A Comprehensive Guide on the Do’s and Don’ts as Volleyball Parents
It’s easy to have faith in yourself when you’re a winner. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not winning.
Vincent Thomas Lombardi
Source: Improve your volleyball.
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Thinking to become one of those encouraging, supportive and helpful volleyball parents?
Searching for a guide that explains what to do and what not to do as volleyball parents?
If you answer yes to these questions, keep reading!
We are going to be discussing about the do’s and don’ts as volleyball parents and some general FAQs about the sport.
Ready? Let’s get started!
Did you know? On average, a player jumps about 300 times during a volleyball match.
Do’s and Don’ts as Volleyball Parents
Let’s first start with the do’s and move on to the don’ts.
Although volleyball is a group sport, every individual involved in the game be it players, coaches, referees and parents contribute significantly to the success of the team. By having a clear understanding of the do’s and don’ts as volleyball parents, you are giving yourself the greatest chance of being supportive and a helping hand in the team’s overall success.
Do’s of Volleyball Parents
Do Help the Coach in Administrative and Team Organizing related Tasks
Being a helpful volleyball team parent is one of the best qualities you can possess. Coaches love to see parents aiding them in administrative and team organizing related tasks.
Tasks such as passing all the communications given by the coach to the players and other parents, collecting and distributing jerseys and volleyball equippments to the players, maintaining the contact details of all the parents and players and maintaining an emergency contact list for the players are some of the things considered to be the administrative activities of the team.
Having said that, I am fully aware that not everybody likes to be a team parent and that’s okay.
But on the other hand, it doesn’t hurt anybody when you step into help the team coach if needed. Does it?
So whenever you get a chance, help wholeheartedly.
Do be a Positive Force on Your Child’s Development in Volleyball
There is absolutely no doubt that parents are a crucial factor on a child’s development in a sport, and volleyball is no exception. Your child looks up to you for support during both good and bad times of playing volleyball. So it’s critical that you understand your child and be an integral part of their development in volleyball.
Every parent wants their child to succeed in the sport they love, and by being a positive force, you’ll get to enjoy the following benefits.
- Your positivity will significantly impact your child’s and their team’s performance in a good way.
- Your positive cheering will spur your child’s team to up their game and perform better even during the tough times.
- Planting positive seeds in your child will immensely help them grow as a player.
- No matter what the situation of the game is, blasting out positive comments will help to fight against the potential negativities.
Do Spread Your Positivity to Other Volleyball Parents
Trust me, spreading your positivity to other volleyball parents helps them feel good about their child’s team, even when the game isn’t going well. Every parent wants to feel good about their child, the team that they are playing in and the practice sessions conducted by the coach.
Also, parents love to feel good about their child’s performance and your positive words go a long way in helping them see things as they need to be.
So be positive, and spread the positivity!
Do Support More During Tough Times
Want to know a secret on when your child and their team needs you to be supportive as a volleyball parent?
It is undoubtedly after a tough game.
It is very easy to be grumpy, negative, point fingers and shell out criticism at that moment, but it takes a special characteristic of a parent to see beyond the performance and lend a supportive hand.
Although it isn’t easy, doing specifically that will develop trust within your child and their team.
Build it up consistently, put your arm around and let everybody know that you are there for them no matter what the outcome is and be a person providing constructive criticism if needed.
These things definitely help players develop themselves into a pretty good professional sports people.
Do Learn the Basics of Volleyball
If your child has just started playing volleyball and you want to be the best cheerleader for them, then learning the basics of the sport goes a long way.
On the other hand, if your child has been playing volleyball for some time and you have all the great qualities of a cheerleader, knowing the basics will help you cheer for the right things.
Even when you aren’t a volleyball fan, understanding the basics will aid you communicate effectively with players and coaches.
Scorebooks for Volleyball Parents
Score It Right Volleyball Scorebook
Don’ts of Volleyball Parents
Don’t Expect Favors for Your child in the Volleyball Team
It is painful to realize for everybody involved in a volleyball team that you as a parent, expecting favors for your child. It can vary from expecting your child to always be in the team to seeking favorable roles in the match.
Is it going to do any good to your child? Absolutely not!
Moreover, letting your child earn success through hard work and perseverance will build their confidence.
When you let your child achieve their own accomplishments, it’ll significantly develop them as a player and it is less stressful for the team coach as well.
Don’t React Negatively for Your child’s team Losing a Match
You may have read this a million times. Winning and losing are a part of the game. You know this fact pretty well.
