Let's first decide - a champion or an athlete? After all, teaching a child to sports is one thing, helping him achieve high and highest results is a completely different matter. And it must be approached with particular seriousness. How to develop a habit of playing sports, developing physical activity, how to choose a sport for a child - I wrote about this in the previous article “Children's sports. How to help a young athlete at the start”A champion is actually an expert in his sport, successful, confident in himself and his abilities, strong in spirit, a stable athlete. What is needed in order to develop these qualities? Discipline Sports should be regular and orderly, as well as a daily routine! That is, the most important and important thing that parents can do to help a young athlete is to maintain a daily routine and training. Experienced coaches say: “Children’s sports is a children’s army.” And this is largely true. Self-esteem A quality that is formed throughout life. It's never too late to start improving and maintaining it. And, raising a champion, we must understand that self-confidence and respect for ourselves and others are qualities that we receive from the family. How can parents help here? It is quite obvious: instill respect through your behavior, attitude, example. Excessively strict upbringing in pursuit of discipline is destructive to self-esteem! Training process The most important thing is to instill a sense of joy and pleasure from training. So that the child loves to study and compete. Ideally, he would want to do his homework faster so that he could run to training the same way as to play computer. Here it is very important to mention the role of parents. Parents DO NOT INTERFERE in the training process. They trust the professionalism of the coach and help him do his job - take care of the child and take him to training on time and regularly. Another important point: in order to maintain a child’s interest in playing sports, it is necessary to participate emotionally in his sports life: talk a lot about training, achievements and opportunities, development, failures and successes - constructively. I call it “living his life with him.” Participate in his experiences and help him cope with them. All this is support. So, the coach trains, the parents help and support the child. The competitive process And here the most important thing is to enjoy the process. Competitions should in no case be an “execution”, or an event that influences something (“if you win, we’ll give you a gift, if you lose, don’t expect anything good!”). Competitions are a way to evaluate the work you have done over a period of time (from past competitions, for example). And, if we are talking about a future champion and the sport has already been chosen, then you need to discuss an individual plan for sports achievements with the coach. What is this? Based on the individual characteristics and abilities of the child, write down the goals and objectives of children’s sports before the age of 15: when and what medals we want to receive, when and in what championships and competitions we need to take part in order to advance and, in fact, what to achieve. I repeat Once again, competitions are a way to evaluate the previous period of work. The right choice of the sport *** A few condensed recommendations at the end. Parents: - support and care, follow the recommendations of the coach and doctors; - do not participate in the training and competitive process, but support the athlete’s personality “in the rear”, “behind the scenes” - they monitor health (nutrition/sleep, medical examinations, maintaining and following doctors’ recommendations, daily routine) - competitions: the same support, only even more careful. And if up to 10-12 years It will be possible not to overload with any serious championships and competitions, the opponents will be adequate, and the child will develop an enjoyment of sports and performances, then by the age of 15 you will have an emotionally stable professional. Big victories! Anna Khnykina