Harvey Howard is the owner of My Gym Children’s Fitness Center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He is a certified special education teacher, elementary teacher, guidance counselor, and student assistance professional located in New Jersey. He takes the time to explain why it is important for children to try out multiple different sports while they are young.
When kids are still at a young age, I believe it is better for them to explore multiple sports than to get stuck doing only one thing. That is for a lot of reasons, but mainly it is because children need the chance to develop broader experiences in life so they can make better judgments and decisions down the road. Allowing them to explore different sports during their youth is a great way to expand their horizons.
Parents need to let their kids try hockey, lacrosse, soccer, basketball—they should try it all. Because honestly, if your child is naturally athletic then he is going to excel at all the sports. When it comes to these kids, every sport they try is a success and every coach ends up telling the parents that their child is fabulous and that he is going to get a college scholarship if he sticks with it.
In reality, however, it is best for even the most athletic kids to shop around, so to speak. Parents need to let their kids try a lot of different types of sports before they can really figure out what they enjoy doing most. Because, as I said, a good, athletic kid is going to be great at any of the sports he tries. So it is more about determining what he likes than what he is good at.
When you’re dealing with a child who may not be so naturally athletic, trying a variety of different sports is also a good idea. For these kids, it is more about giving them a taste of what is out there and figuring out what sports they might be more successful at playing than others. Of course, no matter how your child performs, it is important for parents to stay positive and motivational. If a child does not feel like he is successful at something, he won’t want to do it anymore.
That is one of the reasons why positive reinforcement is once again important in this issue, because kids just want approval from their parents. So if a child thinks his parents don’t support his participating in a certain sport—or if he doesn’t think his parents believe he is “good” at it—then he won’t want to keep playing. Similarly, if a parent practices positive reinforcement and tells the child what a good job he is doing on a regular basis, then the child will want to continue putting himself out there and trying new things.
Certainly, parents shouldn’t be encouraging any child to stick too closely to any one sport at a young age, even if that is what the kid thinks he wants to do. It is the parent’s job to show him what else is out there, because if the parent doesn’t show him nobody else will.
Although I think it is valuable to have different exposures, I don’t believe it is good to have your child involved in sports all year around. I recommend most parents against that. As a general rule of thumb, it is always best to give your child at least one entire season off per year. And during that time, he can just go play and relax without worrying about practices or anything else.
