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How to Coach Your Athlete at Home

Gymnastics Takes Balance

I read an article by Asha Forster Grebenik this week titled “How to Coach Your Gymnast at Home” – it honestly should be required reading for all sports parents – feel free to substitute your child’s sport for the gymnastics references in the post – and for that matter all parents in general! From her post…

Your gymnast does gymnastics at home. All the time. In every room. And you’ve watched enough gymnastics to know that certain things she’s doing are incorrect. So how do you make these corrections at home? You don’t. Let me repeat that. Do. Not. Coach. Your. Child. At. Home. Nothing will make your child’s coach cringe internally more than hearing that you worked on x, y, or z at home. You are not her coach. Don’t do it. Don’t even tell her to point her toes.

As sports parents most of us are guilty of “trying” to help our athlete at home – we think we are helping – we think we know what they need to hear – but guess again. As sports parents our job is to get our kids to practice, support them at meets, keep them fueled, and be their biggest fan.

So next time you feel the urge to make a correction from the bleachers, in the car or in you own home – STOP – DON”T DO IT. Instead, give your athlete a hug and let her know you are so proud of all her hard work!

May 29, 2018 Leave a Comment

The End of an Era: When a Child Abandons a Sport

This guest post by Laura Amann was originally posted a few years ago on this site, but it is worth a read again. 

disappointed gymnast

My days of gymnastics are over. So are my long hours at the gym. My nervousness and anxiety. It’s all in the past. No more ponytails woven with ribbons, no more glitter spray, no more bleacher analysis. My daughter has left the sport.

For years, Caroline competed on a gymnastics team and she adored everything about it. Four days a week, we drove the ½ hour back and forth to the gym so that she could practice 15 hours a week, year-round. I volunteered, I chatted with the parents, I watched and learned and bit my nails. The parents became my friends, the meets became a social time.

Eventually after three years of this schedule, the complaints began: the coaches were too hard, she had a headache, she was tired, she had too much homework. Her message read loud and clear: she was burnt out at the age of 11.

So much attention has been given recently on the downside of focusing on just one sport at such a young age, that we overlook some benefits. Yes, kids miss out on the opportunity to dabble in other sports or activities. Homework is often done in the car or in the bleachers. Dinner is split into two meals: before practice and after.  She frequently misses out on seeing her three siblings compete in their own activities.

Yet as we leave the world of competitive gymnastics, I’m forced to reflect on all that it has given us. We’ve heard many comments lamenting our “lost investment” or pointing out all that wasted time and money we’ve expended (and it’s been a tremendous amount, don’t get me wrong) but it’s certainly not wasted.  By focusing so singularly on a sport, she’s learned tremendous life skills. Not the least of which is valuable time management skills – homework and friends must be balanced with the team schedule. Competing individually in front of judges has taught her to handle intense competition and scrutiny in a way that class presentations never could. She’s mastered stress management and developed a self-confidence that will serve her well in any type of public arena.

Her teammates have taught her about the deep bonds you develop with others who share your passion. She’s met some close friends and seen the good and the ugly side of competition.  She’s learned about nutrition, hydration, caring for injuries, pacing yourself and pushing yourself. All before the age of 12.

It’s humbling to realize how much of my version of her is wrapped up in her being a gymnast and how much of her identity involves her being a gymnast. It’s part of what defines her. This is the fine line that we must walk as parents: when to encourage them to keep going over a bump in the road, and when to guide them to another path. There are never clear street signs.

We’ve watched in amazement. And now we will watch as she walks away from what defines her the most. She’s young; there will be other time-intensive activities I’m sure. The gymnastics world will slowly fade away from our family’s routine. Life goes on. But I will be forever grateful to the sport, to any activity, that can inspire and push children to dream and grow.

Perhaps the biggest lesson that she’s learned is the one that amazes me the most. Because of her rigorous schedule, she’s developed a kind of discipline that some people only dream of: when she’s tired, she goes to sleep; when she’s not hungry, she doesn’t eat. And that’s a life experience worth learning.

Laura Amann is a freelance writer and the mother of four children. You can learn more at www.laura-amann.com.

Image source: Stock.xchng

August 12, 2017 3 Comments

Sports Years Memory Book Giveaway

UPDATE! Congratulations SUSAN you are the winner of the Sports Years Memory Book. Please check your inbox.

MomAgenda Sports Years Memory Book

Do you see all those ribbons? That is just a portion of the items I have collected from my youngest daughter’s past few years as a swimmer. I have been storing it all in a shopping bag and telling myself that one day I was going to organize it neatly. Lucky for me, the team at momAgenda is making “one day” get here a lot faster. They have a new product that is just for busy Sports Moms like you and me – we don’t have time to create elaborate scrapbooking layouts but we want to keep all our athlete’s important memories together in one place – so enter Sports Years.

Sports Years Memory book momagenda

Each hardcover Sports Years Memory book contains 14 expandable 11″x11″  folder pages for you to keep things like team photos, newspaper clippings, mementos and the like for each year in one place. Then for each one of the folders you can add as many details as you wish – the year, sport, photo of your child, position they played, teammates, accomplishments, and the list goes on.

Sports Years momAgenda

I have a lot of work to do still, but just knowing that one of my favorite photos of her first championship meet is safe and easy to find, is a step in the right direction!

Are you ready to win a Sports Years Memory Book for your super star?

Required entry: Leave us a comment on this post telling us how many years your child has been playing sports and how you are keeping track of all those “mementos” now.

Bonus entries: Get BONUS ENTRIES by letting your friends know about our giveaway. Get one extra entry for each of the following, but come back and leave a second comment telling us where you shared it:

  • Post about it on your own blog, in a forum, tweet about it or share it with your friends on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter (we are @SportsGirlsPlay and momAgenda) – please send us a tweet letting us know you are following us and introduce yourself, too.
  • Like us on Facebook (we are SportsGirlsPlay  and momAgenda) – again, feel free to leave us a note on Facebook saying hello and that you are entering the giveaway.

Rules

  • Leave your comment(s) no later than midnight October 4, 2012.
  • Make sure your email address is right. We only use it to contact the winners and we will NEVER share it or publish it.
  • You must be 13 or older to enter. If you are under 13, just ask your parent, grandparent, favorite aunt or uncle to enter for you!
  • We will be using the “And the winner is” plugin to select one (1) winners at random.

Disclosure: momAgenda sent us a Sports Years Memory Book  for purpose of review but the opinions of the products are our own!

 

September 20, 2012

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