Do you have a child that plays on a soccer team? If you do , then like most parents you go to the games faithfully and perhaps also, like most parents, you become critical if your child makes a wrong play. Making a wrong play is natural and normal even in adult soccer games. So what happens if the wrong play is made by your child?
The response of some parents to such a situation is to use derogatory phrases such as: “You made a dumb or stupid move” or, “I thought you knew how to play this game?” Such phrases are great if you are looking to bread the kid’s self esteem and lose all incentive for the game. These phrases will also make the kid feel as if he is a detriment to the team and should leave.
When a child makes a bad play in a soccer game he should be told that he made a bad play but in a way that it does not look or feel like criticism. If you are discussing the wrong play, and you should discuss it, let the child know that a better play could have been made. Try to show the child how the play could have been improved and practice the new play together. In this way the child will know that you are interested in the game and want him or her to do better and that you are being helpful and not critical. Your actions can save the child’s self esteem. Remember, when the child makes a wrong play he is already feeling badly about letting the team down, so do not add to it by racking him or her over the coals for it.
The second type of parent acts as if he invented the game and no one ever made more brilliant moves. There are constant recoils of all of the parent’s flawless games. The child is told that his or her success in the game is because of inherited genes.
The second kind of parent is the one that wants to show off his or her knowledge of the game and talks constantly of their own brilliant plays. This type of parent never shuts up about how much of the parents sports genes the child inherited. The child feels he or she will never live up to the parents’ expectations and eventually leaves the game forever.
The perfect soccer parent will give the kid encouragement and not harsh criticism and will take a part in the child’s soccer interests.
Soccer parents can be a help or a hindrance to kids soccer. Get soccer advice
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