Parents are the main people in the lives of young athletes, which shape their experience and achievements in sports. They’re greatly involved in the children’s lives, they drive them to school and sports classes, help them in studying, making decisions, and supporting them in any case.
Parents’ role is inevitable because they take part in the development of young people socially and psychologically. In the future athlete’s life, parents’ role is the same and even more important. When children start to do sports professionally, they need more support and understanding from parents.
Future professional sportsmen make lots of big decisions every day. They must be wise and real. Parents do the same, but moreover, their decisions should be a lot wiser, and the main aim should be to support children, show them that they’re not alone, they have a family that won’t judge, only help to overcome challenges.
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Parents’ support and love is a lot more than decisions, help, etc. Let’s look at the features of parents’ role in sports and in the path of future professional sportsmen.
Role of Parents in Sports
Children rarely go in for sports by themselves. Usually, parents bring them to it. Parents influence kids to be active, and if there is will and potential, they can try to become a professional athlete.
In this case, parents’ support is even more valuable and inevitable. Their support is different because they offer children transportation to their classes, clothes and equipment, additional financial support, and healthy food and rest.
For example, one of the most successful hockey players in the NHL, Alexander Ovechkin (The Great Eight) speaks about his parents as marvelously supporting people who were ready to work very hard to provide him with the best equipment and the opportunity to play his favourite game. Moreover, his dad had a kind relationship with coaches which was also very nice for a player and his future.
There are 3 key responsibilities of parents who deal with young athletes:
- Provider. This is about financial and other material support.
- Interpreter. This responsibility stands for understanding children’s reaction to the sport they do, to people they’re surrounded by, their expectations of their performance, and future hopes.
- Role Model. Parents are the first role models kids see in their lives, and of course, the most important. Their communication and understanding of their children play a key role in their future. However, in their path there will be other role models like coaches, friends, or school teachers.
Negative Features of Parental Support
Nevertheless, parents’ impact on the youth can be negative due to several factors:
- Prioritising Winning. Some parents pay too much attention to the excellent results and regular victories of their children. This only creates a negative and stressful environment for them.
Parents shouldn’t push children and wait for only victories from them. Kids need to be different, need to win and lose to understand life and feel that it’s not easy. But most of all, they need support from their family.
- Pressure to perform. Children do sports for enjoyment at first, and only after some time they should decide if this kind of sport is indeed what they want to do professionally.
They shouldn’t feel pressure to perform. They really need to feel that they are needed by parents, not because of their fame and skills. Kids need parents’ unconditional love.
- Regular Criticism. There aren’t ideal people in the world. All of us are different, and that’s good. Sometimes parents start to criticize their children because they aren’t as good as they want them to be or because other children are better. It’s wrong.
Parents’ can’t change their children and make them other people. After such criticism, kids will feel only anger towards their parents.
Effective and Positive Parental Support
The role of parents in the lives of future athletes should be positive and full of love. This is the key to strong relationships within the family and gratitude.
Let’s look at some helpful features of a supportive role of parents:
- Motivation. Motivate your children, influence them to discover the world of sports, and let them decide what they want to be. Motivation can also mean playing sports games together with your kids and participating in other activities.
- Emotional Support. Let your children understand that they are loved in any case. Just be present for them, showing encouragement.
- Autonomy. Positive parental effect on children’s lives helps to grow their self-autonomy, skills to make decisions, and build their independence.
Closing Words
Parental role in young professional athletes’ path should be active and supportive. It needs to be delicate and full of love to help children on their hard path and make them understand that challenges are normal.
Jessica has a flair for writing engaging blogs and articles. She enjoys reading and learning new things which enables her to write different topics and fields with ease. She also strives to break down complex concepts and make them easy for anybody to comprehend.
