How to get your child to love a sport
Hello there!
I came across the following video and wanted to share it with you:
"If your kid gets good at the game that doesn’t necessarily make them love the game. But if the kid loves the game, it’s likely they’ll become good at it. It’s the love that should be first."
I imagine this applies to all sports. There will always be parents who enroll their kids in a sport and then turn it into a high-pressure situation. Everyone thinks their child will be the next sports superstar. They push their kids to train endlessly, with individual and group sessions, multiple teams, and non-stop tournaments, all in hopes of earning a college scholarship.
It comes from a place of good intentions. Parents believe the hard work will pay off someday. But by the time their child reaches college age, they're burnt out, resenting the sport that has taken over their life.
It happaned to me… I started playing tennis at the age of 4 because I saw my older brother play. I started because I liked it and became good very quickly. After a few years, I received a different coach and we didn’t have the connection I had with my former 2 coaches. Even though I didn’t enjoy training as much, also because I was shy and had difficulties making friends in the tennis environment, my mom continued to push me to go to classes several times a week, send me to tennis camps in other countries where I felt even more alone and scared. When I was 16 I hated tennis and the pressure so much that I called up my coach and said ‘I’m quitting tennis‘ without notifying my mom. She was disappointed of course because her dream had been to see me as a tennis star one day…
And it's not just parents; coaches are guilty of this too. They run practices for young kids like professional training camps. Padraig Harrington's message is for everyone involved in youth sports: let the kids live. Let them enjoy the game and develop their love for it naturally.
Sure, they might need some guidance along the way, but the best players are usually the ones who truly love the game. They're the ones who become obsessed with it, not because their parents are pushing them but because they genuinely enjoy it and want to improve.
Youth sports would be much healthier if every parent watched this short clip before enrolling their child in sports. If you find yourself obsessing over a sport when your child is barely 12, take a step back, watch the video, and spend some quality time with your child instead.
