How to Encourage Your Children to Play Sports without Pushing



by: Patrick Smallen

Sports are a wonderful outlet for children. Although not all children will decide to play sports for their entire childhood, instilling a love of exercise and the discipline that comes from sports is an important part of a child’s development. Sports will teach children to be strong and independent, how to use good sportsmanship, how to work in a team setting and to have great time management skills.

Things you will need:

• An interest in sports

• Patience and encouragement

Instructions:

1. Encourage your child to play sports at a young age. Children that are five years old are able to start playing soccer. Swimming lessons are also a great time to start encouraging your children to play sports.
2. As your child ages, encourage them to try many different sports. Many communities have numerous sport activities throughout the year for children.
3. After your child has tried several different sports, allow them to choose the sport(s) that they like the best and want to pursue. Never force your child to pick the sport that you want them to choose. Children will be more successful and will be happier if they play the sports that they choose themselves.
4. Once your child has chosen a sport(s), make a commitment as the parent to take your child to practice and all games or meets. As the parent, it is also your responsibility to listen to the coaches. If you disagree with a coach on any subject, talk with them in private. Your child should always respect their coach and should always think that the coach has the final say.
5. When your child competes, always be positive and encouraging to them and their teammates. You must remember that even the best athletes have a bad day so you should never speak in a negative manner to your child.

Tips and Warnings:

• Always be enthusiastic about your child’s choices in sports.

• Help your child coordinate their homework around their sports practices so that they learn time  management and persistence.

Preventing Heat Exhaustion and Dehydration

by: Patrick Smallen

Heat related illness and dehydration is the leading cause of preventable sports injury and death for athletes of all ages. This is an educational article about how to prevent heat exhaustion and dehydration from happening, signs and symptoms to look for, and what to do if someone is suffering from these symptoms to prevent further injury. Safety is the number one issue that all coaches and parents want for their athletes. A little knowledge on this subject can help your athletes make it through summer training safely.

Tragedy has struck many families because of heat related injuries. I personally can remember of 5 NFL players who died from heat stroke. These lives could have been saved if the proper steps had been followed. Instead the symptoms were probably ignored, and now there are families who are missing their Dad.

This article is not only full of tips to help prevent heat illness, but it also has great information on how to prevent further illness once the early symptoms have already begun. This information is here for you to know and help keep your athlete safe while playing the sport they love so much.

http://www.sportssafety.org/articles/heat-exhaustion-and-dehydration/