It’s easy to think it’s all down to the athlete and the coach, but parents can influence more than they think, especially with young athletes.
Parents can significantly impact an athlete’s performance, too; it’s mostly about knowing what helps and when to step in or step back. Think of it as your role in youth sport, helping create the routines and mindset that let training do its job. So, if you've been watching from the sidelines, willing your athlete to that win, time, height, or distance and wishing you could help, read on...
Why Parents Matter in Youth Sport
Improved performance isn’t just down to the time they spend training and competing, which, during the school years, probably amounts to only 6 to 12 hours each week. The rest of the week matters too, especially the time spent at home, where you have far more influence than you might think. With some knowledge and a desire to help, you can make subtle changes that can make a real difference.
For all kids, a healthy, well-balanced diet, adequate sleep, a home life that actively encourages movement and physical activity, and positive parent-child communication are the keystones to good physical and mental health. In short, the home environment we provide can shape who they become. And it’s not just sport, good routines also help with energy, mood, and focus for school. But what if the child also happens to be keenly pursuing a sport?
For sport-focused kids, each of these areas takes on a whole new level of importance, as physical and psychological health are key factors determining the likelihood of success. As we control, to a large extent, the factors that determine both, it's easy to see that our role can be an immensely important one.
Where Parents Can Make a Difference
To help give your athlete the best chance of success, we've compiled a short list of key areas where you can play your part.
Here are just a few areas where parents can make a real difference, without becoming the coach.
Nutrition
Sleep
Confidence-boosting communication.
Instilling a growth mindset.
How you respond to success and setbacks.
Teen Nutrition for Sport
Nutrition plays a big role in performance and recovery. Our problem as parents is that teenagers can be selective, busy, and hard to shift once they’ve got preferences. Coupled with this age group's aversion to parental 'advice', persuading them to eat a healthy diet can be immensely frustrating, and sometimes it can feel like you’re getting nowhere. Sometimes, they just have to work out the benefits themselves, in their own time.
Until they reach high-level competition, good overall nutrition should be the name of the game. Leading by example is by far the most effective way to positively impact what they eat and drink, as well as their attitude towards food. Merely telling them what to do without following the same advice yourself is unlikely to result in positive change, as this approach can easily come across as nagging. As we all know, nagging usually leads to resistance, so it’s rarely the best route.
So, for them to become healthy-eating athletes, you'll probably need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk! But hey, this means that you, and maybe even the rest of the family, will reap the benefits of healthy nutrition.
Teen Athlete Sleep
This is a tricky one, as teenagers will be reluctant to see an early bedtime as positive. Your best approach here is to subtly drip-feed the idea that healthy sleep habits can improve performance. When ready, they'll join the dots and make the necessary changes in their own time... and under their own terms. It might not click straight away, but once they feel the difference, it tends to stick.
When They Don’t Want to Hear It From You
As with nutrition, athletes are far more likely to take sleep seriously when the advice comes from those they look up to and respect in sport rather than their parents. It often lands differently when it comes from a coach, an older athlete, or someone they look up to. That’s one reason we’ve included nutrition and sleep modules featuring elite athletes and professionals on our athlete platform, The Athlete Place.
Confidence and Communication
Your words and how you say them can shape your child's confidence. It’s easy to underestimate the power of words and how they are delivered because, right from birth, this will profoundly affect how they interpret and ‘see the world'.
In sports, how we respond to their performances matters because, if not thought through, body language and words can (inadvertently) send unhelpful messages.
Therefore, we should always strive to say the right things and behave in ways that boost their confidence, while also being mindful to keep it real. A good rule is to praise effort, bravery, and decision-making, not just outcomes. Understanding that there's a fine line between helpful confidence and counterproductive overconfidence will enable us to strike the right balance.
Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is one of the most useful things a parent can help build, athlete or not.
Using a narrative that suggests you can improve a lot with time, effort, and the right support creates the positive “I can” approach, a core requirement for all children, especially aspiring young athletes.
This more positive take on challenges kicks into touch the fixed mindset belief that only clever or ‘talented’ kids succeed and leaves wide open an exciting world of possibility.
If your athlete has high sporting ambitions, the ‘growth mindset’ “I can” attitude will be an absolutely core requirement.
Handling Success and Setbacks
Dealing with disappointments in a helpful way is all part of the confidence-boosting challenge, but what about when things are going well?
Yes, it feels amazing when they start to experience success, but how you respond to that success can significantly impact them as athletes and also, importantly, how others see them. Keeping them grounded will be essential if they are to continue to progress within their sport. Acknowledging that their winning streak/team selection could end at any time due to injury or another athlete becoming better can help them stay humble while ensuring they remain popular amongst their fellow athletes. Arrogance stemming from success can backfire socially, especially during the teenage years. It’s normal to feel proud. Just be careful not to turn success into identity. Keeping them grounded usually helps, both socially and competitively.
Want to go a little deeper?
Explore the parent modules inside The Athlete Place | Parents, covering nutrition, sleep, mindset, wellbeing, and much more.
There’s also an athlete platform for your young athlete, shaped by elite athletes and experts.
The guidance is split into a parent experience and an athlete experience, each designed around their real challenges and daily routines.
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