Regardless of the sports your children participate in, you’ll always have a basic to-do list of things you should always adhere to before the start of each sport season. Most children who do indulge in competitive sports do so for many reasons and one of those reasons is to win. In order to help set your children up for the win every season, stick to this list of tasks to complete each time.
5 Ways to Help Your Child Prepare for Their Sports Season
Starting a new sports season can be a lot of work for the parents as much as it means practice for the players. Here’s a few great tips to keep everyone on track whenever a new children’s sports season starts.
Practice and Exercise
Before every sports season, make sure to get your players up off the couch and out and about! Write up an exercise plan depending on the sport the player will be participating in. For physical sports like football or soccer, it may even benefit to enlist a coach or trainer when writing up the pre-season warmup plan. Make sure to get in some cardio and any specific targeted areas in each sport’s plan. Get your players to keep a log of their activities so you can adjust their schedule with a good variety and also ramp up the exercise as needed.
Consider a Sports Camp
Most areas have a regional location where larger sports camps can be held. At a sports camp players can brush up on all of the most critical skills to their sport. Often, local and professional coaches teach these sports camps. The drill work at sports camps will help your child brush up on real-game situations during live and very fun, scrimmages. Check around in your local area for what is available nearest you. If you can’t find one locally, check with local schools and colleges. 
Visit a Medical Professional
Although the school or local team will probably require a full sports physical before allowing participation, you should also check with your children’s doctor about their participation in any given sport. Especially if your child has current medical issues or are on any type of regular maintenance medications. Make sure to get this check up from your personal care physician well ahead of time. That way if there are any hindering health issues, the possibility of improvement before the season starts grows exponentially with professional medical advice.
Check and Update Gear
Check with the coach of your chosen sport to make sure you have a full list of items that will be needed. New equipment can be expensive but there are usually used sports stores you can get discount gear from as well. Use your good judgment, if the sport is baseball, there’s little issue with using a used catcher’s mitt, or knee pads. However, if the sport is motocross, you might want to start out with new equipment for safety purposes alone. Once you have your gear, make sure to clean it up, test the most critical mechanics, practice and make sure your equipment is prepared for a full season.
Keep Realistic Goals
Before each season starts, take the time to set a few goals with your children. And always make sure those are the children’s goals. Not yours. A five year old’s only goal may be just to get to play in a community sport and older child may expect to win several games. Whatever their goal, encourage them to reach them and congratulate them when they do.
While it’s important to practice and prepare for each season, it’s also critical to avoid over-training or overuse injuries. Be sure to take at least 2 months per year off from any and all sports to allow your body to regenerate from damaged, torn or overworked muscles.
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