Parent’s play an important role in the life of a youth athlete.  It is important for parents to understand the things they need to do for their youth athlete to gain the greatest benefit from participation in sports.  As a parent of a youth athlete, it can be tempting to focus on wins and losses, your child’s personal statistics, how your child compares to others their age, whether the officials are doing their job, and your opinion of the coach’s abilities.  If these things and others like them are our focus as parents, then we are misusing our role in our child’s sports experience and we are going to hinder our child from receiving the greatest benefit they can from playing sports.

Below is the #COMPETITIONMATTERS! Parent’s Commitment.  Please note this is an active list with things you should do.  A #COMPETITIONMATTERS! Parent is fully engaged and actively involved in their child’s sports experience, but their EFFORT is focused in the proper direction and on actions that will give their youth athlete room to develop and take ownership of their own sport’s experience.

I hope this #COMPETITIONMATTERS! Parent’s Commitment is helpful and generates thought and conversation among parents.  If you would like to discuss further or have thoughts about it to share, please fill out the contact information at the bottom of this webpage and send it my way.