It can be a truly thrilling event when your child comes home and tells you he or she wants to play a team sport like soccer. Not only will this mean that there might be some extra free time in your day when you aren’t responsible for making sure your child is entertained, but it also means they will be starting one of the most valuable experiences 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. A great deal of their experience with soccer or any other sport will have to do with you, so you want to make sure that you are there to be supportive without going to the extreme of being overbearing. If it is possible, try to attend as many practices as you can, but take note of whether or not you are distracting your son or daughter from what they need to do. Chances are you’ll still get your bonding time with them when they want to tell you all about what happened at practice afterwards.
Also be aware of yourself and the image you are portraying to your kids and their friends when you do watch the games or practices. 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.
Probably the most important thing that a parent, coach, or any other adult involved with the game experience can do is to make sure that all corrections or advice given to the child to help their game is done in a positive manner. Yelling at a kid because they don’t kick, trap or head the ball correctly will only serve to reduce their own self confidence in their abilities. This is simply not the way to bring about the results they desire, and it does nothing more than damage a child’s self confidence.
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. Sometimes it is enough to just explain to the child why the move is supposed to be done as it is being taught, so they have a clearer understanding of what they need to do.
This website will give you more information: Soccer for kids
