5 Proven Methods to Encourage Your Child to Play Sports

This article is contributed by Danny from Myparentingjournal.com, a blog dedicated to parenting tips, advice, best practices, and great baby products.

Your child won't participate in sports, whether while at school or home. He says he doesn't like to. He doesn't seem to have much interest. And words advising him to engage in sports actively are met with outright resentment. He appears to be too shy to play, or he just isn't active. You are worried, and for a reason because you know sports will help him to develop, both mentally and physically.

So, what do you do?

Don't worry. Because there are ways to help your little one stop resenting sports and develop a different attitude.

The following are proven methods to encourage your child to play in sports.

1. Buy your child sports equipment

You will do this to enable you to know sports that interest him more and also as a motivation tool for him. Because you don't know his best sport yet, you will have to buy equipment for different kinds of games. Keep them all available for him to choose. Avoid making any suggestions. It should come from him. With time, you will notice that particular game he prefers to play the most.

From there, you will then be able to devise ways to further his interest in that sport, or sports, if he is interested in several of them. You can also allow him to invite friends over. More participants mean more fun and in the long run, real interest in the sport.

2. Go to watch sports together

Whenever you get an opportunity, take your child with you to a live sports event. Your child will enjoy the fun and in the process, develop an interest to be like the competitors in the teams.

After some time, wait for him to suggest that you go to the sports. And after an event, initiate a conversation with him about how it was. In other words, talk excitedly about the game.
You can also watch sports on TV. Or you can have sports videos to watch at home. It will make him love games, and the love will manifest itself in him starting to participate in sports.

3. Play with your child often

As a parent, you are your child's number one role model. You child is likely to follow your habits. If you want him to copy sports, do sports. It's as simple as having half an hour to play with him whenever you get a chance, but it must often be. Get a soccer ball and enjoy a game kicking it around. Make it fun and enjoyable. Or you can have any other game provided it's 'his' game not yours. He will enjoy it more if it's his most loved game.

4. Sign him to a sports club

Tell him beforehand, though, about your intentions. Sit down together and go through a list of the available options and select the ones to sign him. Do this together, with him making the selection while you offer suggestions. If you have a family friend with a child of the same age as yours, it would be better to involve them. Your child will get the company of a familiar face, and he will be more confident and more willing to join the club.

5. Allow your child enough free time

Most children do not play because they are not allowed time to. Sometimes they are busy with school assignments to find ample time for games. Or at times they are allowed too much TV that they don't get out of the house to play. The result is likely to be diminished interest for sports. They also become lazy, sometimes just too obese to be active.

By allowing your children to play, you inculcate in them the idea that physical activity is fun and pretty much part of day to day life. And it's during these child games that your child will discover a new found talent in a particular sport.

Whatever method you choose to use, avoid the temptation to force sports on your child. Interest should come from within him, or you will risk destroying his ego. The methods you employ ought to rouse his or her interest without you appearing to be too bossy about it.

The methods given in this article are effective at ensuring this happens. You will need to be patient, and understanding, though, because change will not come overnight. Remember, you are responsible for your child's upbringing and whatever you teach him now will be carried to adulthood.