Youth sports can be all-consuming for parents. But Kirsten Jones — co-host of the #raisingathletes podcast, youth volleyball coach and former Division I volleyball player — says that for kids 13 and under, you can’t go wrong if you focus on what she calls the “Four Fs” of raising a youth athlete: fun, friends, fundamentals and FOMO.

When kids are free to explore the first three Fs, it can lead to great things.

And that fourth F? It’s mostly for parents.

Fun

First and foremost, the point of youth sports is fun. And parents with their eyes on the scoreboard often lose sight of this.

“We have to check ourselves because we can get so caught up in the winning and the losing,” Jones says. “And literally, kids walk off the court or the field or get out of the pool and they’ve already forgotten it all before they’ve even gotten to the curb.”

Since 75% of kids leave sports by age 13, keeping the focus on fun can go a long way toward increasing the odds of continued participation.

“It’s their journey,” says Jones. “Let them have fun.”

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