Five Tips for Parents Who Have Children Playing Sports
By Michael Wholey 8/1/23 11:00 AM EST After several months observing sports games from the sidelines with no tie to who wins or who loses and just purely watching as a fan, I have some observations. The behavior of fans…
Access all of Prep Girls Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingBy Michael Wholey 8/1/23 11:00 AM EST
After several months observing sports games from the sidelines with no tie to who wins or who loses and just purely watching as a fan, I have some observations. The behavior of fans on the sidelines is getting worse and a lot of it is the parents. This does not speak to all parents but here are five tips for parents who have children playing youth sports.
Tip # 1
Instead of yelling at ref that it is not a foul, coach your kid to stop reaching and move feet.
What does this mean? You have no control over the officials, but you can coach your kid. It is common for parents to verbally yell at officials all throughout the game where 90% of what they say throughout the game is directed to the officials instead of to their child and their child’s teams. Officials are making $40-$60 per game and the quality of officials is decreasing because less and less adults are signing up to officiate because they don’t want to spend their Saturday getting screamed at by other adults for a 7th grade basketball game. Point your attention to your child and to your child’s team, bring some positivity to the sidelines and help your child progress and improve in the sport. Quite often the foul you are complaining about to the official is actually a travel. Quite often the travel that you think was wrong, was right. But in the end it does not matter because next game you will not have that official but your son or daughter will still take to the court. Direct your concentration and your vocal cords to your son and daughter and away from those officials. It will help your child’s progression because you are leading by example and they won’t blame everything on the officials and it will improve the atmosphere and energy at their games.
Tip # 2
Encourage your child to spend time with teammates.
When the game is over, don’t whisp your kid away to eat every meal with you. Let your child organically build relationships with their teammates by spending down time with their teammates at the gym and off the court. Spending quality time with teammates has invaluable benefits to team camaraderie and the development of your child as they progress towards being a young adult. Sit back and observe as they laugh, and talk, or watch basketball together. They might make silly tik tok videos or just sit up in the bleachers and hang out. With everything being so organized in society, it is night sometimes to let kids be kids and just let them hang out.
Tip # 3
Encourage your child to watch and support the teams in their program.
Tip # 3 goes hand in hand with tip # 2. During down time, it is great to go over to court # 8 and watch other teams in the program. If on an older team (17U/16U) go watch the younger players/teams (14U-11U). Those younger players look up to the older players and will appreciate it. If players are on younger teams, go watch the older teams. It is great for younger players to see the competition level and how players in their program have developed. Often younger players want to make the top older teams and play in collegiate basketball but often do not watch upper-level basketball in travel, high school or college. By watching games of older players, it is great for younger players to understand what it is going to take to compete at a higher level and the dedication and commitment the top players have made.
Tip # 4
It’s not a sprint, it’s a journey. Don’t get too high. Don’t get too low.
This advice can go to both parents and players. Youth sports are meant to be fun and part of a child’s development. It is important to help them develop passions, hard work, discipline, and friendships but it is also a process. Success does not happen overnight and having success has steps along the way. Living and dying on every single play and every single game is not the path to success. Your son or daughter is going to have some good games, some bad games, their team is going to win games, their team is going to lose some games. They are going to have some games where they get a lot of playing time and then they are going to have some games where they play limited minutes or maybe not play at all. Continue to keep the focus on your son and daughter, hug them, tell them you love them, make sure they have a passion for the game they are playing and they want to continue to improve and keep work on their game.
Tip # 5
Thank your coaches and program directors.
Coaching and running an organization can be a thankless job where they are taking time off from work, spending time away from their families, and often spending their own personal money. Be sure and tell these coaches you appreciate them spending time with your son and daughter and helping in their development.
Michael Wholey is the lead scout for Florida Prep Girls Hoop Florida and a former division one Assistant Coach at American University, University of Memphis, and Georgia Tech. Wholey and the rest of the Prep Girls Hoop staff, seek to cover the entire state of player, keeping subscribers up to date with player evaluations, recruiting info, and statewide news. Our audience often supplies us with some of our best information. If you have any information on players, teams, or statewide news in the state of Florida, emailing Michael Wholey at WholeyPrepHoops@gmail.com or DM him through Twitter or Instagram @WholeyPrepHoops.