As a parent of a skater, you want the best for your child. These guidelines should help you do much more than survive their skating experience. It should equip you to enjoy it to the fullest and help you make it fun and valuable for everyone involved.
1. Be supportive and encourage your child to skate. Ask them what they love most about it and what they were most proud of in their practice.
2. Understand what your child wants from skating and help them achieve these goals.
3. Put your child's participation in perspective. Skating doesn't have to the "everything" in your child's life; make it a part of life.
4. Emphasizing fun, skill development and striving to progress. We are motivated by the things we like to do!
5. Help your child set challenging but realistic short and long term goals rather than focusing only on "winning."
7. Discuss both the club and your expectations when skating and reward good effort and behaviors. This builds self-esteem and will motivate them to demonstrate more of the same. We get more of what we focus on!
8. Turn your child over to the coach at practices and competitions. Allow the coaches to perform their role with minimum distraction to the skater.
9. Watch them skate! Many skaters will tell you they remember their parents watching from the stands cheering them on at practice and special events.