6 Critical Tips to Help Your Child Succeed Through Sport

January 29, 2020 by Jim Huber

But I will tell you I now understand the desire to have your children succeed in an activity and through it being looked at as a successful parent. 

Unfortunately, as parents, we often invest in short-term happiness at the expense of long-term growth.

For example, when we help our children avoid childhood discomforts now, we keep them from developing skills needed to handle future pain or suffering. Instead, we need to teach coping skills and resilience necessary to bounce back from life’s inevitable setbacks.

My prospective got back on track after reading this quote:

“Your kid’s success or lack of success in sports does not indicate what kind of parent you are.  But having an athlete that is coachable, respectful, a great teammate, mentally tough, resilient, and who tries their best is a direct reflection of your parenting.” (Unknown)

This is why I coach! To make kids better on and off the court through the sport of basketball.

The sport is the carrot to teach life skills and character traits that will allow them to handle whatever life throws at them and still succeed.

This reinforced that I need to take that same coaching approach and use it as a parent to help my children learn invaluable lessons through sports that will prepare them for life.

As a parent, I can’t get wrapped up on what team they are on, their statistics, their awards and trophies to view my success. I need to stay laser focused on allowing the sports to be a great teacher to instill positive habits that will be beneficial throughout their lives.

Parents – Here are 6 ways to create positive sports experience for your child! 

This will instill positive character traits and life skills to last a lifetime for your child:

1. Let It Be Your Child’s Experience: In order to do so, we must acknowledge that we can’t control the experience of our child…that is why it is called an experience. When we experience something we will have good times and bad times, great moments and average plays, we will deal with victory and defeat…allow your child to experience these highs and lows in sport which will allow them to deal with the ups and downs of life…If we try to control the experience our child is not being prepared for life.

2. Focus on The Process: Sports like life are a process and we need to attack the process every day to grow and get better. The process is hard work, knowledge, attitude, perspective, teamwork, coachability, dealing with success and failure. Winning will only be the by product in sports and in life.

3. Encourage Your Child to Take Responsibility: Teach your child early on not to pass the blame or make excuses, but to take responsibility for their actions.

4. Let Your Child Solve Their Own Problems: There is much to be gained in learning how to solve problems as there is in solving the problems themselves. Your child should know that you’re always there for them, and that they can call on you when needed, but give them the opportunity to learn to solve their own problems.

5. Allow Them to Learn Through Consequences: Sometimes the best thing that can happen is to make a big mistake and live with the consequences. However, it’s often the case that the mistakes we make as children have fewer long-range effects than things we screw up when we get older. So, it is better to learn from smaller mistakes while we’re young.

6. Embrace and Understand That Failure is Inevitable: Failure is a prerequisite to success. No One accomplishes anything great if he or she is afraid to fail. In failure, children learn how to struggle with adversity and how to confront fear. By reflecting on failure, children begin to see how to correct themselves and then try again with better results.

I know it can be tough to look at the long-range goals when you get wrapped up in the emotions of your child.

But we need to not lose sight of the need to ingrain the positive character traits and life skills that will enable your child to successfully navigate through life on their own as they get old enough to leave your home.

That is the mindset you need to develop on how you view success as a parent.

The value is not in the medals and trophies that will collect dust and eventually be thrown out or left behind. The ultimate value is “WHO WE BECOME THROUGH THE SPORT!”

– Coach Jim Huber

Advertisement

3 THINGS SUCCESSFUL SUPER BOWL COACHES DO

BY THE JOHN MAXWELL COMPANY.

For 50 years, we’ve watched the best teams in the NFL fight the final battle of the season. It’s the final test, the ultimate game to decide who will be remembered and who will be in second place. It is, no doubt, a monumental experience for players, but it is pivotal for their coaches. They are leading the pack. They will suffer the most criticism. They will be left to pick up the pieces and start over.With such high stakes, the Super Bowl becomes a stage for leadership to either thrive or crumble. In looking back over these 50 years of match ups, we are highlighting three winning coaches who epitomize the steps needed to experience ultimate success.

 

1. SUCCESSFUL COACHES HAVE A “SOFT SPOT.”

Football is not a game for the overly-sensitive or softhearted. It’s a difficult game that demands acute focus. But, Vince Lombardi, two-time Super Bowl winning coach for the Green Bay Packers, knew the value of bringing “feeling” on the field. He understood that unless the team had a strong mutual care for one another, their game would lack necessary connection. The team would be out of sync.

Jim Taylor, one of 10 Packers who played for Lombardi, remembers one of the coach’s tactics that required mutual care and led to their success in the first-ever Super Bowl. “We had established the power sweep,” he recalls. The strategy required a unified force and an unyielding trust in the man on the line by your side. It was based on a foundation of awareness for the other guys on the team. And it led to two Super Bowl victories. “With our blockers we were a ball-possession offense that could move the chains. It’s still only blocking and tackling.”

Lombardi said it this way,

There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. [They’re missing] the third ingredient: if you’re going to play together as a team you’ve got to care for one another. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: ‘I have to do my job well in order that he can do his…’ The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling [the teammates] have for each other.”

Knowing who’s on your team and having a “soft spot” for them, makes the difference to take home the win. 

2. SUCCESSFUL COACHES SHARE THEIR LUNCH.

Coach Bill Parcells, like Vince Lombardi, knew that individual players, no matter how outstanding or capable they were, couldn’t carry the ball alone. Team effort was the only way to the win.

Parcells has a sign hanging in his office that states his philosophy plainly, “Individuals play the game but teams win championships.”

In Super Bowl XXV, Parcells’ winning year with the New York Giants, the final score was 20-19 over Buffalo. We can’t contribute that one point to a single failure or success by either team, but the team that worked in sync: setting a record for the amount of time of ball-control offense (40 minutes and 33 seconds) is a good indication that the team was the victor— not any one, individual player.

Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetler converted three third-down plays—an 11-yard pass to running back David Meggett, a 14-yard toss to wide receiver Mark Ingram, and a 9-yard pass to Howard Cross to give New York a 17-12 lead in the third quarter. Hostetler was never a one man show; it took the team.

Parcell’s coaching proves that what we can do alone pales in comparison to the potential we have when we work together.

 

3. SUCCESSFUL COACHES ARE GOOD AT TRUST FALLS.

Coach Dick Vermeil, who guided the St. Louis Rams to victory in Super Bowl XXIV, prepared for success long before he ever headed to the big game. He’d been learning about his players and becoming a person they could count on since their first practice season.

When asked about his number one priority in leading his team, Vermeil said without hesitation,

Anyone who has coached for long knows that you’ve got to establish trust with your players before you can ever lead your players.  Trust is the most essential thing to establish as a coach; trust precedes influence for every leader of a team.

Coaches like Vermeil foresee the thoughts and emotions that will be generated by an upcoming challenge. Then, they have the authority with the players to redirect their mindset away from fears and worries by reminding everyone of their strengths and focusing their attention on the task at hand.

Successful coaches have a history of accountability and loyalty to their team. And, success in the Super Bowl begins with a coach who understands the value of team unity and deep-rooted trust long before dreaming of being #1.

There is an absolute certainty that they can be trusted win or lose, and that’s how they win.