One of the challenges, for me personally, having the kids involved in youth sports is the practice dynamic. I, having participated in college sports and continuing to practice various athletic disciplines, know what it takes to not just be good, but be very good. Going out and practicing really isn’t enough- the practice needs to be focused and effort needs to be given and a vision of proficiency has to be maintained and strived for at all times. Also, in order to prevent burning out an athlete needs to rotate through different kinds of routines and drills as well as rotate through different aspects within the discipline.
Having said that, it’s pretty clear that expecting a 7 year old to get all that is a bit of a stretch. Their attentions spans are notoriously short and they have their own things they want to be good at. Like Mario Brothers or Mario Kart. Also, it seeming more and more likely that 7 is the age where a certain amount of rebellion starts to set in. But that’s a different topic.
So typically, when I bring the kids to a practice, I try to encourage them and emphasize “having fun.” To them that mostly, I think, means shucking and jiving with their friends during practice. It doesn’t generally materialize into a consistent amount of effort at trying to get better. In fact, I see a lot of times where they just go through the motions.
Which drives me crazy.
I’m a firm believer that the better an athlete is at a sport, the more fun it is. Not giving effort in practice basically means no improvement; thus, it’s just not as much fun and increases the likelihood of quitting. Actually, I think the basic principle applies to any discipline.
So I’m starting to try to get them to pick something to work on when they practice. But I don’t pick it for them. I just ask what they think they need to improve on. If their reply is to general, like for karate the boy might say “sparring”, I steer him towards something more specific.
“Like what in sparring? Kicking? Blocking?”
By getting them to focus on something in practice, I’m hoping for a number of things. First, that their effort level will improve. Second, they’ll start to get much better. And third, they’ll start to enjoy it more because they are getting better. With any luck, it’ll form a positive feedback loop where having fun motivates them to get even better, making it more fun.