6 ways you can help your child deal with the full-time result.

Young players can struggle to handle the highs and lows that are part of playing sports. Win or lose, players need to know how to cope with what happens after the full-time whistle.

Win the right way.

Teaching your children to be humble and dignified when victorious is equally as crucial as behaving correctly when your team has lost.

Players and parents will celebrate whenever their team wins a game. It is important to remember not to rub it in the faces of the losing team. Much of it ties in with ingraining into your players that they should respect their opposition in victory or defeat.

Help children cope with losing.

It’s essential for coaches and parents, when young players experience a loss, to teach them how to deal with the frustration and sometimes even anger in a respectful and dignified way.

Teach them is to make a point of fist-bumping or applauding the opposition players and their respective coach after the game, despite the nature of the defeat.

Winning can have different definitions.

Winning is a matter of perspective. It can mean many things. Battling to the final whistle despite the end result, never giving up when everything is going against you, or simply acting in the right way when others around you are not.

Sometimes these can feel just as good as winning a game outright because as much as you want to encourage your players to try their best to win every game, it is vital to consistently encourage your child to behave in the right way.

Understanding that the result does matter.

The result of any game that your children are involved in can have an impact. Sometimes, it makes sense to let young players know that the result doesn’t matter if the team has lost.

It’s okay for teams to lose, that’s part of playing sports, However when you play soccer, you are trying to score goals to win the game, so providing a healthy balance of perspective and not focusing on winning versus losing is key.

Every game that a team or individual plays in can teach them something new or reinforce something they’ve already learned. Whatever the result, they should be aware of the improvements and learning opportunities for both individual and team development.

Young players mimic adults.

If your child’s team wins or loses, it will affect you, given the time and emotion you have invested into helping your children. However, how you act after the final whistle is very important.

In most cases, young players look up to their elders and will mirror what they do, so if they see you screaming and shouting at the referee due to a poor decision, the players are likely to do something similar in the future.

It’s all about the players and parents focusing on things they control, filtering their emotions, and setting a good example.

No matter the result, encourage them to move on quickly.

Once the final whistle has blown, you must allow your child to digest the game, their performance, and the result.

Let them lead any conversations about the game. But try to provide them with positive feedback. Encourage your child to not dwell on the game and go and enjoy the rest of their day. Dwelling on results in the grassroots game is counter-productive.

Summary

Your child will undoubtedly win and lose games, so it is crucial they can process both with a sense of the bigger picture. And don’t get too up when they win or don’t get too down when they lose. Developing an emotional balance is important not just in sport but in life.