If You Want Your Kids To Pursue Their Goals, Get Off The Sidelines

February 20, 2020

As the winter is starting to wrap up, my kids are beginning to think about spring and summer activities. For the past couple years, they have been involved in many of the same sports. This means they know what is expected of them.

At the end of their seasons, they came to me and said, “Mom, next year I want to be faster, better, stronger.”

For one of my kids, this meant swimming year round. On his backstroke, he dropped over half of his original time when he started in just six months. Practicing multiples times a week gave him the muscle memory to kick it into high gear.

My oldest said she wanted to try out for the junior high volleyball team next year. For her, that meant participating in club volleyball in the off season. Touching a ball three times a week can guarantee her to be tryout ready come August.

For my oldest son, he said he didn’t want to be one of the slower kids in football in the fall. The obstacle we run into here is there is no year round football around here. Nor does he want to play in the off season. What this means is I begin researching and watching videos of speed and agility drills that we can run.

This also means that I’m his coach and I’ve got to get in the game along side him. I’m not going to watch him run drills and yell at him to do it again. Nope. Running is something I can do with him and work on my short game as well.

While distance running is off the docket for me, speed drills are another thing. This is where I can excel and give him a partner to do this with. My other kids have teammates to push them to pursue their goals, but in my son’s off season, he’s got me. And I’m going to give him all I’ve got. By August, he’s going to be faster, better, stronger and hell so will I.

Any suggestions on fun speed drills for kids are greatly appreciated.

What sports have you done with your kids?