In more than two decades of coaching athletes, I have had the privilege of watching some of my junior athletes progress all the way to the professional level. Along the way, I have developed a broader perspective on what it takes to move from the beginning stages of youth sports to the very distant goal of high-level athletic competition.

I have also had the opportunity to work with some wonderful parents who contributed enormously to their children's success. Unfortunately, I have seen many more parents—sometimes unknowingly and almost always with the best intentions—make decisions that can undermine their child's athletic development.

If you are excited about your child's potential as an athlete, it is worth taking an objective look at your own role. Your expectations, decisions, and behavior can have a significant influence not only on athletic development, but also on your child's enjoyment of sport, health, confidence, and long-term relationship with competition.

Here are three common mistakes I have seen parents make.

1. Imposing Your Own Athletic Ambitions on Your Child

It is interesting that some of the most accomplished athletes I have known did not have the overbearing parents you might expect. In fact, some took a relatively laissez-faire approach to their young children's athletic development.

In my experience, these parents often understood the developmental process. Building a foundation, learning fundamental skills, developing coordination, and learning how to handle the inevitable setbacks of competition were more important than collecting awards and accolades at an early age.

They also understood the long timeline, sacrifices, and commitment required to reach the highest levels of a sport—and the fact that relatively few young athletes ultimately make it that far. As a result, they tended to be patient with the coaching process and respectful of the coach's role.

Not every parent has extensive experience with athletic competition themselves. Some may be experiencing competitive sports for the first time through their child. Others may unconsciously see their child's athletic career as a second chance to accomplish something they did not accomplish themselves.

That can become a slippery slope.

For a young child, participating in sports should be about much more than winning. At a young age, children are often motivated by having fun, spending time with friends, learning something new, and making their parents proud.

The problem begins when pleasing a parent becomes the primary reason a child participates.

Children who feel that their parents' expectations are more important than their own enjoyment can eventually lose interest in the sport altogether. In some cases, quitting becomes an easy way to push back against the pressure they feel from a parent.

After a competition, the first words a child hears from a parent can matter enormously. Instead of immediately evaluating performance, pointing out mistakes, or discussing the result, sometimes the best question is simply:

"Did you have fun today?"

That question keeps the focus where it belongs: on the child's experience.

2. Specializing Too Early

I once consulted with an anxious father about his injured daughter. Her doctor had recommended three weeks away from training to allow the injury to heal. The father felt that three weeks was far too much time away from the sport and worried that his daughter would fall behind.

She was nine years old.

The concern was understandable, but the perspective was not. At that age, the priority should be developing a healthy, capable young athlete—not protecting a position on a competitive ladder.

Early sport specialization has become increasingly common in youth athletics. Young athletes may train harder, more frequently, and more repetitively than their developing bodies are prepared to handle. When training volume and repetitive movement are not matched to a child's physical development, the risk of overuse problems can increase.

Growth and development make this particularly important. Children's bodies are changing rapidly, and training loads that may be appropriate for an older athlete are not necessarily appropriate for a young athlete.

If you want to develop an athlete from a young age, the objective should be exactly that: develop the athlete.

That means developing age-appropriate coordination, movement skills, strength, agility, balance, and sport-specific fundamentals. It also means allowing adequate time for rest and recovery and adjusting training as the athlete grows.

A good youth training program should look at the whole athlete rather than simply asking how much more training can be added.

Unfortunately, parents can sometimes be drawn toward programs that emphasize early results. A successful young athlete can create the impression that the training system is working perfectly, even when other children in the same program are dealing with recurring injuries, burnout, or declining enjoyment.

The health of the entire group matters.

If a young athlete is repeatedly injured, or if overuse injuries are common among teammates, it is worth examining the training environment rather than assuming the child simply needs to become tougher.

Long-term athletic development is a marathon, not a race against other nine-, ten-, or eleven-year-olds.

3. Focusing on a Single Sport Too Early

It seems logical that spending more time practicing one sport should eventually make a child better at that sport. And occasionally, extraordinary athletes emerge from highly specialized backgrounds.

But that doesn't mean early single-sport specialization is the right path for every child.

Developing an athlete is much more complicated than simply accumulating hours of sport-specific training. I think of athletic development as unlocking a door. You need the right key, and that key has many different components.

Training is only one of them.

Young athletes benefit from developing a broad range of physical and mental skills. Running, jumping, throwing, balancing, changing direction, reacting, competing, cooperating with teammates, and learning different movement patterns all contribute to athletic development.

Participating in multiple sports and activities can also give children an opportunity to discover what they genuinely enjoy and where their abilities may lie.

A child who shows talent in soccer at age eight may eventually discover that baseball, swimming, cycling, gymnastics, or another activity is where their real passion and potential exists.

Parents sometimes see an early aptitude and immediately decide that they have found their child's "sport."

It may be worth resisting that temptation.

Give children opportunities to try different sports. Encourage them to explore. Let them experience different coaches, teammates, environments, and forms of competition. Over time, they can begin narrowing their focus as their interests and abilities become clearer.

Joining a highly competitive travel team at a very young age may provide valuable experiences, but it can also prevent a child from discovering another activity they might enjoy even more.

Let Your Child Become the Athlete They Want to Be

If your child is under twelve and you find yourself sitting on the sideline thinking about words like champion, scholarship, professional, or phenom, it may be time for a perspective check.

One of the hardest lessons a parent may eventually have to learn is that the child ultimately gets to decide whether they want to continue competing.

You can provide opportunities. You can provide transportation, coaching, equipment, encouragement, and support. But you cannot manufacture desire.

At some point, your child has to decide that they want to train, compete, improve, and continue.

And there is a very real possibility that all those hours spent driving to practices, the money spent on coaching and equipment, and the years spent attending competitions will not produce the athletic outcome you originally imagined.

That is not necessarily failure.

The value of youth sports extends far beyond medals, championships, scholarships, or professional careers.

Competition can teach children sportsmanship, integrity, responsibility, discipline, teamwork, perseverance, confidence, and how to handle both success and disappointment.

Those lessons may ultimately be far more valuable than any trophy.

Your relationship with your child during their athletic journey can also have a lasting impact. The way you respond when they win, lose, struggle, succeed, or decide to walk away can teach them important lessons about competition—and about themselves.

The goal of youth sports should not simply be to create better athletes.

It should be to help develop healthy, confident, resilient people who have the opportunity to discover what they are capable of becoming.

Give them the foundation.

Give them the opportunity.

Give them your support.

And, when the time comes, let them choose where the journey takes them.

Choose wisely.

Matt Russ enjoyed a professional coaching career spanning over two decades of working with professional endurance athletes. His athletes have achieved numerous regional, national, international and championship titles under his direction. Matt achieved the highest level of licensing by both USA Triathlon and USA Cycling, and was a licensed USA Track and Field Coach. His accomplishments include being named "Team USA" Coach for the 2011 Beijing World Championship. Head Coach and founder of The Sport Factory, a USA Triathlon Certified Performance Center, he has authored many articles on a wide variety of endurance related topics.