Many people get caught up in the notion of "if some is good more is better." I agree with this, however to an extent. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of learning a new sport or reaching a new level that all one wants to do is play that sport. The unfortunate thing is that when people get caught in this, they often loose sight of the big picture.
What is the big picture you ask? The big picture is the fact that there are many aspects that go into the development of children into athletes. Aspects include the environment around the child in games and practices provided by coaches. Parents need to be realistic in their expectations, sports need to be quality vs. quantity and kids need to be able to still be kids. There are many different things that parents, coaches, administrators need to be aware of and these are just a few.
The environment needs to be a positive one where kids feel confident to do their best and be able to perform in a way where they learn by doing and guess what, if they make a mistake, let them see what the mistake was and ho to fix it in the future. This way they learn by experiences and see how to turn mistakes into positives. I personally do not get on kids for trying, if a player or athlete makes a mental error that irks me as a coach more than a physical error.
Parents can be your greatest ally and your greatest enemy. Let me preface this by saying that parents have the toughest job as a parent and I respect parents for giving their kids a chance to play sports as a child. With that many parents want to see their kid succeed, can you blame them? Where we see parents stub their toe is what is their motivation for for signing their kid up for sports? Are they wanting their seven year old to be the next Bode Miller or Lindsey Vonn? Do they think their kid will be the next Steven Strausburg? Parents who are able to keep things in perspective, allow their child to learn at their own pace will have more positive experiences when their athlete grows. Again I appreciate parents taking the time to give their child a memorable experience as young athlete.
The idea of quality vs. quantity is probably the greatest one and could be an entire blog post on its own. When children come to the field for practice or games or load the lift on a bitter cold morning they are expecting it to be fun. When teams or athletes struggle, it is typically because there is a break down in the system. Too many times we see a team or an athlete failing, not meetings their full potential, and parents and coaches think more more more. Yes I agree that kids may need more but I would think to look at what is causing the failure and change that. In other words give practice, games or races a more quality touch. It may mean that as a coach one needs to see how to improve.
If kids get sports stuffed down their throats and do not get a chance to go free ski or go play wiffle ball or 500 then they can start to think sports are no longer fun and maybe are too competitive then they will look to other activities to fill their time. Give them more but give them quality experiences to improve! All of us as coaches, parents and administrators can all play a positive role in keeping kids in sports for a long long time!
