At Practice
Parents who attend practices have lots of ways they can have an impact. The articles below explore the types of impact, the ways to maximize that impact and the things to watch out for that can lead to unintended consequences. Most of the intentional or unintentional thinking is that parents want to encourage their kids to enjoy the sport and do their best. They want to show their kids that they care about them. They want to see how their kids are performing and how the coach and league are meeting their goals. And many simply just want to enjoy watching their kids play. The articles below explore these topics in depth using the leading performance and development research available.
Articles Helping Parents Approach Practices
Encouragement and Support at Practice
Explore the different goals of showing support and encouragement. See what impacts different approaches to support and encouragement can have on performance and development.
(ARTICLE COMING SOON!)
Monitoring Well-Being, Skill and Interest
This article considers the role of a parent observing practice in terms of information gathering: is the child be developed well by the coach? what is the child's level of skill and interest? Dive in to explore these topics.
(ARTICLE COMING SOON!)
Community Engagement and Fun
One of the great benefits of youth sports is that it provides an opportunity for community development through shared connections. It also can be a lot of fun to watch your kids play.
(ARTICLE COMING SOON!)
Recommendations and Considerations
General advice from leading performance and development researchers on how to participate from the sidelines at practice. The overlap between performance and long-term development is inspiring.
(ARTICLE COMING SOON!)
A Parent's Involvement During Practice Has Significant Impact
We at Sport4Growth believe that every parent has a right to choose what impact that they want to have as a spectator during practice. We also believe that it is critical to clearly know what one is trying to achieve and to have the tools to make whatever that is happen.