Your child is just starting another term of soccer, the last of the year. We are on the downward slope to the long summer holidays when everyone can take at a few moments to sit back, relax, and take a deep breath…or several deep breaths. Yes, the season is almost over, but it’s important to remember that there is no off season when it comes to learning and growing – either as an athlete or as an individual.

What do sports teach us? The universal response from coaches, parents and athletes alike is always Life Lessons, but what exactly do we hope they’ll learn? And what life lessons do you think your son or daughter learned this past soccer season?
 
Here’s a checklist for life lessons we hope your Grasshopper has learned, or will learn, through their Grasshopper Soccer experience.

Practice makes…Better: It’s not about being perfect. It’s about getting better. We hope our all our Grasshoppers learn that effort will be rewarded.
Focus on what you can control: Youth sports should help kids learn to focus on effort and not the outcome. They should focus on what they can control, not what is out of their control.
Let go of mistakes: Successful athletes brush off mistakes. They acknowledge them, they learn from them and they then move past them.
Keep learning: From our successes but also from our mistakes - Grasshopper helps kids recognize that even the best players are constantly learning and working to get better. It’s an approach to life that will serves all well.
Celebrate Success: Sports teach us to celebrate success – large and small. We all know how to celebrate winning the game, but sports can also help us learn to celebrate the smaller goals we set for ourselves - like being able to dribble the ball up the field - and help them winning in a whole new light.
Be a team player: Sports teach our children what we mean by being a true team player – someone who contributes 100%, and at the same time cooperates and collaborates with teammates to help bring out their best too. It’s this lesson we hope our children bring to their adult relationships.
Win and Lose with dignity: It’s called "Honouring the Game" in sports. And we hope our young Grasshoppers learn to both win and lose while respecting themselves, their teammates, their opponents and the officials and organization that help make their sporting experience possible. As an adult, how we define "game" changes, but we hope sports teaches us all to win and lose with dignity and respect.

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