Celebrating Parents in Sport Week

As parents, you are often the main support network for your child, helping them to get to where they need to be, with all the correct equipment and on time. But, above and beyond the logistical support, you play a vital role in understanding the motivations of your child and ensuring that the environment and culture they compete in is right for them and their needs.

You also have significant influence on your child’s attitudes and behaviours towards sport. Therefore, as parents, it’s important that you can articulate and share the benefits that sport can bring to your child’s life which include providing opportunities for challenge, connectedness and friendship.

We recognise the scale of the support provided by parents everywhere and want to thank you all for the important role you play in providing your child with a positive experience of competition and engagement in sport.

Want to do more?

With the school environment being the first place that many children experience PE, sport and play it is imperative that the experience provided is inspiring, accessible and meaningful to all, not just the minority. Over the lockdown period, we have seen competition delivered in a different way through virtual challenges. It is likely that this will continue over the forthcoming months alongside extracurricular provision which could be school sport clubs and/or intra school competition (e.g. house v house competitions within a school).

The #ReframeCompetition campaign tackles some of the negative experiences that exist within competition when there is an over-emphasis on a single outcome – most goals, fastest time or furthest distance. As a parent, think about the types of conversation you have with your child and their school around school sport competition. Do you know why your son/daughter competes? 

Click here to find out more about #ReframeCompetition.

How can you support your child?
In a recent pilot study conducted through the School Games, we set out to find out what young people think about parental support through competition. Unsurprisingly, responses varied between young people and was dependent on their individual needs and motivations but overall, the key messages were that young people would like their parents to:

• Be PRESENT - be visible and pay attention to what they are doing 
• Be POSITIVE - highlight specific things that they are doing well 
• Be PROACTIVE - seek opportunities to encourage, recognise and value their efforts rather than their results. 

Building in time for conversations with your child about what support they would benefit from could help you to help them to have an even more positive experience of competition and engagement in sport.

For further information: https://thecpsu.org.uk/parents/ and https://www.youthsporttrust.org/family-hub