Youth Sports A Good Thing For Kids and Parents

 

A Happy Coach with  100m BG Bronze Medalist Victoria Porter

Nowadays kids involvement in sports is a organized,planned event. We parents often if not All the time pay for our kids to have this”experience“. We pay with our hard earned paychecks,our little bit of free would be me time after we have earned the money so that they can be on the team we deem best for our child’s sports training and nurturing. 

Goals for involving kids in sports vary from parent  to parent but there are many consistent themes that all parents have as they sign -up and sit in the bleachers waiting for our kids to experience something good at practice and the subsequent competitions they participate in.

My personal reasons are much aligned with what the experts say. The following are my top favorites why we have Lauren participate in sports:

• Learning to resolve conflict
• Learning to deal positively with disappointment
• Goal setting as a life long skill
• Healthy level of confidence
• Learning to regard pride  of accomplishment as a positive attribute
• Following rules an learning  consequences of not following them
• Respecting others
• Overcoming challenges
• Helps develop a sense of self
• Acute awarness of person strength and capabilites and the possibilties of each
• More positive peer influences in sports than the overall general high school teen population

And that’s just the beginning.

When it comes to  health reasons it’s just as straight forward. These athletes are more likely to have or do the  following:

• Strong development of muscles an bones early in life(especially girls yields large dividend later in life regarding bone density and resistance to fracture
• A strong fit body  is less likely to be prone to chronic diseases later in life
• Athletes suffer less depression
• Decrease incidence  of teen pregnancy in  active girls
• 80 % lower incidence of drug and alcohol use/abuse
• Healthy maintanance of normal weight

Kids aren’t the only ones that benfit from youth sports here are just a few of the many reasons that youth sports is a great for parents too!

• Provides regular time involved in a shared enjoyed activity
• Many times allows the freedom to learn a new activity or improve knowleged of an old one 
• Shows children that parents are willing to give of themselves for their kids 
• Provides teachable moments and conversation about goals,winning,effort vs. outcomes 
• Establishes memories for family bonding

 When I was a kid and first expressed the desire to run track my mom totally didn’t want me to do it. All the reasons were resonable  to hot, to long,to much time. She made the effort because my dad said it would be good for me and sure enough in a very short time she became a great track mom and very enthusiastic about not just me but my sisters participating. She prepared great lunches and lots of encouragement in the stands. None of us every became Olympic medalist but we did have a great time and it provided us a great framework for many things that have help shape my adult life. Her example truly has helped me in my own TrackMom experience. So you see, your participation can help your grand children’s too! I still run and am active largely in part to my early participation in youth track. I have never lost my desire to do my best in everything I do.

 

Until Next time

Related posts:

1. How Can Sports Parents Encourage Their Kids?
2. Kids Just Want To Have Fun, Parents Too!
3. Parents Perspective…..They Write Their Feelings About Their Kids And Track
4. One More Reason To Re-Think Your Kids Sports Drink
5. Interesting Youth Sports, Health And Training Facts