Sport is in the air for me, with Olympics 2024 and competitions in my kids’ school and coaching class are going on. People in sports go through range of emotions, talking about their life, what it takes to do what they do is very intriguing for me. While playing sport is good for the head, heart and health, what it takes to be emotionally healthy in the highs and lows of this journey is not talked about. While there is enough focus on the technicalities of sport, nutrition and physical fitness; building emotional strength and keeping things in perspective need attention as well.
“There are more important things in life than winning or losing a game – Lionel Messi”.
It is important for parents to talk about life beyond sports when their children are into sports.
1. Sports require very strict discipline in terms of physical fitness, daily routine, nutrition etc. While they need to follow this 99% of time, 1% of time let them live their age, explore and experience normal things in life.
Please don’t tie everything they do, back to their game and performance.
2. When sports become mainstream, lots of children lose the joy of playing the game. Everyone around them starts looking at performance statistics and # of wins/losses and eventually children start doing the same thing too.
Do spend time with children to remind them that they started playing this game in the very first place, because they loved the game. Tell them to feel the joy and love of the game every time they play.
3. Discuss with them about the values which can’t be compromised for moving forward and higher in sports. Let them use their human values and character as a moral compass in the time of conflicts and confusion.
4. While we all wish their dream to come true of becoming successful and playing for the state/nation, always have a plan B in place. Life is an uncertain sport and we need to be prepared to play its random games.
5. Being a successful sportsperson involves the training of mind. When they train their mind to do the their best in their training and games, let them train their mind to do and be the best in life too.
I love and believe what Dhoni says, “Keep things simple in life and process is more important than results.”
My best wishes to every aspiring child to play for the nation and win medals for the nation and at the same time to be the best version of themselves in everyday life.
Written by Ms. Chaitali Shroff, Co-founder - HEAL Foundation
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