What Do Your Daughters Get Out of Sports?

I am a girl dad, and I coach all of my young daughters in multiple sports.  Someone once asked me why I thought playing sports were so important for girls.  I said there are so many things that I love about sports personally and I love the many life lessons that my girls learn by playing sports.

Discipline - Doing what you are supposed to do when and how you are supposed to do it.

Preparation - Showing up every practice prepared and ready to work.

Grit - The ability to deal with adversity and keep going.

Focus - Being able to stay in the moment at practice and at games.

Teamwork - Being able to work with others toward a common goal.

Making friends - We call our teammates our friends.  When we get a new teammate, we say we have a new friend.

Public speaking - Every first practice and every time my young team gets a new teammate, we go around the room and tell our name and where we go to school.  We learn how to speak up snd use our voice in front of people. 

Listening - Being able to listen and apply instruction.

Adversity - They will face it every practice, every game and in every facet of life.

Competition - They have to be able to compete, in a healthy way, with themselves and others.

I could point to one of many articles full of stats showing how girls who play sports are happier and more confident teens, and how sports translates to success as adults, but I have enough personal experience to be able to speak from the heart.

I work with kids for a living as a coach and as a school administrator.  I told her that I can tell instantly the girls who play sports, and especially the ones who play competitively.  They just carry themselves differently.  They walk differently.  They talk differently.  They seem to hold their heads higher and they have a quiet confidence about them.

Sports teach you so many life lessons, and I see those lessons on display every day.  But it's important that your kid has a coach that values those things because coaches can take away a kids confidence, toughness and love for the game just as fast as they can help build them.

I encourage all parents and coaches to be intentional with the messages that they send.  We are teaching the same things at home, at school, and at practice.  Try to make these connections with our kids so that they see the lessons that we are teaching will be used everywhere they go.  The more prepared they are at practice and the more prepared they are at school, the more success they will have in both.  The same can be said for every aspect listed above.  

And honestly, I want all of my girls to be able to out-shoot, out-run and out-throw their husbands one day, and to out-pick them when it comes to making brackets for the NCAA Tournament.

🤷🏿‍♂️❤🤷🏿‍♂️❤.