Teaching Kids About Good Sportsmanship!
Children from a young age need to understand the importance of maintaining the fundamental values of good sportsmanship. Having good sportsmanship skills are vital to nurturing long term friendships and becoming a respectable person. Each week with our Champion’s League program we focus on one of the following 8 values that make up good sportsmanship and reward children that demonstrate those values:
- Enthusiasm
- Communication
- Fair Play
- Determination
- Humility
- Respect
- Unselfishness
- Co-operation
Ways To Teach Your Child Good Sportsmanship
- Be a great role model – Show your child good behaviour when you’re losing and winning. Children mimic role models, whether that be Billy Slater playing Origin or Mum and Dad playing in the local touch footy competition. Don’t carry on like a goose in your game and expect your child to behave differently.
- Call out bad role models – if you’re watching a game and see a professional athlete behaving poorly, let your child know that what they are doing is not cool. Try and reference another elite athlete that would have behaved differently in that situation.
- Be disciplined – Don’t let poor sportsmanship become the norm and a habit. Call it out early and give children consequences for poor sportsman like behaviour.
- Create a positive environment – it’s important that both the coaches and parent’s maintain a positive environment that promotes good sportsmanship over winning (parents MUST behave on the sidelines!)
- Celebrate and reward good sportsmanship – make a point to highlight any specific examples where your child demonstrated good sportsmanship and celebrate it.
By teaching our kids good sportsmanship skills from a young age we can go a long way to keeping children from dropping out of sport because it’s no longer fun.
