Developing Your Son or Daughter into an Athletic Superstar, Part II

In Part I, I advocated multilateral development and play as the first steps toward an athletic career. Young children do not need advanced, sport-specific instruction. Instead, they need the opportunity to play, to move and to enjoy sports. Developing an athletic champion is a process, and one which does not occur over night. The athlete (and the family) makes sacrifices if he or she chooses to pursue athletic greatness. And, the only way for the athlete to invest sufficient time and energy in this pursuit is if the athlete has a passion for the sport. Too much competition and too much structure at a young age can turn a young child away from sports.

Beyond a more playful introduction to sports, there is a definite mental side to developing a youth athlete into an athletic superstar. Most expert performers have families who demonstrate in their everyday lives the importance of hard work and always doing one's best. When a young child sees this example evey day, these traits become part of the child's core values. And, these core values are present in almost any expert performer in almost any endeavor. Nobody reaches the top of his profession without hard work.