As parents, we always want what is best for our kids, but sometimes we tend to live a bit too vicariously through our kids and tend to get too wrapped up in the here and now rather than keep things in perspective!

I was reading my son’s USA Hockey magazine this week and this Hockey Lesson really hit home!

As coaches, we spend a lot of time working on the positives with the kids, just to have it unraveled by their parents. Just last night I was coaching at the gym and I noticed a parent in the bleachers waving wildly at his daughter. Rather than looking to her coach for corrections after each turn, the child immediately looked to the bleachers for her father’s response. Now how is that father going to know what correction the coach wanted the child to have?

I have witnessed poor sports parents in every youth sporting event I have ever gone to. No sport or activity seems to be immune. If parents want to really help their children succeed at sports, they need to take a step back and put youth sports into perspective! Youth sports is:

• Only a game
• A healthy outlet for energy
• The pathway to a life of fitness
• An opportunity for kids to make new friends
• An opportunity for kids to learn teamwork
• A way for kids to learn that winning isn’t everything
• A way for kids to learn lots of other great life lessons

Ask yourself, are you setting a good example for your child? Are you keeping it in perspective?