Parenting and Coaching in Youth Sport - Let's Do it right!

Let The Kids Play
He stands there in his jersey, fulfilling all his dreams,                                                                                  Representing club and family, and he is on the team.                                                                                                The ball thrown in, the game is on, there is movement all around,                                                                          Some parents shouting frantically, ​as the ball's played up and down.

The game is moving quickly, the boy giving his all,
He is moving into spaces, but can't get on the ball,
He stays running and tackling, he is trying very hard,
Somehow, the ball never falls his way, for all his running yards.

Eventually it comes his way, he sees it coming in.
He's on his own, a perfect chance, to score a goal and win.
Oh no, he mis-controls the ball, it's now gone from his grasp.
Parents groaning, some giving out, that he's has missed a great goal chance.

One man pipes up and calls him out, singles the boy out from the crowd,
"Come on to hell Coach, take him off", he hollers from the side.
The boy's heart sinks, he has done his best, he thought he was doing well.
Why is this man being so unkind, he's just here to play with friends.

It's only a game to be enjoyed, who cares who wins in the end?                                                                          He's only a kid, just turned ten and playing under twelve.                                                                                    Sport, he thinks shouldn't feel like this, he plays it just for fun,                                                                           But when adults grab a hold of it, sometimes this is all undone.

So just let them play and let them fly, and let them just enjoy.                                                                            Kid's sport is not for adult's needs, ​for we have had our time!

                                                                     Keith Begley

We have had too much of this

This is why the pros played as kids! 

and this is why the kids play!

This is some perspective on female involvement in sports
https://20x20.ie/podcast/ 

And this is what children want from their parents.

Unleash Your Potential

Keith Begley is a member of the Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (CASES) and an Accredited Performance Psychology Consultant with the Irish Sport and Exercise Science Association ISESA.​