How to Get Your Teen Interested in Sports

Encourage your teen to pick up a sport, as a spectator, manager or athlete, if you want to teach her about teamwork, hard work, dedication and good sportsmanship. Take up a sport that's new to both of you so you can learn together if she doesn't like your favorites. Your teen can participate in community leagues that are not a part of her school if she doesn't want to deal with the pressure or publicity of being involved with a school sport. Participating in a sport gives her a healthy physical outlet instead of watching TV or just hanging around, and can help her make new friends as well.

Instructions

    • 1

      Ask your teen what sports programs are available at his school or check with local youth organizations and leagues. Discuss the different sports to see which ones he's most interested in and which ones he's not interested in at all. Encourage him to research the sport to learn about the qualifications and physical and mental challenges in order to find what sport would best suit him.

    • 2

      Compare your teen's personality type to the common attributes of athletes of a given sport. For example, if she is competitive but prefers to work alone, she can try track and field, swimming, cross-country, bowling, golf, tennis or wrestling. If she's really physical and enjoys being part of a team, she can try soccer, basketball, softball, hockey, water polo or volleyball.

    • 3

      Watch sports with your teen in person and on TV. He may decide he likes track after attending a few meets, or he might want to give football a try after watching and understanding the game. Teach him the rules and fundamentals of the game, as well as the physical challenges.

    • 4

      Introduce her to an older athlete role model or ask her to discuss the sport with someone she knows who plays the sport, such as an older sibling or friend. Don't discount the coaches, neighbors or the college athlete who lives down the street.

    • 5

      Allow the teen to make the final decision about playing sports and which sport to play. Keep it noncompetitive, and just enjoy watching sports together if he truly has no desire to play. He may begin to resent you, and sports, if you force him to try a sport he isn't interested in or if you force him to play when he doesn't want to.

    • 6

      Encourage your teen to do her best and always emphasize the positive things she does rather than focus on the outcome of competitions. Emphasize any improvements she makes. Concentrate on the positive, stay involved and display good sportsmanship yourself. Use the sport as a way to concentrate on being healthy and physically active, which she can take with her through her adult life as well.