When my daughter was about 9 her desire to skate caught up with her talent and she got her first "serious" coach and started skating nearly every day. Unfortunately, the resources for parents are not as available as the resources for skaters and I did a lot of things wrong-- sitting in the stands "helping." Gossiping with other parents. Comparing her progress to progress of others.
U.S. Figure Skating has some great resources for parents, and not just parents of competitive skaters, but just general good advice for anyone whose child gets serious about sport. The parent information page on their website is a good basic guide. Scroll down to the link for the Parent's Survival Guide, which you can download as a pdf or order from them. It's a great booklet and I wish I had known about it when I was rearing a figure skater.
More from Dr. Gloria Balague:
Do
Parents
• Be a role model
• Teach problem solving
• Encourage effort
• Set limits
• Be supportive
• Set clear expectations
• Encourage competence
Coaches
• Give chances to succeed
• Focus on improvement
• Keep parents informed
• Involve kids in decision-making
Don’t
Parents
• Compare to peers
• Focus on failures
• Make sport exclusive of other activities
Coaches
• Make all decisions alone
• Make winning everything
• Expect exclusive commitment to skating
• Focus on failures
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