The more kids I train and know, the more I feel like there are certain family types that I have met. The soccer enthusiasts, the – my child is god families, the – please babysit my kids families, the improvement focused, and so on.
One group of families that constantly outperforms the others is the group of the interested parents.
Parents that come to watch the practice try to understand what is trained, why it is important and if the coach has a plan and an understanding of how and what to train. From experience, the kids of these parents end up improving faster than kids from parents that do not watch their kids train.
Why do these kids improve faster?
Understanding your child:
A lot of times families make assumptions about their kids and how the kids learn. However, that doesn’t always match the kids’ behavior on the field. Do you know what distracts your child, makes practice fun, is hard for your child, which kids are bad and which kids are good influences on your child? Seeing and hearing your child interact and play with others at trainings or in other situations is a very good way to find out.
Understanding the sport:
Parents that know soccer have a major advantage. You don’t need to be Jürgen Klopp and a tactical soccer genius to understand challenges and progressions of youth soccer. But knowing what helps children improve faster and the correct things to improve at certain stages has a tremendous effect.
Evaluating the coaching:
Being able to evaluate what the correct things are to improve helps a lot when picking the right programs for your child and picking the right coaches to help your child grow skills effectively.
That is why kids with parents that are interested in understanding and questioning coaching decisions grow soccer skills on a faster rate than parents who have no clue what’s going on once the kids are dropped of at the activity.
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