Chapter 2

Motivating Kids to Be Active

Showing leadership in getting your kids eating right, exercising regularly and having other good health habits is critically important to keeping your kids fit. But just how do you go about motivating your child to develop and to maintain great fitness habits? To find out, we need to answer two questions. First, what motivates kids to enjoy physical activity? Second, what discourages kids from enjoying physical activity?

In this chapter, we’ll get into the minds of children and find the answers. We’ll go over suggestions for reducing the anxiety and stress that are sometimes associated with physical activity by children. We’ll look at the arguments for and against competition as a motivator and whether measuring your child’s progress against his or her peers is a good recipe for success. I’ll give you some tips on how to get your kids to enjoy sport and exercise that I have found work wonders with just about every kid. Finally, I’ll give you proven methods for reducing the general stress and anxiety that might be negatively impacting your children’s’ motivation and health. Ready? Let’s go!

Is Competition Good for Children?

Competition is usually a contest, where a winner is selected from among two or more opponents. Some children, particularly those who have had success in competitive sports, thrive on competition. For others, competition can sometimes cause hostility, passivity, or extreme sensitivity. Among parents and professionals who deal directly with children’s physical fitness, there are generally two competing views on the subject of competition. One view is that competition is healthy, as it prepares children for the “real world” which is filled with winners and losers. When a responsible adult closely monitors competition, it can encourage excellence and build character and self-esteem. Schools should teach students how to handle winning and losing, instead of protecting them from such valuable experiences.

On the “anti-competition” side, one most often hears the argument that competition leads to hurt feelings and diminished confidence. It makes children hostile and angry, setting up a situation that could prove to be dangerous to some children. It’s a form of bullying, where some children may be ostracized for their lack of skills. Schools and clubs should offer only activities in which all students can feel comfortable and important, not threatened.

I believe that sport and exercise do prepare children for the real world by teaching habits of physical activity that can last a lifetime. However, unhealthy competition, where winning and losing and beating the other competitor take precedence over everything else, has no positive impact on your child’s future and in many cases can be detrimental. Usually, the small number of children who win on a regular basis or have higher athletic skill levels love competition. But the vast majority of kids who lack these skills fear it, with the result that large numbers of kids are turned off to exercise for life. Most of the time, it’s because children who consistently lose get bored, embarrassed, and unfavorably compared to children who are more “successful.” In fact, some schools have eliminated competition completely from the curriculum and in many other schools there is much less emphasis on competition and much more on teaching lifetime skills, teamwork, safety, and giving one’s best effort.