KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. — Watching some of the best athletes in the world take the field for the FIFA Women’s World Cup can be inspiring for young athletes.
“It provides us this sense of inner drive,” says Dr. Rick Neff, a licensed clinical & sports psychologist, and the owner and founder of Inner-Edge Sports Psychology. “It provides a goal for them to strive to become.”
While very few will actually reach that level of success, young athletes still strive to be the best they can be and you, as a parent, play an important role in helping them reach their goals.
“We want to stress and support the process and take the emphasis off the outcome,” says Dr. Neff. "I like to say stress the process of development, stress or process of getting better, and allow your son or daughter to fail.”
While it may be hard to watch our kids fail, it’s an important part of the learning process.
“Experiencing failure, learning through failure, growing from failure, allows for both, I would consider more success on an athletic field, and also in the classroom, and in society,” explained Dr. Neff.
Other tips offered by Dr. Neff include not comparing your kids to others, as children tend to mature and develop at different ages, allowing your child to take a break from the sport, and creating an atmosphere where your child feels comfortable talking about what’s happening on the field... both good and bad.
“There’s still a lot of social pressure, especially in sports of don’t be mentally weak,” says Dr. Neff, “We don’t talk about how you feel. Suck it up, get over it and what we see in research when we try to suck it up and get over it, not only does our performance on the field suffer, but also academically and socially.”
In the end, try to remember sports are supposed to be fun, and while every kid won't make it to the world’s stage, they can all have fun and learn valuable lessons from playing.