Ready for Youth Sports: 12 Ways to Support Young Athletes

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Last Updated on July 3, 2024 by The Smetz Files

Are you raising young athletes? Thinking about diving into the world of youth sports? If you answered, ‘yes’ to either of these questions, keep reading for 12 ways to support your young athlete.

In the grand scheme of things, I’m a newer sports mom. My kids are tweens, so we haven’t yet reached the height of high school athletics. But, my two sporty sibs have been involved with youth sports in some capacity since they were three years old.

I’ve spent the last decade raising kids in youth sports. From rec ball to travel ball to sports clinics, we’ve done it all.

Here are 12 ways to support young athletes:

• Follow their interest.
• Be their advocate.
• Pay attention to their cues.
• Show up and encourage.
• Get to know their teammates, families, & coaches.
• Ask questions.
• Listen to them.
• Fuel them.
• Research.
• Prepare.
• Take breaks.
• Pray for them.

Read more as I detail my experiences as a sports mom raising two young athletes.

Follow their interest

When it comes to activities and exploring interests, we like to follow our kids’ lead. That can be challenging when you have kids who are interested in everything. When presented with opportunities, most often our kids respond with some variation of, ‘Yeah! I want to try that!’

I love their ‘can do’ attitude and confidence, but as their parents, sometimes we have to narrow the choices and present options that fit their interests and our capacity. With all that said, we’ve never registered them for sports or any activity without their buy in.

We’ve played every youth sport readily available in our small town. From soccer to basketball, baseball and softball to tennis and gymnastics. We’ve explored hockey, golf, flag football, and the running club. We squeezed in dance and swim lessons. As they have gotten older we’ve narrowed a bit to focus on two to three sports throughout the year where they can develop their skills. This helps us manage the commitment as a family.

In the beginning, I say give it a try and follow their interest (within reason!).

Be their advocate.

This applies to all aspects of raising kids. In each situation they’re in from school to sports to church and volunteer opportunities, we try to position them to use their skill sets productively.

Often in youth sports the coaches are volunteers who graciously give their time to developing kids. This is awesome! It’s also a good idea to help coaches get to know your kid and advocate for their special needs and specific personalities.

As our kids are getting older, we’ve started talking about how to respectfully advocate for themselves. This is a bit trickier, but in general it’s important to keep open communication with your kids’ coaches and training staff.

Which leads me to…

Pay attention to their cues.

I might be in the minority here, but as mom I worry about their mental health and well being. My son was eight years old when he first started pitching and I was terrified for his psychological well being. I worried if he could handle the pressure of pitching out of trouble and having all eyes on him as he struggled. It’s one thing watching the big leaguers, but my eight year old?!?! Was he ready to handle that???

They’ve both had to work through different challenges on and off the field. And that is to be expected and one of the many life lessons playing sports teaches. Buuuut as their mom, I still don’t love seeing them struggle!

Pay attention to their cues. Note their body language and what they’re really telling you when they claim to be fine. I can read when they’re in the zone and feeling confident just as well as when they’re in a slump and need to regroup and refocus.

When our daughter walked away from competitive gymnastics initially it felt out of the blue. But, as I reflected on the previous months, there were cues that I had not picked up on in the moment.

There’s more to sports than technical skill and athleticism. Knowing how they handle the highs and lows is important to supporting your young athlete.

Show up and encourage.

This is probably the most commonly thought of way to support young athletes. Go to their games and events and cheer them on!

Even when I think they’re not paying attention, they always sneak in a sweet smile in my direction that lets me know they appreciate me being there.

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It can be a tough balance of getting them to practices and games on time while working or splitting time between siblings’ sports schedules. With two kids playing multiple sports we’ve had to leverage the divide and conquer approach to make it all happen.

While I’m always disappointed to miss the live action, I’m grateful for team apps like Game Changer so you can follow the live action from afar when needed.

Get to know their teammates, families, and coaches.

We’re a baseball loving family and over the years, some of our best memories are with those we’ve shared time together on the diamond. When our kids started playing youth sports, their teammates and families became some of our closest friends.

There’s a natural connection amongst the families you spend your weekends with, cheering on your kids. Beyond camaraderie of supporting all the kids, getting to know their families can be helpful with car pools and travel logistics. It’s also nice to get video of your kid when you can’t be there because you’re doing the sports mom shuffle across town with the sibling! Don’t forget to reciprocate when they’re missing the action.

You can’t be besties with everyone, but getting to know their teammates and their families is part of being involved with youth sports and feeling connected to their team.

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Ask questions.

I like to ask questions to gauge my kids’ reactions to certain things and hear their perspective. I also like to check in and see how they’re feeling about the demands of their sport, their goals, and how they’re balancing school and family commitments.

Remember, we see things through our lens (we’re human!), but they likely see things differently. It’s always good to know where their head is. A few questions we’ve asked to support our athletes:

• How do you want us to encourage you in games?
• How do you like to receive feedback?
• What can we do to support your goals?

