How my son prepare for his first Judo tournament?

My son has been doing Judo these past few months.

At first, he is hesitant to join and most of the time crying as he is scared and feeling like he can’t do it.

This August, he joined his first ever Judo tournament.

He has been to other tournaments like Jiu Jitsu and feeling nervous all the time. But in this tournament he was very nervous and less confidence.

Thus, we prepared him not only physically but also mentally.

How my son prepare for his first Judo tournament?

• he went training every other day – we see to it he has a rest day every other training because too much is not fun especially for a kid like him. He trained at least one and half hour with kids some smaller but mostly bigger than him. His Sensei are very patient with him.
• Eat healthy diet – every sports tournament our body should be ready for it. And for the weeks before the tournament we gave our son a healthy diet as much as possible which involves beef/chicken – good for his muscles, vegetables – for his nutrient benefits such as potassium, fruits – for his good immune system as we hope him not to catch colds or any sickness, and milk – which is good for his bones. It doesn’t have to be so strict as kids tend to be picky as long as he consume some of these foods, be happy parents.
• Sleep at least 10 hours a day – sleep is very important for growing kids. They need this to save energy and like adults who exercise to recuperate from all the trainings. Check this post “ways to keep your kids bedtime easy“, surely will help.
• Talk to him – our son is scared to do the tournament, we can see his doubts and less confidence. But as parents we feel otherwise, we knew he can and he will succeed so talking to him sincerely helps. We told him that it can’t be easy that’s why he is training so hard, it is scary but it can also be fun; he just have to do his best and enjoy the fight. No matter what we will be so proud of him. With these talks somehow relieved my son’s fear and encouraged him to do it.

In his first Judo tournament, he won both second place in two divisions. Not bad at all for his first!

In reality, it will never be easy to see your child doing this tournaments as you worry that he might get hurt physical and emotionally.

But helping your child to grow stronger and encourage him to do things especially if you knew he will succeed, is good parenting.