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Learning the strategies to best support a young athlete

Local parents were given insight on how to treat their athletes on and off the ice.
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Jason Wiwad, owner of Big Picture Hockey Development, discussed his involvement with the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs and the team’s focus on mental health in their players.

Local parents were given insight on how to treat their athletes on and off the ice.

The Complete Athlete seminar saw speakers from organizations Health Refresh and Big Picture Hockey Development review the best practices for mental health, nutrition, and fitness training.

“We put on this event so we could put on the whole facet of youth athletes, and all of the different things you need to address to ensure them having success,” said Christine Cabana, health and wellness coach with Health Refresh, a Bonnyville-based holistic health and wellness company. “It’s not just about what you eat, or your fitness training, and it’s certainly not just about your mental health. It’s all of these things overlapping together that’s going to help your kid have the most amount of success.”

Feedback from the community inspired Bonnyville and District FCSS to hold the event, which was hosted on Thursday, Nov. 14 at the Bonnyville C2.

“Parents are seeing their kids struggle with anxieties and the stress of being on teams,” explained Rhonda Miron, FCSS community programmer.

Jason Wiwad, owner of Big Picture Development, an Edmonton organization that helps coaches and parents better support their athletes through presentations, discussed the mental health aspect. Wiwad has an extensive history in hockey and currently serves as the life coach for the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs.

Wiwad wanted to put a focus on the mental health of players after realizing it wasn’t an area that was emphasized as much as others.

“We put a lot of work into off ice and skills training… but, when I looked at the mind, body and craft, nobody ever talked about the mind.”

He continued, “(Players) beat themselves up for being frustrated, angry, disappointed, sad, or whatever the emotion might be. Those are natural emotions that we have, and now we need to be able to understand them and how we behave based on those.”

For attendee Niki Ross, Wiwad’s presentation was the highlight of the evening.

“I think that’s the part that’s missing for a lot of parents. Everybody kind of focuses on physical aspects the most, and I think mentally supporting the kids can make the biggest difference for them.”

When it came to fitness training, Lindsay Grinevitch, a health and wellness coach with Health Refresh who has a physical education and recreation degree from the University of Alberta, stressed the importance of parents remembering their needs are different from their child’s.

“They’re not just mini adults. A lot of the time we try to take training programs, and water them down for youth. It’s really important that we treat them as kids,” she explained, adding their measurements of success may differ from that of youth.

“It usually entails education on whatever our passion or profession is, we put in the time and the hours, and we have the focus… A child on the other hand focuses on fun,” she expressed.

Grinevitch encouraged parents to involve their children in a variety of sports in order to prevent injuries caused by repetitive strains.

Some of the ways Grinevitch offered to avoid burnout in young athletes included avoiding over scheduling, emphasizing skill development and fun, and to not focus too much on winning.

Remembering a child’s needs aren’t the same as an adult when it comes to nutrition was an aspect Cabana covered.

“Their dietary needs are different than yours. You’re not as active, you’re not growing, and they are,” she exclaimed. “Don’t put them on crazy diets, don’t cut them off and be like, ‘oh, I’m sorry, you’ve already had 1,800 calories today so you’re done.’”

She added, “Don’t substitute your real food with supplementation. Group a majority of your diet through real food, and then use supplements as additional products.”

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