05
SUPPORT YOUR KID’S TEAM IN A POSITIVE FASHION.
Parents overly involved or drawing undue attention
to themselves during their child’s lacrosse activities could be damaging their kid’s experience and his or her prospective future in the sport. “I will not recruit a kid whose parent is a psycho,”
Tucker said. “We’ve done that — stopped recruiting a talented kid because we knew her parents would drive us nuts for four years.” Tucker offered these tips for parents to engage positively in the child’s lacrosse experience:
Embrace your child’s team as yours and be a good teammate, with positive energy and support. Your child’s teammates are his or her brothers or sisters. Recognize that players, coaches and offi cials make mistakes. Learn what you can control, such as supporting effort and hustle, and what you can’t control, such as a call made by an offi cial. Ask your child how you can be supportive. “A high school player should be old enough to talk about what helps her succeed as an athlete and what hurts,” Tucker said.
If your kid is good enough to play collegiately, learn about how that college coach prefers to interact with parents. “Every program is different. For us, parents can call us about anything except playing time,” Tucker said. “If coaches don’t want or have time for interactions, you have to respect that because you knew it from the beginning.” — P
.K.
06 Beware the burnout factor.
Research indicates that 10,000 hours of activity are necessary to move a person’s skill set to a signifi cantly upgraded level. Is that the kind of commitment your son or daughter should be making to the game? Dr. Richard Ginsburg, a clinical sports psychologist and member of the US Lacrosse Sports Science and Safety Committee, recommends that youth players play just one sport per season and have at least one to two days off per week. He also stresses that kids should have extended time off, preferably with a break of at least two or three months. To avoid burnout and overuse injuries, Ginsburg suggests the following measures:
Sit down with your kids and map out their athletic schedules. Write down how many times they practice and for how long, and then tally the number of games and tournaments they will play in a month. Do you see any days off? Ideally, kids should play just one sport per season. Experts suggest that training and competition in one sport be limited to 16-20 hours per week.
If your child chooses to play only one sport year- round, is he or she taking several months away from that sport each year? This could be integral to the health and athletic longevity of your son or daughter by allowing the body and mind to recover. And when kids do start a new season, they should ease into it. Increase training and play by no more than 10 percent each week. The NCAA sets limits on the number of practices and hours per week Division I athletes may be involved in required sports activity, but no such regulations exist for youth sports. As a parent, set limits. “In some cases, youth teams are playing up to fi ve tournament games in back-to-back days in extreme weather conditions,” Ginsburg said. “Why is this OK for youth but not OK for young adults who are stronger and less vulnerable to dehydration and over-use injuries?”
Find more recommendations
from the US Lacrosse Sports Science & Safety Committee about youth participation at
uslacrosse.org/safety. — Paul Ohanian
64 LACROSSE MAGAZINE March 2014 >>
A Publication of US Lacrosse
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