How to Be a Supportive Parent for Your Youth Soccer Player

How to Be a Supportive Parent for Your Youth Soccer Player

If you are a parent to a soccer player, your child’s success and experiences have a lot to do with you than the coach. Being a supportive parent will go a long way towards reassuring your youth soccer player and helping them achieve pursue their dream. Most parents want to support their child into becoming an elite soccer player. However, those who have done it know it takes a lot of dedication and patience. Here are some tips to help you navigate the challenging world of raising your youth soccer player.

Set the Best Examples to Model Positive Behavior

Setting the best examples doesn’t require you to be a soccer player. You can always find ways to reinforce positive behavior through working out, self-discipline, commitment, celebrating achievements, and learning how to be patient with others. This is far better support than criticizing teammates, openly doubting the coach, and getting carried away by the competitive atmosphere of the game.

Enjoy Your Child Playing Now

Many parents drown with thoughts of the future. They are constantly worrying about the next level, whether it is high school, the coming season, scholarship, or professional career. The problem with this is you are missing out on the critical steps, which is how your youth soccer player is fairing at the moment. Thinking ahead isn’t wrong, but you should live through your player. Sometimes it helps to just sit back and enjoy each game and moment.

Develop Independence

Children are motivated by the need to prove themselves to their parents and live up to expectations. However, it is essential to cultivate independence and self-confidence by giving up on the mean comments and unrealistic expectations. The goal is to build a healthy self-image and independence, which is crucial for professional athletes.

Encourage Them to Push Harder

Taking risks and working harder to achieve your goals is the difference between soccer players and renowned soccer players. Without the extra push, it will be hard to compete against others giving it more than 100%. Although you shouldn’t push your youth player to extreme levels, encourage them to take realistic risks towards developing their talent. This might mean training harder to improve on-pitch performance.

Don’t Forget the Education Foundation

Soccer isn’t necessarily a foundation on which to build a future for every player. The percentages of youth players that go on to represent their teams in high school, college, and NCAA Division 1 drop significantly through the levels. Ultimately, less than 2% of Division 1 players go on to play soccer professionally. On the other hand, education is the foundation on which your youth soccer player will build their lives. It should be the prime focus.

Are you ready to become a supportive parent for your young soccer player? Total Soccer offers many programs for youth players, starters, group training facilities, and customized programs to help develop young athletes’ talent. We are dedicated to helping our young players reach their potential and work with parents to establish a supportive network. Contact us today to find out more about our soccer classes and day camps.

"TSA provided the foundation for my son & daughter to master the technical and tactical aspects of soccer. I could not be happier with their development at TSA. Excellent training staff! Highly recommend!!" -John C
"My 16 year old son has been training at Total Soccer since he was 5. It is hard to overstate the impact this has had on his confidence, self esteem, technical skills and love of the game. Total Soccer lives up to its name. It really is TOTAL training, from head to toes, in every technical and strategic aspect of soccer. The quality of the coaching is outstanding at every level - from the tiny Soccer Starters to the top level, college-bound high school seniors. Every class keeps all of the athletes fully engaged for the whole time and provides opportunities for individual, one-on-one and group drills and scrimmage. We are incredibly grateful to Total Soccer for providing our son with such a solid foundation of technical skills and love for the game. We recommend it without reservation." - Josh K
"I’ve been coming to Total Soccer since a young age, and am currently 13. My opinion is that it is very beneficial as a soccer player. All of the coaches are encouraging, and push you to get better. Of my time here, I’ve seen nothing but improvement in my foot skills and tactical awareness." - Cindy D
"Total Soccer has provided the foundation for my daughter to take her game to a whole new level. The trainers are able to provide 1:1 support to improve a player's skillset within a session, that would normally take a season to see results. We could not be any happier and always take advantage of their cost effective programs to keep my daughter sharp throughout the year. A++ in our book!" - Sharyn F