Like bees, humans have long lived or died based on their ability to divide labor, help each other and stand together in the face of common threats — David Brooks, New York TimesIf there is a common threat that confronts us all, its that we live in a world that has become increasingly individualistic, competitive, and contentious. But in recent years theres been growing awareness that we need to see beyond the limitations of raw, in-your-face competition between groups and nations and learn the value of cooperation. Theres an emerging consensus that the problems of the 21st century (global warming, the economic crisis, disease, poverty, etc) can only be solved through cooperation and collaboration. Therefore together with EduSports, a Bangalore-based sports advisory and consultancy company, I have devised a programme for parents titled, ‘Making the perfect team: How to help your kids use sports to succeed in school and life. This programme has been developed to help parents collaborate with schools, coaches, and others to enable their children to engage with sports and games and transform into healthy, happy, productive adults. For example, the progra-mme offers useful advice relating to the sports education of children. Some pointers: • Identify and grab teaching and learning moments in sports • Develop realistic expect-ations for your kids (in sports and life) • Support your kids, their coaches, teachers, and school • Evolve into role models • Dont live vicariously through the success of your children • Relax and enjoy your childrens accomplishments • Become your childrens mentor and cheerleader • Promote the values you want your kids to adopt in the schools physical education and sports programmes • Dont regard your children as extensions of yourself • Develop a relaxed, playful spirit in relation to sports • Articulate your ideas of good sportspersons Yet how should parents prepare themselves to become good sports parents? Its beneficial to solicit help from the growing number of sports education and advisory firms. They usually conduct parent workshops where you can learn about ways and means to intelligently support your children to get the most out of their games and sports experiences. Professional sports develo-pment advisories and academies are often engaged by schools, colleges etc, to hold workshops for parents. In these workshops they counsel parents to: Be reflective. The best parents — not only in sports arenas, but in life — are introspective and willing to think deeply about their role as parents. Most of us would benefit by making the time to review how we handled a certain issue or problem with our kids to become better parents tomorrow. Focus on long-term goals. Its useful to identify and bear in mind your long-term objectives for your children. Search for words or phrases which describe them as you would want them to be when they attain adulthood. Then assess whether your daily behaviour is helpful for your kids to grow into the kind of people youd like them to be. Put the relationship first. Theres no…
