Is Your Child A Budding Sports Star? How To Encourage Them

Posted on Apr 18 2016 - 4:15pm by Editorial Staff

Child Room

If your child is showing real promise in a sport they love to play, then it can be difficult to react in a pragmatic way sometimes. Some parents are so excited by the prospect of having a sports star in the family that they don’t set realistic expectations, whereas others worry that their interest and talent in sport will distract the child from other academic pursuits. In reality, a lot of kids have some athletic talent, and those who show significant abilities often benefit from it a lot – both in terms of health and social status at school, and in terms of things like the kind of college sports scholarships arranged by companies like asmscholarships.com. Encouraging your child to pursue the sport they excel at is important, but so is keeping them grounded and having realistic ideas about the increased level of competition they will experience as they get older.

Understanding Talent

An important part of encouraging your child is understanding the level of talent you are dealing with. This can be hard if you don’t have much knowledge or experience of the sport they do, but you can get good indications from their coaches. If you live in a small town and your child is easily the best in their class or club, then this may not be a good indicator that they will always be the best when they go to a broader situation like college, so it is good to know whether the people they train with see them as a potential professional athlete, or just a big fish in a small pond. It doesn’t mean they can’t have a great career ahead of them in sport if they are not the sports genius their performance in comparison to their local peers makes them believe, but you’ll need to keep them grounded and focused so they don’t get disheartened when they face tougher competitors!

Teaching Them About Balance

If it is your child’s dream to play the sport they love professionally and they see things like sports scholarships in their future, it can be hard to get them to take their other studies seriously. However, even the best athletes in the world need skills and knowledge in other areas to function as normal adults, so make sure they understand that learning things isn’t unnecessary just because you are great at sport!

Encourage Them to Have Fun

Some kids can stop seeing a sport as fun once they realize people have high hopes for them, and can become so intense about their training that they no longer act like normal kids. Make sure they have time for friends, for doing other activities for fun, and don’t feel too much of a pressure to constantly train while they are still children.

Having any kind of gifted child in your family is a blessing that comes with its own challenges, so make sure you think about your budding athlete’s general state of mind and wellbeing.

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Editorial Staff at I2Mag is a team of subject experts.