Then have you ever analyzed why you negatively react to your child’s team losing a match?
The main culprit is you let your emotions take over when you watch your child play a volleyball match. If things go wrong, you may not have an idea of how to streamline your emotions and you either react negatively or say things that you will regret later.
Instead of taking this route, if you could figure out a way to show your child and their team how they can improve in a polite way, it’d benefit everybody in so many ways.
Don’t Worry Too Much About Your Child Getting Injured Playing Volleyball
It is pretty normal for a parent to rush to the volleyball court as soon as they see their child got injured while playing. This is your parental instinct fully activated and directing your actions.
Before you take out your pitch forks and knives after reading the above statements, hear me out.
These days, almost all volleyball teams have a medical crew to assist the players and take care of the injuries sustained during a match.
So let them treat your child and if it’s a serious injury, then you have every right to take care.
If it’s a minor injury, then waiting on the sidelines to assist will be a better way to deal with the situation.
Don’t Coach Your Child and their Team During Match Time
You may have heard this several times during parent meetings, team emails and one on one session with the coach. But sometimes, you can’t help yourself yell out instructions regarding how to play or the player positions.
When you catch yourself doing that and if it’s getting out of hand, the best course of action you can take is to remove yourself from the playing area and go to a faraway spot.
I could feel your angry eyes staring at me and shouting, who are you to suggest that!
Cool down and hear it out.
If your coaching comments getting too much for the players involved in the match, your child’s team coach will ask you to leave the playing arena. This’d be embarrassing for both you and your child.
Instead of this unpleasant experience, if you follow the above suggestion, it gives you a best chance to sit calm and analyze why did it happen. It also gives you a chance to figure out ways to correct your behavior the next time.
Don’t Emphasize Too Much on Your Child’s Weaknesses
We all know that everybody has weaknesses in whatever they do in life. Sports is no exception.
Even the pro athletes have weaknesses. Emphasizing too much on your child’s weaknesses will reduce their interest on the sport and they may stop improving the required skills.
Instead of pointing them out all the time, start the conversation by praising whatever they’ve done good during match time. After that, ask a couple of questions regarding the areas that they need to improve.
Based on the information, ask some more questions on ways to improve their weaker areas and then, provide your suggestions positively.
FAQs on Do’s and Don’ts as a Volleyball Parent
Why Do You Disagree with the Coach Almost All the Time?
Sometimes you might feel like you are disagreeing with your child’s volleyball team coach most of the time. Have you ever thought about the reason behind that?
To understand this, we’ll need to look into a couple of perspectives.
Let’s imagine that the coach takes a decision involving your kid. From your perspective, you’ll look at the decision with the view of how it affects your child.
On the other hand, the coach will look at the decision in terms of how it affects the team.
Unfortunately in most cases, these 2 perspectives will clash and the views will get downright opposing.
If the decision isn’t positive and you want to rage about it, stop yourself right there!
After calming down, think about finding productive and meaningful ways to work through the opposing views.
When you do that, it’ll be very helpful for both yourself and your child.
Why Do You Think that the coach is Playing Favorites?
Before I start writing an answer for this question, I want to tell you that some parents won’t agree with the points mentioned here and that is totally fine. In fact, nobody has to agree with all of the things that they read on the internet.
Having said that, here’s my answer.
There is no concept of playing favorites when your child works with a good volleyball coach.
I don’t deny the fact that favoritism doesn’t exist in any sports team, rather applying the playing favorites label for all the coach is nothing but an accusation.
Encourage your child to show up early to all the practice sessions, work hard on improving their skills, ask good and thoughtful questions to the coach, put the team first above themselves, be one of the top players of the team, be helpful and encouraging around the team mates and if your child does all that, they too can be the favorite player for the coach.
Why Do You Think that the Coach isn’t Calling Timeout?
I am going to be direct in answering this question.
The timeout call is generally made by the coach based on the feel of the game. Let’s say that your child’s team loses 2 points back to back through errors. In this case, the coach will call an early timeout.
But the opponent team makes several great plays, then a coach may not call for an early timeout.
You need to understand that coaches are human too and they may not get it right All. The. Time. So try to be empathetic in this regard.
Also, calling timeout isn’t only all about scores.
conclusion
few! that’s a long read. Isn’t it?
hope you’ve learned valuable points out of this post.
Do you want to include your thoughts?
Share them in the comments section below!
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