5 tips for helping your kids through sports tryouts
CoachUp.com offers tips to help your kids get through sports tryouts. Credit: iStock
With the school year starting up soon, fall sports tryouts are most likely underway. Chances are, you're feeling just as anxious as your kids about making the team.
1. Put in the prep time. Encourage your child to practice before preseason begins, about 30 minutes every other day increasing to an hour or two each day the week before tryouts. Suggest that they play around with their friends or future teammates, which will help them get a feel for the competition early and assess how much practice they need to be doing.
2. Eat, sleep, play. Make sure your child gets a great night sleep not just the night before the first day, but also the whole weekend before. Help them gear up before the first day of preseason by preparing healthy meals in the weeks before and during tryouts.
3. Pencil it in now -- not later. Creating a schedule for your child's sports season seems like an obvious step, but it's an incredibly important one. List all practices, games, team dinners, etc. along with their times and locations. Consider linking up with other parents to make a carpooling schedule and to exchange information in case of emergency. According to coachup.com, children often feel stressed or judged by coaches or teammates when their parents are late or forget an event, so showing them you've got it all under control will ease their nerves.
4. Be a good sport. Reacting positively to coaches' decisions, results of a game or practice schedules will set a good example for your child. Sympathize and suggest alternatives if they are upset, but do not intervene or create unnecessary drama. Obviously there are always special cases, but use your best discretion to pick your battles. Your child will learn from your constructive attitude, which will reflect positively on the playing field.
5. Put it into perspective. Last but not least, be sure to encourage and motivate your child while putting it all in perspective. Sometimes kids can get overwhelmed with tryouts and overreact. If they perform poorly in a drill or scrimmage, prevent them from wanting to give up by presenting the positive sides. They can make it up the next day, or if not, there's always next year or other activities. Remind them that you're proud of them no matter what.
