Get Ready for Your Child’s Upcoming Sports Season
Establish Abuse Prevention Practices Today to Prepare for Tomorrow
For most families, summer is a time to slow down. You might take a family vacation, spend more time together outside, and enjoy well-deserved down time. While it might not be your child’s sports season, the off-season and the slower summer months are the perfect time for parents and guardians to step back and ask what you can do today to prepare for what’s sure to be busy sports seasons ahead.
Practicing abuse prevention skills during the off-season will help your family be active participants in creating an abuse-free sport environment. Once school, work, and sports return to their full swing, you’ll be more informed, and you’ll be able to draw on this knowledge to support your kids in the midst of in-season practices and competitions.
Practices That Protect
Understanding how to prevent abuse is an important skill for any family. While it’s impossible as a parent, guardian, or caregiver to safeguard the children in your life at all times, you can use this opportunity to learn about important warning signs or situations that pose a greater risk. Parents who are more aware of abuse in sport can help their kids understand the characteristics of an abuse-free environment and educate them on how to build healthy, respectful relationships with teammates, coaches, and other adults.
Here are three practices you can start now that will help your kids have a safer sports season:
- Establish a culture of communication. Summer months often mean more time spent with your kids. Use this opportunity to break down barriers and normalize conversations around tough topics. Learn how to talk with your kids about abuse and explore how to listen when they come to you with a problem.
- Spend 10 minutes a week educating yourself on abuse prevention. If you find yourself with a little extra time on your hands, take a moment to download SafeSport Ready™, our free mobile app. Make a goal to spend 10 minutes each week exploring proactive ways to prevent abuse by reading articles, taking quizzes, and exploring the steps for reporting—all within the SafeSport Ready app.
- Set a goal to expand your awareness—learn the signs of grooming and appropriate coaching behavior. Grooming can be complex to understand and detect. By taking the time to learn about grooming during the off-season, you can be prepared to recognize it—and understand ways to prevent it—when you’re in the midst of a busy sports season. Alternately, learning what defines appropriate coaching behavior can help you detect behavior that might be harmful.
Establishing these practices today will set you—and your kids—up for success throughout the year. Plus, by taking the initiative to cultivate opportunities for you and your kids to talk about abuse in sport, you’ll create a greater sense of safety and increase their confidence.
Your Role Matters
When you take an interest in expanding your awareness around abuse in sport and how to prevent it, it shows your kids that you care about them and that you value their positive experience.
Establishing practices around abuse prevention today will help you understand what to do—and where to turn to for guidance—if you run into an instance of bullying, harassment, or other abuse or misconduct during the sports season.
To continue your education and explore even more ways to increase your abuse prevention knowledge, explore our additional resources.