Summer sports: An opportunity to learn

It’s summer once again and it’s that time of year when most parents scramble to find the best summer activity suited for their children. 

Depending on your child’s interest, the general choices available to all are arts, music and sports. Begin by making sure that there is a clear understanding of what direction you will choose. Studies have shown that a person’s character, personality and inclination are already formed by age 7, so we parents must be able to recognize this really early. 

If the inclination is towards sports, let these 5 suggestions be your guide when choosing the sport, program and the coach. Remember, to a child, all his experiences when taken together will be integral parts of his adult life.

1. Be clear with your reasons

Why are you getting into sports? There are varied reasons but these can be grouped into 3 general responses: Some just want to enjoy the summer, several simply desire to have their children indulge in physical activity, and a handful are truly gifted and would really want to be good at the sport. 

We coaches have the benefit of assessing your children based on what we simply see during the first few days of spending time with them. We normally readily identify those who are in it just to pass the time, those who need to inject some form of physical activity in their lives and those who are truly dedicated to learn. 

The better coaches will continue to teach the same fundamentals, but will also be able to impart knowledge to each one of them differently because of the understanding of what the child would want to experience. 

Once your objective is clear choosing a proponent or a club must be similar to the way you would choose a school for your children.

2. Understand the history and vision of the club

Choose the proponent the way you will choose a school for your child. The truth is children learn a lot from their summer activities. It is here that the virtues that sports offer are learned. Virtues like discipline, respect, teamwork, patience and determination are best taught through sports.

So, do your due diligence and understand thoroughly what the group has to offer.  Understand their vision. Appreciate the reason for their existence. Coaching, like teaching, is a vocation, not just an occupation. It is best to see beyond the business side of the operation. 

Consider a situation where your child is faced with a situation wherein they must choose between doing the right thing that is much harder to do over a wrong option which is easier and his team wins. Mind you, moments like this will come.  If the coaching staff is driven by the desire to always win they will probably choose the latter. However if the coaches are motivated to teach these young athletes with the virtue of hardwork and perseverance, they will choose the former. Both are real choices. Note that you will not be there and whatever direction they take will be part of your child’s learning experience. 

A great way to appreciate a club’s vision is to observe athletes who have attended the program you are evaluating. Do you want your child to be like those athletes after two or 3 summers? 

3. Get to know the head of the program

When enrolling your child into his first school or when you moved him up to elementary education in another school, didn’t you find the need to sit down and talk to the most senior person you can speak to? 

It is no different when choosing a summer sport. It may sound too serious a process but if you make a mistake in your choice, it will have serious implications. 

Ask the head exactly what the program objectives are. If the objectives are limited to simply teaching the fundamentals and mechanics of the sport you might want to look for other options before making your final choice. Anybody who has played the sport can teach a child how to play. But the virtues to be learned from the experience must be properly identified and worked on. This is basically what separates a truly remarkable summer sports program from others.  

Check if these objectives are documented and if they are practiced by all the coaches assigned to the training sessions. The size of club does not matter. It is the adherence to the stated goals implemented with deep caring for the child athlete that is paramount. 

4. Not too far, not too near 

If you agree that the summer sports activity of your child is an important learning experience then the proximity of the location integral variable.

Most parents would simply choose the closest basketball camp or swimming lessons to their home. Please do not. To make this a valuable experience, choose the right option even if it is not the closest one to you. 

But, also make sure that it is not too far. The experience must be endearing but also enjoyable. Traveling 2 hours just to get to the “best” option defeats the purpose of allowing our children to enjoy and learn.

More importantly, because there is extra effort to get to a farther location, you will recognize if your child really is engaged with this activity. 

I had a friend who enrolled their son for swimming lessons in the clubhouse of their village. Unfortunately the coach was using outdated training concepts and tools, and that young man had a traumatic summer. It took for this young boy two years to get back into the water. 

5. Support and enjoy. Remember and forget

Much like enrolling your children to regular school, after going through the whole process as described above, parents for the most part allow the school to do what is expected of them. We trust that our children will graduate having been trained a certain way. Most of us don’t get involved in the details like questioning the topics and homework given, criticizing a teacher’s style or be on our child’s case hovering over them at home and discussing every detail of their performance. 

Unfortunately and really quite surprisingly, we see this all the time on the court, pool, pitch and diamond. After clearing up your expectations and choosing the right partner organization to train your child in his chosen sport, it is best to simply allow the learning process to proceed. Enjoy the experience together. With your children, rejoice in victory and learn from the defeats.

Take everything in. Remember the glory and forget the pain with your young athletes. If they see you do this, they will too. Winning is something but not everything. Losing means nothing if you stop counting.

The truth is, parents are much a part of this experience. Make the summer count for your kids. – Rappler.com

Mike Ochosa is President of Philippine Habagat Baseball Club Inc. Follow him on his social media accounts:  @philippinehabagat and @coachmikeochosa on FB, @mochosa on IG and @mikeochosa on Twitter.