properly, the best thing to do is take them aside and demonstrate how it’s done, maybe explain to them why it’s done that way and so on.
Above all, make sure that all the criticism given is done in a positive and constructive way with an attitude of teaching, whenever you or anyone else is helping your child with their techniques. Kids generally learn pretty fast, so focus on teaching rather harsh public corrections.
This website will give you more information: Soccer for kids
Tags: football, kids soccer, soccer