Many youth athletes are diligently dedicated to playing the sports they love. At first glance, this seems like a good thing, but many youth athletes and sport families are unknowingly jeopardizing the child’s health and safety by specializing in one sport too early and year-round.
Where Our Children Play: The Challenge of Youth Sports is a documentary film in development about the need to change the culture of youth sports by bringing the focus back to the kids. Kids are overwhelmed by the pressure of pleasing their parents or performing for their coaches. Too often they stop playing for themselves.
In the 2020 national championship game, it was Santa Clara’s Turnbow who struck with a dazzling goal in the waning minutes to even the score at 1–1 against Florida State; and then amid the swirling pressure of penalty kicks to decide the title, she stepped up and delivered again to help her team grab the title.
Here at MVP Parent, we encounter examples every day of how crucial family support is to the success of student athletes. Helping them achieve personal goals within their sports of choice is, of course, a priority, but also providing the essential building blocks of personal growth, balance, and values that will serve them well later in life, whether that life includes the continuing pursuit of athletic achievement or not.
I remember the day I coached my son TJ’s first soccer game. He was only five, and I was so proud, so excited, and couldn’t wait for him to play the game I loved. There was one problem. He didn’t want to play.
What if having confidence was a choice and you could always choose it? While it doesn’t always feel like it, confidence is ultimately a choice. It often seems like confidence is out of our hands. I’ve lost my confidence. I just don’t have it. I wasn’t feeling it today. It can appear as if confidence is a thing that happens to us or that we magically find on a good day.
Finally, we are starting to see some positive changes with school sports. Seasons have started and its very exciting for the players as well as parents. My oldest daughter has begun her college basketball season and is so happy to be back on the floor (she missed all of her freshman year due to COVID-19 restrictions).
Giving thanks isn’t tied to a single day or a season. Thanking the folks who help you day after day shouldn’t be an afterthought. The idea of giving thanks or practicing gratitude should be intentional—we should encourage our young athletes to think actively about doing it on a regular basis.
The upcoming Winter Olympic Games – which get going in Beijing in February – will showcase some of the world’s greatest athletes delivering performances we’ll remember forever.
We all have our stories about the time we’ve spent, the miles we driven, the BP (batting practice for non-baseball fans) we’ve thrown with our athletic kids. Myself, through a quick calculation, I’ve thrown roughly 75K pitches in the last 4 years alone to my 11-year-old son. I’ve caught another…
