If parents only do 1 thing to help their kids get the most from sport, this would be it…

One of my goals in writing ‘top tips’ to share with parents is to keep them as simple as possible and it’s definitely short and sweet this month. Quite genuinely, if I could only recommend one thing to parents who want to help their kids get the most out of their experiences in sport it would be this – help them see the small successes that show that what they’re doing to improve is working.

This is important for 2 reasons…

• Being able to REGULARLY recognise progress OUTSIDE of competition results is crucial in building self-belief and the motivation to keep working hard
• Building a deeper understanding of the type of training/preparation that works best for THEM will ensure they practise in a way that has the biggest impact on their performance

To do this, ask them what specific things they are working on and how they will know if they are improving BEFORE training or competition. Afterwards, ask how they felt it went and add your own thoughts on the progress you saw if you think they are being a bit hard on themselves (young people being pessimistic – who knew!). And even if they have a really bad day, use this approach to help them see they’re now a step closer to working out what might work better next time.

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