I LOVE junior sport, seeing kids learning and having fun playing the sports we all love is honestly awesome.
I have coached junior sports on and off for the best part of 25 years.
Now, as a parent I truly understand what an honour it is to be able to mould in some way our next generation of sports stars and human beings.
But gee, has the way kids see their sport stars changed in that 25 years.
When I was a teenager I was a tennis coach, and I would also help my dad out with some of the younger junior footy sides back at the Imps footy club.
At the time I was playing under 17s and I believe dad was coaching our under 13s. So this was well before YouTube or social media, and all we saw of our stars was what we saw on TV on a Friday night, Saturday night or Sunday afternoon on Channel 7.
It seemed that the players were more sanitised on the field back then, with both their celebrations but also the trash talk.
Whether this is true or not I can’t be too sure, but what I have noticed is a massive change in what kids pick up from their idols.
This is because of social media and the access kids now have to these platforms through iPhones, iPad and other devices that my kids seem to know more about than me.
So this is why now, more than ever, the responsibility of the junior coaches and parents in all sports to encourage our kids to learn about winning and losing the right way is so important.
Unfortunately the absolute rubbish we see online from sporting professionals, and in particular the NBA basketball stars, is just ridiculous.
It seems that the cockiness, arrogance and ridiculous celebrations are swarming our junior sporting games.
To be honest, this needs to stop!
But just watch the kids closely on a Saturday morning on the footy field or netball court and just see some of the horrible traits that our kids seem to be picking up from them.
The overhyped celebrations for a goal kicked are one I’ve noticed.
Now I’m not a massive fan of these celebrations but I’m not going to be the killjoy to tell them not to celebrate in this way either. Because quite simply the kids are having fun.
But what I have noticed creeping into our junior sporting fields is the cockiness and trash talk that seems to be quite uniquely an American thing. I absolutely detest it.
And this is what we as junior coaches, and more importantly parents, need to stamp out immediately.
We need to teach our children about how to compete properly and how to win and lose properly too.
We need to be pulling up our kids when we see this trash talk take place and telling them this is not acceptable.
And we as parents on the sidelines we don’t need to be yelling and screaming at the kids on the field either.
If it is encouragement being yelled out, by all means go for it.
But don’t for one moment think the kids don’t hear the negative rubbish being yelled out too.
Because they hear and remember this more than the good things, and they will then see this behaviour as normal and do this on the field too.
I have heard seven and eight-year-old kids berate opponents with some truly horrifying things.
Our job as junior coaches is not to win on a Saturday morning, our job is to make learning and playing our game fun, and for the kids to want to come back again next Saturday and play again.
So if you love seeing your children having fun on a sports field on a Saturday morning, you as the parent need to also ensure that all the other kids in the team or on the opposing team are having as much fun too.
Encourage your kids to be great if that’s what they want, but also start teaching them how to be humble and kind to other kids too.
Now, not everyone is going to be amazing on the field, but that’s okay, as long as they are learning and enjoying it, then that is fine.
And not all kids are going to continue on through the grades as they get older because quite simply they might enjoy other things more than football or netball, and that’s okay too.
But if we can teach our kids from the moment they start playing sports how to be respectful to their team mates and opposition, how to understand how words do impact how other kids may feel, and that those other kids they may think about that relentlessly, and then not want to play the next week.
Teaching our kids how they do react to winning or losing is crucial, because then maybe more kids will want to stay in sport longer.
After all, nobody is celebrating a 10 year reunion for an under 10s team that won all their games one year because an idiot parent kept scores on the sidelines.
Yes, the kids know even in under 10s who has won or lost, but we don’t need to discuss this with the kids or emphasise it either. Just ask them what they enjoyed most about the game and encourage them, and most of all be happy for them.
I am a true believer that sport mimics life, so if we can teach our kids these positive things above then maybe you will have a child who shows respect to everyone both inside and outside of sport – and along the way other valuable life lessons that will mould them into compassionate and understanding adults.
So in short our kids do and say exactly what they see.
If you as the parent or coach are the biggest influence on their lives in a positive way, then maybe these idiots in the NBA and their ridiculous celebrations, disgusting trash talking and just despicable sportsmanship won’t be such a negative influence.
So don’t be afraid to call out your own child if you see them act in this way, after all, it’s only a game.