Asking the coaching staff questions is important too. It’s always helpful to have the most up to date information to make smart decisions with your kid.

Of course, if you’re going to ask questions you need to be willing to…

Listen.

…listen to their responses. This can be tricky, especially if they answer in ways you don’t expect.

Often the post game car ride includes reflecting on their performance. It’s easy to focus on the wins, but we also listen for how they talk about their areas for improvement. At this stage they’re both pretty good at evaluating their individual contributions, deconstructing their approach, and talking through their next steps.

Sometimes they just want to talk randomly about things. Like interactions at practice, or share their teammate’s new walk up song. Despite the bad reputation car pooling all over town for practices gets, listening to young athletes in the car is one of my favorite aspects of youth sports.

Asking questions and listening helps you navigate their cues and advocate for your athlete productively. Plus, it’s just nice to connect with your kid and enjoy their individual personality!

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Fuel them.

Just yesterday I scrambled eggs for my son to eat a quick snack before basketball practice. Fueling them with healthy food and snacks feels like a full time job for sports moms! Or is it just me?!

With limited time and needing packable, healthy snack options for weekend tournaments, I spend a lot of time searching for ideas to fuel my young athletes. It’s tempting to grab concession stand food between games, but I try to make an effort to have healthy options on hand to keep them fed.

Thanks to the proliferation of sports mom advice on social media, I can always find suggestions for keeping my tweens properly fueled for game day. I’m always looking for new ideas, so let me know your favorite healthy foods! Bonus points if they’re easy to prep!

Research.

This is the one I underestimated how much time I would spend doing as a sports mom.

Research.

Research everything.

Spend time finding the right team or league that best fits your family’s lifestyle and your young athlete’s goals. Finding a coach with a compatible philosophy is important. Knowing the demands of the team (e.g. practice schedules, travel commitments, fundraising expectations, etc…) are all part of the fact finding.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and hear other’s perspectives. When we’ve searched for a team we’ve reached out to friends who played for the organization to find out their experience when possible. It’s kind of like a job interview. You want to know as much about the team as they want to know about your athlete.

Research the best gear and equipment for your athlete. This can be daunting! Again, seek advice as needed.

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The bottom line is do your research and make the best decision for your young athlete with the information you have. Also, keep in mind perfect doesn’t exist, but if you’ve done your research you’re better positioned to navigate the less than desirable aspects.

Prepare.

Supporting your athlete on game day is important. But so is preparing for game situations.

This can look a lot of different ways, but supporting your athlete’s preparation is important. This can be setting travel expectations. Making sure they’re getting good rest. Ensuring they are drinking enough water and staying properly hydrated is part of their prep work.

Preparation can also be getting organized the night before, making sure they have all their gear and equipment ready. One of the key ways I support my athletes is making sure we have the right uniform combination and it’s clean. Hello the never ending laundry of youth sports! Thankfully Pinterest has 1,001 ways to get white baseball pants clean!

Preparation also involve their pre game routines. A lot of athletes are superstitious. Mental preparation is key for their success, especially as they get older and the competition gets stronger.

We’ve talked to our kids about breathing techniques and ways to settle themselves when they feel the game beginning to spiral out of control. They tend to listen to a preferred playlist of songs that motivate them on the way to games. All of these strategies are part of their preparation and ways we can support our young athletes.

Take breaks.

Youth sports can be a never ending cycle, with one season overlapping with the next. One of the best ways to support your athlete is to help them take breaks.

Sometimes there’s a natural break when seasons end. And sometime there isn’t! Depending on your kids’ interest and commitment level, seasons can overlap or your kid might be a multi sport athlete that compete during the same season.

We had a few seasons where the kids played soccer and baseball during the same season. It was chaotic on a good day with multiple practices back to back, or racing across town changing uniforms in the car to make it to the next game! Plenty of families do this often, so refer back to reading their cues and knowing when your athlete (and you!) needs a break.

Even when they’re not in season there are offseason workouts and conditioning programs to follow. While it’s important to stay in shape, we also look for true breaks to help our young athletes reset and recuperate. Ironically, even when they’re on breaks, they are watching games and videos online, so the game is never far from top of mind.

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Pray for them.

I pray for my kids’ health, happiness, and safety daily. Praying for them the night before and morning of a game is part of my preparation for supporting them.

I pray:

• For their strength
• For their calm as they face uncertainty in game situations
• They rely on their training and skills they’ve worked hard to develop
• They are a good teammate and support their peers
• They play with dignity and respect
• For wisdom and maturity when things don’t go their way

I pray for strength to manage my emotions and anxiety as I cheer them on. I’m raising two pitchers and man, it can be stressful to watch them. But I never want my stress and desire for them to do well to be projected on to them.

Finally, there’s a lot of overlap in the ways we sports parents support our young athletes as they take the field (or the court, or ice, or mat). As I reflect, I’m sure I’ve missed several. Let me know what else you think I should add.

If you’re in the throes of raising young athletes, let’s connect!

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