{"id":2691,"date":"2021-08-05T16:08:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T16:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2021-08-05T16:10:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T16:10:17","slug":"how-to-help-your-child-become-a-future-olympian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=2691","title":{"rendered":"How to help your child become a future Olympian"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jane Dorrian<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Olympic and Paralympic games show us that there is a sport for everyone.\u00a0Dr Jane Dorrian looks at the ways you can inspire your child to be a future star.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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From archery to wheelchair basketball, there’s guaranteed to be something that got you watching. For lots of children, the games give them their first taste of less well known sports, or shine a light on the superstars of more popular events and they want to have a go themselves. So if your child hasn\u2019t stopped sprinting around the garden since the 100 metres final, or is skateboarding down the staircase after watching Sky Brown\u2019s tricks, here are some ideas about how you can help them<\/p>\n

1. Mix it up<\/h2>\n

Research shows that doing lots of different sports and activities during childhood is more likely to produce an elite athlete than just doing one. This is because over-practicing one set of skills or actions is more likely to result in injury, and it gets boring! All sports have a whole range of transferable skills that are important in any competitive situation, things like teamwork, resilience, persistence and co-ordination and learning these in different situations keeps children motivated and interested.<\/p>\n

2. Do it yourself<\/h2>\n

Children of active parents are much more likely to be active themselves, so dust off your trainers and get out there too. This doesn\u2019t mean that you need to be working to the Olympics yourself, or even have to try and win the parents\u2019 race on Sports Day, just find something that you like.<\/p>\n

\"Lady<\/span><\/span><\/span>If you\u2019ve been walking laps of the local park in lockdown take that a step further and join a walking sports team – there\u2019s walking rugby, football, netball and lots more. Have a look at what\u2019s happening in your local leisure centre or sports hall, there is plenty going on. It doesn\u2019t matter what sport you do, it shows your child that you value being active and see it as something worth doing which is a positive message they\u2019ll pick up.<\/p>\n

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“Becoming an Olympian is the pinnacle of a sporting career and not many athletes will get there, so it is important to ensure that there is fun and enjoyment on the sporting journey up to whatever point your child gets to.”<\/em><\/p>\n

3. It\u2019s never too early to start<\/h2>\n

The more opportunities children have to be active and move around right from birth the better their outcomes are. Giving new babies tummy time, limiting the amount of time toddlers are in their pushchairs and getting children outside building rockets out of cardboard boxes might not seem to have much in common with elite sport, but the first 1,000 days of a child\u2019s life are critical to their future development and getting into the habit of being active will help the physical and emotional well-being needed to be a successful sportsperson.<\/p>\n

4. Remember – this is fun<\/h2>\n

Becoming an Olympian is the pinnacle of a sporting career and not many athletes will get there, so it is important to ensure that there is fun and enjoyment on the sporting journey up to whatever point your child gets to. Being a sporting parent can be challenging, supporting your child when they\u2019ve lost, spending hours waiting around during training sessions and having a washing machine constantly on the go are just a few of the downsides but the benefits outweigh these. Sport gives you the chance to celebrate successes, share experiences and spend time together so make sure you make the most of these opportunities.<\/p>\n

Active children are happier, healthier and more resilient so take every opportunity to get them involved and who knows, maybe we\u2019ll see them at Paris in 2024!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This article was originally posted on OpenLearn<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jane Dorrian The Olympic and Paralympic games show us that there is a sport for everyone.\u00a0Dr Jane Dorrian looks at the ways you can inspire your child to be a future star. From archery to wheelchair basketball, there’s guaranteed to be something that got you watching. For lots of children, the games give them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,106,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jane-dorrian","category-olympics","category-paralympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2694,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions\/2694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}