“How can I get my kid good at sports to go pro?”
I get this question and similar variations of it from many parents I meet. As a health and fitness professional, I care about the development of children through physical activity (i.e., getting stronger, faster, healthier, etc.), but I understand where parents are coming from.
In this case, I found the 3 ways parents can help children’s success in sports that should leave everyone feeling happy from this blog — hopefully. Parents will get some ideas on how to help their kids, and I can provide information to help child development through health and fitness.
My goal is to encourage lifelong engagement and fun in physical activity, and I believe I can align it with goals parents may have in this topic.
The information in the following section was retrieved from the 2018 physical activity guidelines for Americans.
Health benefits of consistent physical activity for children
We’ll define “children” as ages 6-17, so it’ll include adolescents. We’ll be specific when talking about older kids in this blog by clarifying ages.
Here is a quick summary of the potential health benefits of consistent physical activity for children by the physical activity guidelines:
- Better bone health
- Weight management
- Aerobic and muscular fitness
- Blood pressure and blood sugar health
- Improved cognition
- Lower risk of depression
These are some possible benefits from performing “60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous activity” of aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activities for at least 3 days per week.
Aerobic can include running, swimming, bicycling, and jumping rope.
Muscle-strengthening can include playing on the monkey-bars, climbing trees, and lifting weights (more for older kids in their teens, in my opinion).
Bone-strengthening can include jumping, running, and playing hopscotch.
These are just a few examples of each, and we can see some overlap between aerobic and bone-strengthening activities. Sports tend to include all three sections, which makes them great for parents to put their children in.
Beyond the health benefits, some parents want their kids to be successful in sports (i.e., either great at playing and/or make it to professional levels), which brings us to the 3 ways parents can help their children’s success in sports.
1.) Include children in multiple sports
When children play multiple sports, they can develop skills and strengths in the sport they want to be successful in!
For example, baseball players need to be fast, good throwers, good fielders, hit the ball a lot (i.e., average), and hit the ball fast and hard (i.e., power). This is what’s known as a ‘five-tool player.’
Playing baseball will help to develop these skills, but we can also learn them in other sports.
In this case, sprinting in track and field would be great to develop speed, and playing football can develop power. Also, activities like dancing can help to develop footwork, which is important in baseball players to field, so looking beyond sports can be helpful, too!
Some sports may be disadvantageous to baseball players like cross-country. The skills of cross-country (e.g., running long-distances) do not translate to the skills needed in baseball, so it’s something to consider.
However, it’s more important to consider what the child wants to play, and it’s better for them to choose something they like since they’ll be motivated on their own. As they reach their late-teens, children can then decide which sport they’d like to focus on!
2.) Ensure rest and recovery
It’s not uncommon for children to get injured due to overusing muscles or overdone motions.
For example, some children will play baseball year-round, which means they’re using their shoulder and elbow all year to throw a ball. Not to mention, they’re trying to throw as hard and fast as they can with each throw, which can be severely damaging to those muscles and joints.
We, as parents, should give children a break from the main sport, so they can rest and recovery from overused muscles and motions. Safety and health is more important than sport-skill development.
This ties in with allowing children to play multiple sports!
We can always allow children to play another sport that doesn’t necessarily use the same motions as the main sport. However, they can continue to be active while still developing skills to help them later on.
For this example, baseball players should avoid similar sport motions like tennis and volleyball, but they can engage in other sports freely!
3.) Encourage kids in sports
Being encouraging as parents can help children’s success in sports.
If we’re too hard on kids, they can be discouraged from wanting to play sports at all. This isn’t to say we can’t be strict with our kids, but there’s a way to do it that may give us better results than saying, “You’re better than this!” (personal flashback to childhood).
Personally, I like to use the following: Highlight the good, acknowledge the bad, and work on improvements.
Highlight the good that happened in the game or practice. This will let children know something went well during that time, or we can even ask them what they think went well — meaning, they’re noticing the good they did as well.
Acknowledging the bad tells children we know the game or practice wasn’t perfect. If we know it, kids will know it and don’t want to be patronized about it. However, this leads to the last idea.
Work and set goals for improvements. Acknowledging the bad is the first step, and we should let the kids know we can always work on those skills to have better results.
Encouragement is always good. We just need to know how to use it to be effective!
Bonus: Encourage and develop good skills
I know I said 3 ways, but here’s a bonus tip that goes unnoticed.
Develop the skills that are great to amazing, good to great, and decent to good.
This is more for the older children (13 to 17 years), who are in high school and really want to pursue the sport they’re interested in.
I mentioned the ‘five-tool player’ in baseball earlier, but how many individuals have all 5 tools in the pros? If it were a lot, many players in the majors would be fighting for the MVP!
On the contrary, most players are amazing at 1 or 2 skills, and they are good or decent in others. The point I’m making is note and encourage our kids’ skills we know are great to amazing and work on the others to be good or decent.
I’ve known individuals who were scouted simply because they can run down first base in less than 4 seconds!
This is true for other sports as well. We can see that pros are great at some things, not everything!
Summary
To clarify my perspective, children should participate in physical activities to receive the potential health benefits for good development.
Parents can help children’s success in sports with these ideas while encouraging long-term engagement in being active and fun. It’s more motivating to do something when parents help their children!
I did not mention it, but it’s important to understand where the kids are as well. For example, some children ages 6-9 may be more involved in the game, while other 6-9 year-olds are playing with dirt or daydreaming during the game.
We should know how our kids are as we make decisions for their involvement in sports.
In the end, they should be having fun like we should have fun being active as an adult.
These ideas aren’t 100% in results, but they can help guide us as parents for children’s success in sports.
If you want more in-depth information about the health benefits of physical activity, check out the 2018 guidelines for Americans by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Remember to check with a medical provider before starting a new exercise program and/or making life-changing decisions on health and fitness.
I hope this was helpful!
— Alex, M.S.
Source
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2018). 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.