The Critical Difference Between Encouraging and Pushing in Youth Sports
Popular opinion is that encouraging kids is good, pushing them is bad. I tend to agree that this is a good rule of thumb. However, how can a parent know when they have crossed the line from encouraging to pushing?
Looking at the basic dictionary definition of the two words gives us a fairly good clue.
- encouragement: the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope
- push: to exert force or move forward by using force
Not too hard to figure out why one is better than the other in the context of youth sports after reading these definitions. There is not one person alive who enjoys someone forcing them to do something. On the other hand, you would have to be crazy not to welcome receiving support, confidence, and hope.
To put it another way, encouraging comes from a place of positivity, pushing comes from a place of anger or fear. Encouraging develops a child’s self-motivation, pushing decreases a child’s self-motivation. Above all, encouraging is about the child, pushing is about you.