Spectators & Parents

Parent Guide:

Winning vs Development:

While we would love to win every single game, it is important to understand and appreciate that in our younger ages, practices as well as tournaments are a time for players to develop their technical, physical ,tactical, psychological and social skills.

Emotions:

As a parent, it is important to ESS and for your child that you do not take it too seriously.  Research has shown that children are more interested in playing the game than getting a result.

Feedback:

Coaches and management emphasize with parents on how difficult it is to control emotions, especially during games.  Players need positive feedback to feel that they can improve their game and help their team.  Instead of highlighting what they have done wrong, please try to support your athlete and encourage them after a game.  

Children should feel confident that they’ll be supported, whether they win or lose.  Too much pressure to win can have a negative effect and put young players off the game altogether.  The number of players dropping out of the game is alarming, it is essential we keep players involved in the sport for the right reasons.

Car Journey Home:

Ask questions about how they feel and why.  Ask what they feel they could have done better and why.  This will help them in the future as they will be used to finding solutions on the pitch for themselves and not having to depend on the coach or team mates to tell them.  Give players ownership of their learning-mirror our player centered approach.