Attend your child's games.

Research has shown that the more parents are involved in their son or daughter's athletic activities, the greater likelihood that their child will adopt a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise. And if you yourself are involved in regular exercise, the odds go up even more. If that doesn't motivate you, let's take a different tactic: It’s a universal fact that the fries at little league games are the best. (True, the fries aren’t too consistent with the healthy lifestyle I just advocated. But if they get you to the game then my mission is accomplished!)

Get to know your child's coach.

Your child's coach plays a central role for your child and can have a dramatic impact on your child's interest in sports. Being a youth sports coach is a tough job. From parents to players, the coach has to juggle many expectations that sometimes border on the impossible. Everyone wants their son or daughter to pitch, but only one player can pitch. The coach has to make that tough decision.

Getting to know the coach is important because it establishes a line of communication between the significant adults in the child's life. That might be important if something unusual occurs or if the coach is seeing something that might be important for you to know. And for the coach, parental support can make a big difference.

Stress skill development, not winning or losing. That said, don't dismiss what can be learned by winning or losing sometimes (even if it brings you back to winning or losing not being important).

Nothing is more important in youth sports than the development of the fundamentals. That's why practice is important. Learning how to shoot a basketball, hold a bat, catch a ball, or effectively putt are all important skills. Generally speaking, the teams that win games are those that have most successfully mastered those fundamental skills.

But before I go any further, it's important that I don't take an extreme view when it comes to winning and losing. How a child handles winning and losing is important—life is not always fair. Striving for excellence is always a desired value. It's only when a "win at all costs" attitude dominates that the value of winning and losing ceases to matter.

Think carefully before allowing your child to participate in more than one sport at a time.

Many children enjoy participating in more than one sport. However, overlapping seasons and the sheer number of available opportunities often mean that children play two sports at once. Any coach will tell you focus is essential in sports. This creates the inevitable situation of practices and games overlapping, something that is not looked at fondly by either coaches or teammates of the multiple-sport athlete.

Downtime is important. The constant scheduling and rushing that happens in some families can create stressful situations. Concentrating on one sport allows for your child to focus on skill development in that sport exclusively, and to fully evaluate whether or not he/she likes that sport. It also makes it less likely that sports time commitments will interfere with other important aspects of your child’s life (such as school).

Praise your child for prosocial behaviors such as sportsmanship, good behavior, or great teamwork.

This is where the real fun starts! It would be wrong for me to say that one can't get excited about a great hit or a clutch basket, but keep in mind that these times are rare opportunities. The opportunities to show prosocial behaviors are numerous. Praise positive behaviors such as when your child consoles a dejected teammate or helps up an opposing team's player. The more natural these behaviors become, the greater the odds that they will cross over into other areas of life as well.

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