Form or fun: How to teach your kids sports

Basketball.  Hockey.  Soccer.  Baseball.  Gymnastics.   There are few parents who would not like their kids to be physically skilled and able in sports.  Maybe this is because parents see their kids as little versions of themselves.  Maybe it is because athletics are so important in many American high schools.  Maybe it is because many parents think they were just a little bit better than the coach thought and see their kids as a way to get it right.  Whatever the reason, it seems a certainty of raising kids.

It’s one thing for your offspring to be dominant in backyard sports and not to play official sports (for whatever reason: lack of interest, choosing another sport, and so on).  It is quite another situation if your son or daughter cannot play a sandlot game because they are afraid or do not know how to play.  Of course, there are a range of dispositions to sports in between.  Overall, every parent wants their kid to be able to make a hoop, score a goal, and hit a ball.

I’m sure there are kids (mine are not one of them) who have beautiful shots, wonderful swings, and slingshot arms.  For the rest of us, we have to teach our kids how to do those things.  Learning these things and how to do them consistently well can be pretty boring.  So..how should you do it?

The key is fun.  Fun comes with variance, encouragement, and making it into a game.  We’ll go over each.  then I read this..I now always try to praise effort, not outcomes.  Third, my kids never wanted to line up soccer balls and kick them into the goal..until I became the goalie monster and kept their balls out..now we can try to kick balls in every night.  Another side tip: the goalie monster has to allow goals.  It hurts my pride, but I do.  There has to be occasional proverbial pay dirt.  There will be a time when I can try hard, but not to start. 

First, variance means you increase and decrease the difficulty of whatever you’re trying to do.  If you’re playing catch, move further away and then closer.  Then, further.  Count the number of tosses, include a brother or sister.  Keep it moving.  Second, make a big deal about the effort.  If a kid is throwing overhand, encourage the effort (not the outcome).  It sounds a little soft and maybe a little too politically correct.  I thought it was kind of lame too..

Expanding on the fun..you gotta watch the sports on tv with the kids.  And on the radio.  This might sound like a desparate plea from a Sportscenter  addict.  It is..sort of.  After bath on summer nights, we watch some of the Tigers game.  On Sunday nights, we curl up in our mother in law room and watch Chris Berman et al go over the football highlights.  In the winter, it is hoops.  It explain the game.  We cheer our team.  As much as possible.  It underlines the point: this sport is fun.  I talk a little more about it in this blog post.

Eventually, though, it comes down to a basic question, what happens when your child kicks with his/her toes?  Or shoots two handed?  Or doesn’t put his back elbow up when he/she hits?  Or throws underhand?  Or catches with his/her chest?

My daughter, Chloe (7), wants to shoot with a basketball that is bigger than she can control and shoot with good form.  She DOES NOT want to use a mini-ball (like you’d see in a pop-a-shot) because we used bigger basketball s in her first formal basketball league last winter.  However, she cannot shoot the ball with one hand (with the other as a guide) with the bigger ball.  I had to choose: her pride or form.  I chose to let her shoot the ball.  I concentrated on her shooting from her chin.

In situations like this one, I think it is important to focus on skills kids can do well.  For example, Chloe can do dribbling and passing with good form.  She also can learn how to move without the ball.  I can teach (or reteach) her how to shoot later.  Fun first.  

However, there are still ways you can encourage good form.  Lighter equipment, larger goals, anything to make good form and success both attainable.

I’ve also had success with making things like races, monkey in the middle, and swat-aways the way to learn good form.   When I work with one, two, or three, I can do this well.

I think form is important, as long as the kid is having fun and can have some success, while keeping form.  Overall, fun is more important than form.  You (or a more educated coach) can teach the kids form.  They cannot teach them games are awesome and sports rule.