Author page: Wayne Goldsmith

Fifty tips for parents of young athletes, to help them get the most out of their chosen sport.

1. Love them unconditionally.
2. Support their coach.
3. Accept that they can not win every time they compete.
4. Allow them to be a kid and to have fun.
5. Help them to develop as a person with character and values.
6. Turn off as a sporting parent. Don’t make sport the one and only topic of conversation at the dinner table, in the car, etc.
7. Don’t introduce your child as “This is my son the swimmer or Rugby player” – their sport is just something they do – it does not define them.
8. Don’t do everything for them. Teach them responsibility and self management.
9. Reward frequently for success and effort but make them small, simple, practical, and personal things. Kids don’t need a CD or $20 just for playing sport.
10. Best of all reward them with what they really love…….your time!
    

I hear it all over the world.

In every sport.

In every club.

Coaches asking, “How do I get this generation of athletes to work hard””

Here’s how.

Coach education is at the crossroads.

One thing is for certain, the way we have trained, educated and developed sports coaches in the past is not working. It has failed.

Let’s talk about a new approach in Coach Training, Education and Development: A Client Focused Approach.

Let’s talk about CoachT.E.D. (pronounced Coached): Coach Training, Education and Development.

And most importantly, let’s talk about training, educating and developing more coaches and better coaches: coaches who can provide every person involved in sport with the environment and the opportunity to develop a passion for sport, a life long love of physical fitness and activity and the chance to choose a path to realise their potential as athletes and human beings.

Everyday I get emails and calls from coaches, athletes and parents looking for the secret to success. They get really disappointed when I tell them the truth. That is that there is no secret training set, no miracle powders, no super-supplements, no NASA developed training equipment – nothing – that guarantees sporting success except commitment. Giving 100% of your time, energy, resources, drive, enthusiasm and passion to the achievement of your sporting goal is the only real non negotiable in sport if winning is your aim. This article discusses commitment and challenges coaches and athletes to challenge themselves about where they fit on the Commitment Continuum.

Hello Tennis Parents.

Put your hand up if you answer “YES” to two or more questions in the Tennis Parents Ten Question Quiz:

• Do you believe your child will be a successful, well paid professional tennis player?
• Do you tell other parents that your child is “a high achiever”?
• Do you talk about tennis at least once a day with your child over meals or away from the court?
• Are you prepared to sacrifice your child’s education so they have a great chance of becoming a professional player?
• Do you regularly ask the coach to work your child harder or to change something about their game?
• Do you get emotionally involved in your child’s successes and failures on the training court?
• Do you allow your child to show a bad attitude, poor sportsmanship and / or a poor temperament (e.g. racket abuse)?
• Have you ever argued or fought with parents of other kids about the results of a game?
• Do you refer to your child as “my son or my daughter the tennis player”?
• Have you spent more than $500.00 on a single tennis racket for your child?

Well, here’s the bad news. If you answered “YES” to two or more of the above, the chances of your child becoming a successful professional tennis player are…………………NIL or very close to it.