How To Be A Positive Parent

The English FA's National Silent Support Weekend is once again across the weekend of 2nd and 3rd March 2024, with the aim of promoting good behaviour on touchlines throughout grassroots youth football. 

In England, leagues and clubs are advocating for a shift towards allowing only the coaches' voices to be heard during matches or even exploring the concept of entirely silent games. This initiative seeks to alleviate pressure on players, enabling them to focus solely on their performance without external distractions from the sidelines.

It will also give your young players a better opportunity to improve their own on-pitch communication skills, develop their game, and, most importantly, have fun without outside intrusions.

Although this is a campaign run by the FA in England, it's something that leagues and clubs around the world can use to help their players play with freedom.

But just because it's silent on the sidelines doesn't mean coaches and parents can't still positively influence their child's development.

While coaches will no doubt have a team talk with their players at half time and after the game, there's also an excellent chance for parents to help their child reflect positively on their performance and match day experience.

The car ride home

Post-match reflection is vital to a player’s learning, and we want to help Positive Parents play their part.

So, to help them get their children thinking about their game effectively, we’ve got some tried and tested open questions listed below they could ask their young player after the game.

The object of asking these questions is for you to listen, not correct or judge.

Let your child talk without you interrupting and really take in what they are saying.

➤ What was one thing that was really fun for you in today’s game?

➤ What’s something that you would do differently if you had to play the game over again?

➤ What teammate deserves a shout-out from you for how they played?

➤ What’s one thing that you learned about teamwork from today’s game?

➤ What did your coach do today that you really liked?

So, why not try these out this weekend?

If you want to save the questions easily to your mobile phone, click and save the image below and share it with your friends, the parent's WhatsApp group, or via your social media to show that you are a Positive Parent.

If you'd like to learn even more about being a Positive Parent supporting your child's development the right way, check out our Growth Mindset Guide for Parents, click here.

Good luck!