How to Motivate Your Child For Basketball
Sometimes motivating your kid into training or playing basketball can be a big issue. I know, I’ve been there too. My son is almost 10 years old and when he first started playing, it was a chore for both of us to train and play.
He would pick up a ball dribble for awhile, put it down. Then he wouldn’t listen to directions and get annoyed with the teaching tips I gave him.
Don’t worry there are ways to help when your child is this way with basketball.
Below you’ll find the quick tips and tricks I’ve used to motivate a child into training and playing basketball.
Keep Them Focused
Keeping them focused can be a frustrating proposition, but I’ve always found that you have to create small games within the game to keep your child’s interest. Kids love games!
Take drills and turn them into little contests and even pull out a stop watch and see if they can beat their own times. Even being competitive with themselves is a viable way of keeping their interest.
The younger the child the more encouragement they’ll need as well. You can’t be too rigorous with a 5 year old, but you can push a 9 year old. Make them feel that they are always improving and give the younger ones much more encouragement.
Children get bored when they aren’t involved, so make sure even when you are explaining things, you are walking them through hand in hand.
One on One Training
Take the time to teach your child one on one. Once you have them focused, it will be a lot easier to get them into drills and exercises that you would like to use.
Bond with your child with the game of basketball and make them feel the love for the game that you do.
Children don’t always understand the complexities of the game, but they can see your love for it.
Take them through and show them why you love basketball.
If you are doing drills, show them that you can do the drills as well. Participate and make them feel as though you are equals.
Talking down to your child in this situation will lead them to turn off from what you are coaching and maybe even the game in general.
Get their Friends Involved
Whether your child is on a team or not, you want to make sure you get kids around them that want to play too. It makes your child much more likely to play and be competitive if the kids around them are.
These kids should push your child to want to do better even when you aren’t around.
One of the things I found with my son, is that these kids made him want to work harder so that he could “break ankles”. He would even get into battles on court with his much older cousins!
This pushed him to want to work. He even asked to start lifting weights!
While weights are a long way off, he goes into every gym session now excited to learn, and will shoot and dribble for hours.
Don’t underestimate their peers helping your child with motivation.
Share Games with Them
One thing we take for granted and don’t do enough of, is sharing sports with our children. We watch games on TV and send them into another room or just out of the way.
Make sure you bring your kid back in to watch with you. It isn’t just a bonding experience, it also gives you an opportunity to teach them fundamentals and rules.
Give them a chance to see the game the way you do. Let them pick favorite players and teams.
Show them the history of the game, and the great players that came before.
My son adores Michael Jordan and will hunt up videos on YouTube just to see him play. He is starting to appreciate the other aspects of the game, not just that he plays sometimes.
Take that couch time and show them the game from a fan perspective.
Let them dream of being on that TV one day.
We usually pick our idols at a very young age, help them see that basketball has great role models and work ethic that they can model themselves after.
Share Your Experiences With Your Kid
This could be the most important point, but it is something we don’t always remember to do. Share your history with basketball with your child. Tell them about how you started and how you came to love the game.
Make a story out of it so that they can follow along. You could be the basketball hero they always needed, and you can inspire them to play even more.
Kids need inspiration, and what better way than from you.
Conclusion
We all want what’s best for our kids, but we don’t always have a clear plan of how to get them there.
We need to encourage and inspire our children to play basketball. We want to train them and have them get better every time they play.
Bring their friends into the games and training sessions.
Bring your child into the game as a fan, and let them hear your stories of glory when you were younger.
Be the role model and coach that your child needs, and they will come with you on this journey. They will cherish the bonding time and look forward to your coaching.
You can motivate your child for basketball and be their guiding force.
Help them by getting them the best gear to train and play the game.
Share your love for them and your love of the game with them.
Do you have any tips on how you motivate your child, anything you can add to the discussion? We want to hear from you!
