We want the best for our children don’t we? That’s why we encourage them to work hard and be good at what they do. But, in among all the hopes and aspirations, it’s important to also allow your child an element of fun and self-belief. The chance to enjoy what they’re doing and develop a real love for it and when it comes to sport, this is where enjoyment should be top of the agenda.
Role of the parent
When too much pressure is applied by coaches or parents, especially with younger players, it can lead to poor confidence and a loss of interest. So, when it comes to youth football, it pays to allow them to move at their own pace and focus more on the positives rather than the negatives. This is where the role of the parent should be more about support, no matter how good the player is.
Here are our top five tips for football parents when it comes to getting youth players playing well and enjoying the game at the same time.
Our top 5 tips
- Be supportive and leave the coaching to the coach – no matter how good or bad you think they’ve done, be consistent with the praise. Find the good points of their game and try and focus on something positive to help build them up. And by all means if they have a particularly great game, let them know about it!
- Help make it fun – for children, a lot of learning is done through play. So take the seriousness away and let them enjoy what they’re doing, because that’s what it’s all about.
- Teach them to accept failure – because having the ability to cope with losing is just as important as getting the wins. An awareness that’s it’s ok to fail occasionally, will enable them to take more risks, while being less tentative and when they don’t win it will provide the opportunity to learn and ultimately become more successful.
- Build self-esteem – making them feel good about themselves will help them to learn faster and perform better. When a child feels loved, they will in turn learn to love and believe in themselves more.
- Avoid comparison – different children have different levels of ability and speeds of development and therefore, because no two people are a clone of each other, there is no point in trying to compare them. The only usefulness in comparison is in giving another player as an example of how a particular technique is done and this is where it should end.
Start supporting today, take a look at our tournaments
The main role of being a football parent is to be your child’s number one fan. Have them know that, no matter how well they do, you will always think the best of them and offer encouragement, assistance and support, while allowing the coaches to do their job.
You can start supporting today by giving your child’s youth side something to work towards in the form of our youth football tournaments which are taking place at venues around the UK in 2017. Get in touch to find out more or pass our details on to your club coach!
