Towards building sports communities

When our children enter the world of youth sports, none of us is prepared for what lies ahead. Basically, most of us start from ground zero and feel our way along an uncertain path, depending upon common sense to help us provide support to our kids.Essentially, all parents have common objectives. We want to be recognised as good parents; we want to relax and enjoy ourselves while sharing sports experiences with our kids; we want them to learn valuable life lessons by participating in sports; we want sport to be a refreshing diversion from the normal routine of everyday life; we want sports to provide our kids and the entire family with a sense of community; and finally we would all like to believe that through our actions we have left the world of sports a better place than we found it. Whether or not we are able to clearly articulate these goals, they all eventually reside somewhere within us as private hopes and dreams for our children. Each one of us assumes the role of sports parent with different experiences of sports and life. However, we all move through a development process as sports mentors to our children, though some develop faster than others. But at the basic level we all aspire to satisfy our need for recognition. If we dont believe that others regard us as competent sports parents, it is difficult to move beyond and focus upon ourselves. If we lack confidence that our kids will be successful in sports and games arenas, it will be difficult for us to get beyond that level of concern. And if we are not able to control our emotions and take pleasure in sports experiences with our kids, it will be difficult to get out of ourselves and enable our children to enjoy sports. So the first challenge for parents is to get beyond being tied up in satisfying our own needs. Until we have learned to satisfy our own needs for recognition as sports parents, it is unlikely we will succeed in focusing upon what our kids want to get out of sports or what they need to get out of sports. Once we have reached the level of being able to go beyond ourselves, we are freed up to consider what is in the best interest of our kids. Then we can turn our attention to how sports and games can be used to teach our kids life skills that will assist them throughout their lives. Also, we will be able to focus upon how our childrens minds can be expanded so they will be open to experiencing sports in ways that inspire, educate, and unite them with their teammates and opponents on playing fields and stadiums. Only after we have developed the capacity to attend to our childrens welfare, rather than our own, after the satisfaction of their needs takes precedence over our own, will we be able to turn our attention to satisfying the needs of…